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I've recently bought some Winchester Super Match wad-cutters in .38 Special. After getting them home, I noticed that there's a small crimp almost a third of the way down the case (presumably stopping the bullet being inserted further or holding on to it?).

Does this mean I won't be able to use the case for reloading? Would it have weakened the cases or anything like that?

You can still reload it.

The better question is, "Should I reload it?"

Of course it's ok to reload it , I loaded thousands like that -- no problem .

There's the answer on a platter for you then, oomans...

I'm willing to bet that they are nickel plated cases. Like Waterford says have reloaded thousands of them over the years the only problem being that nickel cases tend to be more brittle than brass cases so don't last quite as long.

The "small crimp" is called a cannelure (which may be spelled differently!). It is there to stop the bullet being pushed in too far when fed from a magazine . It was once commonly found on many .38 Special cases , probably because all military brass used to have it and US shooters expected to see it there. I must have reloaded thousands of them.
Fred

They're brass cases and yes, it is indeed a "cannelure" (after a bit of googling).

I'm not quite sure why there's the need to have it on a wadcutter though? Surely the chance of a bullet getting accidentally pushed in at its least when there's no bullet protruding from the case in the first place?

Mikaveli wrote:They're brass cases and yes, it is indeed a "cannelure" (after a bit of googling).

I'm not quite sure why there's the need to have it on a wadcutter though? Surely the chance of a bullet getting accidentally pushed in at its least when there's no bullet protruding from the case in the first place?

Maybe to allow a bit of pressure to generate before the bullet moves out of the case?

is it there to stop recoil seating the bullet farther into the straight walled case ?