Question about crimped Military primer pockets?

Cutleryotehunter

Cutleryotehunter

New member
All right I know you are suppose to swage them out and I did buy and rcbs military primer crimp die and well I just bent the swage rod. I took some of the brass that I swaged out and seated some primers to test it and of course they went in no problem. While I was swaging them I noticed it didn't take much swaging. So I wanted to see if the primer would seat in the brass that I didn't swage out. Well the primers went in slicker than you know, they seated all the way with no problems. So my question is should I even bother with swaging? And yes these were military brass that you could see had crimped primer pockets. These loads are for plinking not hunting. 5.56 Lc brass.
 
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I've swaged hundreds of them and not swaged several hundred more. You'll find that they will consistently prime better when swaged, but it can be done with swaging. What I do is try to prime them, unswaged. If it is a tight fit, I throw it in a different pile to either swage later, or pitch. Most of your brass should prime without much trouble, w/o swaging..
 
Just de-priming can shear off a lot of the crimp. Some primers will seat OK depending on your primer tool, the brand of primer, and the particular military lot. I still like to ream the pockets to get them flat on the bottom. You will likely have a few that have a burr that won't let the primer start in square. You can crush the primer with a priming tool on a press very easily. If you have a hand seater you should be able to feel if there is a problem. The RCBS swager is a poor setup compared to the Dillon.
 
All I have ever used to remove the crimp from 5.56 military brass is an RCBS case neck de-burring tool. It easily cleans up the top of the primer pocket where the crimp is without altering the rest of the pocket in any way.

Its a quick and easy method to clean up the crimped pockets and the tool you probably already have.

-BCB
 
Go to Home Depot and purchase a chamfer bit in the tool department. Chuck it up in a cordless drill driver and go to work on those crimps. I've used the same bit for over 20 years, it still cuts fine and makes short work of mil brass.
 
I have reamed the crimps and also used an RCBS swager. I came into a couple thousand 5.56 cases and just couldn't see swaging that many with the RCBS. It takes too long to wiggle the case off of the swager button, not to mention the difficulty of getting the swager rod into the case.

I had heard good reports on the Dillon swager, so I ordered one online for about $95 including shipping. Seemed a little pricey but I figured, what the heck. It arrived a couple of weeks ago and I have to say it was a great investment. I mounted it on a small piece of 1/2" MDO plywood so that I can use a couple of "C" clamps to attach it to the edge of my loading bench. It sits next to my Rockchucker press. I deprime a case in the RCBS and then decrimp it in the Dillon much faster than any other way that I've tried in the past. Without rushing things, I can get process about 8 cases a minute. If you are going to decrimp any significant number of cases, the Dillon would get my vote. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
Olemuleskinner is giving you the straight skinny on the Dillon swager...best tool for the money! You do at least 12 cases in a minute with the dillon and get very uniform results.

I use the RCBS universal depriming tool to deprime crimped in primers, it is one very tough tool, and the crimped in primer will not break or bend the decapping rod.

I threw the RCBS swagger in the garbage, after I swagged 5 cases with the Dillon, it is really a pain using the RCBS swagger compared to the Dillon...big difference in price between the Dillon and the RCBS, also with the Dillon costing about twice as much....you only have to buy it one time in your life.

I have noticed that cases that are swagged with the Dillon swagger stay tighter longer in the IMI 223 cases that I swagged. I am able to get some pretty amazing velocity with extreme accuracy with the 55's loaded with N-133 & N-135.

The chamfering tool that has been mentioned works well. The problem with the chamfering tool is that there is no uniform control on just how much material you are removing.
If you take out too much, you are creating an area for the primer to flatten out and flow into. I usually shoot loads that are in the top end of the pressure range, so that is a factor for me. If a guy is not shooting high pressure loads, then it is a non issue. The chamfering tool is sure cheap enough for a guy that is stretching the dollar!
 
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Olemuleskinner is giving you the straight skinny on the Dillon swager...best tool for the money! You do at least 12 cases in a minute with the dillon and get very uniform results.




+1 Especially if plan on shooting a lot of 223 mil type cases
 
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.........I threw the RCBS swagger in the garbage......

.........The chamfering tool that has been mentioned works well. The problem with the chamfering tool is that there is no uniform control on just how much material you are removing.

If you take out too much, you are creating an area for the primer to flatten out and flow into. I usually shoot loads that are in the top end of the pressure range, so that is a factor for me. If a guy is not shooting high pressure loads, then it is a non issue. The chamfering tool is sure cheap enough for a guy that is stretching the dollar!



I threw mine in the garbage too.....

The flat tip of the chamfering tool I mentioned bottoms in the primer pocket so it does limit how much of the crimp is removed. It allows for just a very slight almost unseen bevel on the top of the primer pocket I've used it for literally several thousand rounds of military brass. In that time, I've never lost a primer pocket or had a primer flow yet on top end loads in several different AR-15 rifles. Nor has a primer ever backed out........

I've found it to be a very quick and reliable way to go when removing primer pocket crimps...and cheap too if that's really an issue... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif

-BCB
 
I simply use a Muzzy broadhead...take the blades out, use the trocar tip and away I go...good solid seating...500+ rounds so far and no troubles and superb accuracy...
 
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