Mil Brass / Swaging Tool

Do you think I'll be able to prime these ok?

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Unfortunatly, no. They'll need to be swaged or the crimp removed

When I was a teenager and much poorer than now, I used the L.E. Wilson deburring tool that came with my RCBS press to remove the crimp from the primer pocket of 500 rounds of .223 brass.

I started with one case and reamed the hole a little bit and then tried to seat a primer. When it wouldn't go, I reamed a little more. Eventually, I had removed enough of the crimp to let me seat the primer. I just made the other 499 cases look like the first one and all but a handful accepted the primer on the first attempt. It took a long time and my hand really ached when I was done, but it can be done.

It is easier to buy a primer pocket swage or a primer pocket reamer, but anything that will let you slowly remove the brass around the crimp can be made to work. I currently use a Hornady primer pocket reamer that I got from Amazon for about $10.

I've used the RCBS Primer Pocket Swager die set for removing crimps from Radway Green 5.56mm brass. Does the job quite nicely and I could successfully seat commercial boxer primers in afterwards. You insert the correct size stud (small or large primer pocket) into the shell holder and place the ejector cap on top. You then screw in the die, place a case on top of the stud and carefully raise the ram into the die. Easy.

Previous to this I used a primer pocket reamer tool which is a handheld trimmer made by Lyman. It took a long time to do 100 cases by hand and I don't really like the idea of reaming the pocket open so I bought the RCBS tool. Definitely worth it.

There are a number of different swaging and cutting tools out there designed for the job, many other tools that can be used as well. I have even used a decent pocket knife before when I just run across a stray.

How many I have to do is what makes me decide on what tool I use.

+1 on the Dillon.

Yes, if you chamfered the primer pocket mouths you can reprime that brass. When I first encountered military crimped primer pockets I immediately thought of a countersink. I simply remove a few thousandths of an inch at the pocket mouth, enough to cut out the displaced metal, and it's good to go. A few thousand cases later it still works great. One celebrity gun guru used a pocket knife to remove primer crimps, quite successfully. (I had a few 60 degree 1/2" countersinks in my tool box so that's what I use). http://www.mcmaster.com/#countersinks/=135h8he

There are many tools that can be used in place of "dedicated" reloading tools, just as good. As a lifelong machinist/mechanic I see a lot of $$$ reloading tools that are easily replaced by common tools and at times work better than a "dedicated" tool...

Just so terminology doesn't get mixed up the mouth of a case is opposite the primer pocket but you might wind up needing to trim and chamfer it as well.




If the primer pocket looks like the one on the right, you just need to cut/swage it so it looks like the one on the left.



You might do them one at a time or just a small batch I case the method you wind up using damages the case, at least you won't have 1000 of them.

I highly recommend the Dillon Swaging tool. If you will have a lot of 5.56 brass it can't be beat

I use a Lyman hand reamer tool, paid 10 bucks for it and it works fine for the volume of cases I need to load.