Normal or Not for Norma brass to have circles on the side?

[Iamero]

Hey guys, didn't even notice these until I was packing some up to send to another member, but almost all my Norma brass has a circle imprinted on the side of it. I was thinking it was a chamber issue, but my Peterson brass from the same barrel is just fine and the Norma has it at different locations on the brass. Is this normal or are these defects in the brass? This is the first time I've ever seen markings like these on brass before.

*Note, all brass is once fired.

 

[rustyinbend]

That's just weird ... is it from factory cartridges or did you handload these from new cases? Just curious.

 

[ShtrRdy]

I've never seen that before. I have 200 pieces of Norma brass for the 300 Win Mag and they don't have any sort of circle on them.

 

[Iamero]

If I remember on these, they were all handloaded from new cases. I've had the brass around for so long now I couldn't tell you 100% either way.

 

[MTETM]

Was the brass new to you?
Only time I have seen that was from brass fired in a pressure test barrel.

 

[Iamero]

I got it with an AXMC I bought off another member.

 

[Mike Casselton]

Those circles are from a pressure test barrel.
The test barrels have a piezoelectric transducer that is installed in that location. It will leave that mark because the x-ducer presses against the case.

When the cartridge is fired, the case expands and presses on the x-ducer and that pressure equates to a psi reading.

They are safe to use again

 

[Iamero]

Cool man, I appreciate the info!

 

[huntnh]

Learning something new

 

[Mike Casselton]

Adding this info to the discussion:

I got a chance to look at the image again and here's some additional thoughts.

The case on the far right has TWO transducer imprints.
They are in different locations, so that begs the question:

Did the test barrel have two transducers?

Was it tested in two different pressure barrels?

Brass is only supposed to be pressure tested once, and then "discarded."

Notice on the different marks how little was imprinted on the lower transducer vs the upper.

The lower imprint is from the transducer needing nothing.
The upper transducer mark clearly shows it was installed 1/2 to a full turn too much. All of the other brass shows a proper transducer depth.

If this was my brass, I'd discard any of them that have the very deep imprint. I'd consider it compromised since it clearly has approximately half of its thickness imprinted and therefore weakened.
Just some food for thought.