I bought about 500 pieces of 223/556 & 762/308 fully processed. Basically all I need to do is prime,powder,projectile and crimp. Before doing anything I have been inspecting the cases all look fine. I sent them through a Lyman rifle case headspace gage. Some are perfect but some are a fingernail more then max and some a fingernail less then min.

Are these safe to load?

Will they damage my chamber/rifle/bolt?

The trim length is very short too. 10-15thou below min.

They are too long how? Too long as in the base of the cartridge sticks out the back of the case gauge? Or the neck sticks out the front?

Both sounds very inconsistent and I would be worried.

Overall length being a little short will not cause much issues. Maybe a bit less neck tension. Easy to test.

I should have been more specific. Long and short on the head stamp side. I know how to process my brass I just lack time to do it. I am a very exact reloaded and when dimensions are off it really bugs me to no end.

In the past I have had brass processed from top brass and it was very good. This was not from top brass.

I know how to read the case gage. What this guy did was bump the shoulder back to much or not enough. I really don't want to redo all his brass, so I have been sepperating them.

I am really concerned about the safety. I don't know the margin of error beyond the case gage.

Thanks for the replies.

Case gauges mimic tight chambers, so if it fits the gauge it fits the gun. Most guns have bigger chambers so your long ones will probably be fine to load.

Put a long one in the chamber and slowly close and lock the bolt. If you have to mortar the rifle to get the case out then it's too big. If it comes out easily then they will be fine.

Brass springback rates determine how much each case is sized. When they are so close that some fit well, some barely don't, that's from springback.

I bet they are GTG.

Thank you. I will try the long ones like you suggested.

I hate to trust "commercial" loaders/brass processors to establish headspace on my rifle brass. Most of the time they err on the side of resizing too much to insure they don't get customer complaints.

Pick five or six of the tallest cases, seat some bullets with no primer and no powder for a test run. If these all feed and extract easily from your rifle your should be fine.

One of the best tools a reloader can ever buy is Hornady's Lock-N-Load headspace gage system, RCBS's micrometer headspace tool or Mo DeFina's excellent micrometer case headspace gage. All of these will give you measurements in .001" increments, something your eye balls and finger nails will never achieve.

Simple drop in gages are better than nothing, but I would never go back to using them now. Shorter than book minimum trim lengths won't harm anything. It will pretty much guarantee that you won't have to trim after the next firing. I set my power trimmer up to trim at 1.750" just like the book recommends.

Thank you for all the replies. Excellent info here.

A Kaboom in another post was attributed to bullet setback from inadequate neck tension of processed brass he had bought and not sized.

My reply was that Starline and many other companies ask you to resize new brass, because of dents and case mouth dings from general shipping,

so why the heck would you not resize all brass period?

Maybe its just me, but I've seen too many Kabooms on the internet, and in person.  Ones too many IMHO.

It's always a good idea to inspect cases for burrs on the rim when using any form of gauge.  A small burr will make a case look like it's too long just by keeping the case from quite settling into the gauge.

A quick check for this is to try to insert the case base-first.  Burs will make themselves known by interfering with this.  You will also be able to see if the gauge's rim clearance is the problem with certain cases using this test.

My Lyman 7.62x39 gauge gave me fits for a while for that reason.  After sizing mixed brass, some would pass and others wouldn't without changing anything.  I finally figured out that some brands have a slightly larger rim (like GFL, for example), which didn't affect feeding in my AK.

I had just gotten into 300BO awhile back and didn't have any 300BO brass.  I wanted to keep my 5.56 LC brass for my 5.56 guns, so I bought about 500 300BO prepped LC cases from Carolina Brass.

I agree with you as to prepping the brass regardless.  The brass was beautifully cleaned, but other than not running it through my SS wet tumbler, I treated it like it was not prepped.

The trim lengths were really very good.  I did trim about 3-4 per 100 to get more into the length range I was looking for, but overall very satisfied.  

I went through all the standard steps and provided a little smoother inner deburr and outer chamfer.  They loaded well and shot great.

I think there is an appropriate situation in which one can buy already processed brass unless the source has really buggered up the process.  Still, I would never just jump right in and load processed brass, assuming it was all perfect.  Even under the best circumstances that's probably not going to be the case.

I am not just jumping in and reloading the brass. That is why I made this post. I had to fix the primer pockets because he didn't get the military crimp out properly.i had to de burr the inside of the neck. If it didn't head space I set it a side.

Second question. If your neck tension is not great does a lee factory crimp die fix that when you crimp?

Neck tension is usually set by a combination of fully sizing the neck and using the correct expander ball.  If your dies don't size/expand the case neck to give you adequate neck tension, either your expander is oversized, or the brass is work hardened.  

Take a micrometer to your expander; it should be a few thousandths of an inch smaller than the bullet diameter.  I'll put money on your expander being pretty close to what it's supposed to be, but that's the first thing to check.

If it's the brass, it's annealing time.  Annealing isn't hard to do, it's just somewhat tedious when you have a bunch of cases to do.

Thank you very much. I have shot a lot of this brass and not had a problem because I did work on them and not take them at face value. I am almost done with the 223/556 and now have a bunch of 308/762.
After doing this I feel it is easier starting from scratch and process your own. With this you are all over the place. Some need this, some need that. Much easier to do everything once in steps.

I started buying processed brass because my lead level was very high.i traced it back to tumbling the brass and inhaling the tumbled media dust. This was several years back. I have had blood tests a few times over and they all have been normal.

What I do with pistol brass is wash them in a bucket of soapy water before I start the process. Rinse well and that has helped greatly.

If the casehead to shoulder length suits you, using the Lee collet neck sizer die will uniform the necks, specifically the inside diameters.

Another benefit would be some very straight and concentric ammunition.

L.E. Wilson makes a micrometer for use with their case gages.
Case Gage Depth Micrometer

Keeping track of the # of firings a lot of brass is just proper reloading.
Autoloader brass has a shorter case life and it becomes scrap.
Bolt gun brass and auto loader brass can be treated to better methods of sizing the case.

Forget the Lee Collet sizer.  Just get a K&M Expandiron mandrel to make case mouths concentric.
Expand Iron Mandrel

A mandrel neck sizer can only decrease neck tension, not increase it. For otherwise acceptable brass with questionable (loose) neck tension, the collet sizer is a better option.