While cleaning the range a couple weeks back, I stumbled upon this cartridge. I'm not exactly sure what happened to it. I think it was involved in some type of malfunction, may have been run over by a machine used to clean the range, and ultimately was trampled on when it got caught beneath a grate. It was in sad shape, as the picture shows.

My associates saw it, and most were convinced it was unsafe. While I generally would probably throw it away, I disagreed that it was not safe.

So, not being one to make unsubstantiated claims, I volunteered my rifle to prove it. I loaded the cartridge seen above into a magazine, locked the magazine in on an open bolt, and pressed the release. The cartridge chambered most of way, but would not lock into the chamber. I mortared the rifle to extract the cartridge, and repeated the procedure. This time, it managed to chamber.

I made certain my eye protection was adjusted, held the rifle at arms length, pointed down range, took a deep breath, and squeezed the trigger. It fired. The case extracted and ejected as normal. Inspection showed that the case fire-formed to the chamber and looked like any other piece of scratched-up range brass. You'd never have known it was so mangled.

Just thought it was interesting how tolerant these rifles are to having some damaged ammo run through them. Pretty amazing if you ask me.