case head dings in .38 Super Auto

[ErikW]

picture 1

picture 2

picture 3

Left is a twice-fired Starline .38 Super Auto case, right is a once-fired Armscor .38 Super Auto case. The most recent firing was through my new Open gun, which left the straight indentation on the edge of each case head. (The mark is at 12 o'clock on the brass as pictured, underlining "SU" on the Starline case and overlining "AP" on the Armscor case.) Every fired case has a similar mark.

What is it?

[Brazos Custom]

You have a step in your breechface, on the opposite side from your extractor.

[Nolan]

Erik,

Check the breechface. There is probably a small step on the side opposite the extractor left from the machining process. My old STI slide had a huge step. When the breechface is cut it's done in several steps and one cut was not made at the same depth as the others.

Nolan

Dang, typed too slow!

Edited January 24, 2005 by Nolan

[.40AET]

So do you leave it alone, or should it be smoothed out??

[Ronnie j]

Is it a caspian slide?

Mine has the same marking , 40 cal caspian slide.

[blackdragon]

My Caspian 38 super did that, I just left it alone. I could always tell which brass was mine

Ivan

[Guest Larry Cazes]

I get similiar markings from mine. It never caused a problem so I left it alone. Don't fix what isn't broken.

[BEDELLCUSTOM]

i have let these slide manufacturers know, more than once,that they need to catch this problem in their quality control department. there is no reason for them to sell slides with that imperfection on the breech face. if the step is high enough that it actually causes a chambering problem, then it should be removed. but if your gun is functioning properly i would leave it alone. if you are going to try to remove it and you are not a gunsmith with the proper tools to do it, just use a small square file that is safe on 2 sides and carefully go in from the bottom of the slide and slowly file it down, making sure to keep the file square to the breechface so you do not mark or gouge it.

[ErikW]

Wow, thanks guys. I don't remember exactly what slide it is, I think STI. It doesn't seem to have the Caspian markings.

Any chance of it dinging up my brass so badly (after more firings) that it'll malfunction? It works fine now, but after the brass is chewed up more and more...?

[BEDELLCUSTOM]

it will probably be alright, the step looks worse than it really is. it is only a thousandth or two high. besides if your gun is chrome, you probably don't want to mess with it unless it's a big problem.

[shred]

Think of it as a way to count firings of the brass..

Actually, I think they erase each other after a while

[gary meyer]

I have the same thing on my STI...I thought it came from the slide when it dragged the round off the mag.

[rtr]

I had an STI slide come from the factory with a step big enough that some rounds would not chamber all the way. Took awhile to figure it out, really annoying.

[BrianH]

I first saw this on a Colt Series 80 9mm built up for .38 Super. The gunsmith could never seem to get rid of it, but it didn't cause any problems.

I think this occures when STI does the final wire pass on the breechface/hood slot, and their location is off slightly, relative to the cut they took for the case head.