ar-15, ammunition, double-feed, 5.56x45I experienced a double-feed in my AR, and a 5.56x45 NATO cartridge has a small crimp in it near the neck. Will anything bad happen if I try to fire it?
The case could blow out where the case is damaged. It can also get stuck in the chamber.
Why would you risk damaging a rifle for a round that should cost around $0.30?
In the military I have fired hundreds of rounds like this without incident. They are usually the product of a mis-fed SAW or a double-fed M4/M16. We have never had an issue with rounds that have not had bullet angle compromised.
We can do this in the military because we have quality rifles (Colt M4s, FN Herstal M16s) and use quality ammunition. If your rifle is of questionable specification or low quality (DPMS, Bushmaster, Rock River), or the ammo is not an acceptable quality factory ammo (Tula, Wolf, steel cased) or has an unknown history (reloads you bought from a friend with no idea how many times the brass has been reloaded) then I would advise against shooting it.
If the crimp is bad enough to get the bullet pointing in a direction that is not straight forward, we toss the rounds and don’t use them. Not because they’re a safety hazard (although they may be) but because they generally will never feed properly again, which makes them annoying. We also toss rounds that have been so badly damaged that the metal has a hard crease (think like a crease in your pants, not just a dent). Hard-creased rounds have generally been damaged in more places than just the spot where the crease is, and the neck where the bullet seats is often lose and allows the bullet to move if pressed on. Also not good for feeding, and if the bullet falls out it makes a mess of powder and the loose bullet can jam things up.
Generally I wouldn’t worry too much about the round having some ill effect on your gun if something bad were to happen at the point of the crimp. The neck of the cartridge and the entire body of the cartridge is supported all around by the chamber of the rifle.
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