Lc 223 crimp removal.

I will try, keep in mind this is only an opinion formed by my experience.
In the die set there is a swage pin that goes atop the ram. Over this is placed a cup. The die has a rod that pushes down from the inside of the brass head. One places the brass over the rod and raises the swaging pin to the brass. This process is fairly easy. The crimp is pushed back. To remove the brass one lowers the ram, with the brass now fairly tightly attached to the swaging pin, down to the main body of the press. The cup makes contact with the press body and forces the brass off the swaging pin.
It sounds much easier than I found it to be. The case head, being hard, does not want to come back off the pin. It takes quite some force to do so. I lubed the pockets liberally with, my favorite, One Shot. Perhaps if a different lubrication was employed It may have been easier.
By far the easiest thing was to put it back in the box and order commercial brass brand new. When Starline comes out with their two twenty three brass all of my brass will be head stamped Starline.

If you have yet to purchase the swage set, look at a Remington-Peters case and duplicate that with your chamfer tool. No extra cost involved.

Edit: Additional information.

The crimp on most brass is very small, maybe a sixty fourths of an inch. It takes very little to remove it. Remington brass has the largest chamfer of any I have seen, so if one removes less than that one should be just fine. Swaging will not make the head any harder, it is already at its hardest. The material removed is so minute it will have no impact on the ability to resist case head expansion.

FROGO207 said:

First off I think that moving the brass back into place helps the primer pocket last longer before enlarging rather than cutting some of it out. I now use the CH4D crimp removal kit. I got the combo kit that has the Ram Prime as well. I also have the RCBS kit and you have to adjust for the web thickness and that necessitates sorting by head stamp first and adjusting each change which is a pain IMHO. I no longer use that POS. Look on you tube for the CH4D it is simple to use it works on the top of your press with no need for head stamp sorting, sliding the brass onto a pin, or whatever. I do not know why more people do not use it. It does take a bit of trial and error to set it up the first time to get the sweet spot between not enough and ripping the rim off but in 5 minutes I was off and swaging. I think it was under $45 shipped to me.

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I'm a CH4D user as well, I only got the primer pocket kit. Works well. Same trial and error here, I only partly ripped a rim off.
It's nice because it comes with the swagers for both large and small primers.

I used a counter sink in a D cell screw driver for years. I was always touchy getting a uniform cut, Finally just got a RCBS crimp swager combo #9495, works great. hdbiker

hdwhit said:

My experience is that LC brass that comes out of a Federal brand commercial box is crimped. But you would do no harm putting uncrimped brass into a primer pocket reamer.

I usually buy mixed range brass and since I don't know if some of the exotic headstamps are crimped, I just treat them all as it they were crimped. Takes a little extra time, but I really hate to have a primer hang up on the lip of the primer pocket and this assures me I won't.

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I agree !! All .223 range brass I pick up or "aquire" goes through the same process. This assures I have no primer crimp, and have no issues priming. As someone said you only need to do it once, then your next reloads are one step quicker. I never process more than 100-200 at a time so I just use a hand cutter most of the time.

-Jeff

Demi-human said:

It sounds much easier than I found it to be. The case head, being hard, does not want to come back off the pin. It takes quite some force to do so. I lubed the pockets liberally with, my favorite, One Shot. Perhaps if a different lubrication was employed It may have been easier.
.

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I use the RCBS tool that uses the same style. I found that on the return stroke, to pop the brass off of the swage:
don't try to ease it off. a quick, sharp rap and it pops right off. no lube, and I can fly through a batch real quick.

Lots of expensive crimp removers available.
I'm cheap ... $4.99

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/389104/lee-chamfer-and-deburring-tool

After running into some brass where I had not swaged or cut enough of the crimp and butchered some primers, I found this tool https://ballistictools.com/store/swage-gage-small-primer-pocket. It's a handy check on all my crimped primer pocket brass.

POS? That's a bit harsh. To each his own I guess. Labor intensive: it can take some effort to get the shell off the swager for casings that are being swaged or the first time. I've skinned my knuckle a few times while forcing the casing off of the swager. I see it as an occupational hazard. Sorting by head stamp: I usually load by headstamp so that's not a problem. I also try to collect as much of my fired brass as possible. That allows me not only to reuse previously prepped brass but also check for over-pressure signs (haven't seen any). I still swage each casing just in case some first-time-fired brass was recovered along with my reloads. Previously swaged brass comes off the swager easily.

Hadn't heard of the CH4D die set. I'll check it out.

To each his own. Lets see with the RCBS you have to adjust for the web thickness with each headstamp and within for military as well I find. Next you have to feed the brass up and onto the pin, hold it there until the ram catches it. (I have pinched my fingers numerous times) Then to release the swaging pin from the primer pocket after, it takes a upward thump on the ball of the RockChucker when the ram is all the way down against that cone that rattles the bench whether lubed or not every time. I think RCBS could have thought this out better in the first place.

With the CH4D you put the body in the press where the die goes and the swage pin assembly in the shellholder on the ram. Put the shell holder for your brass in the top of the tool mounted on the top of press, adjust body up or down to get good pocket swage on your first piece of brass and then go to it. I can swage more brass than 10 to 1 in favor of the CH4D. FWIW I tried a friends Dillon Super Swage and liked mine more as well. YMMV

drunkenpoacher wrote:

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Looks like you and I used the same countersink.

I use a center drill of the appropriate size (#3 I think). Same idea as the countersink, but the steeper angle removes the crimp with less metal removed total.

With the newer staked primers (four indents rather than a complete circle crimp), I have found I can seat new primers without bothering to remove the crimp. Others have had different experiences and often still prefer to remove the crimp.