Thread: safe to reload ?

Greetings Cookie,
I have created my share of lube dents over the years but none that looked quite like that. Generally the lube dents do not go past the shoulder. I had seen photographs of dents like yours and after a short search found them in the Speer No 9 Manual. Speer called them shoulder collapses, caused when powder gasses get past the case neck due to the neck not sealing in the chamber. Speer noted that the problem was mainly in magnum cases with light loads of slow powders but I guess it could happen with smaller cases in similar circumstances. A hard neck could aggravate the problem. If the case came out of the chamber looking like that then it is a shoulder collapse and a change to the powder and load may be needed. If it happened in the die then it is the mother of all lube dents. In any case I would retire the case to my interesting brass box as you may never see another.
Regards Grandpamac.