swager

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flatsticks

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Recently started to swage the 223 lc brass that I have .

Picked up the RCBS swager and have had a hard time with it and ended up breaking the small rod .

It seems that the case was not on the rod correctly when the handle was brought down on the press.

Heard good things aboout the Dillon 600 is it much better and where to find one ?

Looked on the Dillon site and you can order one but I did not see any kind of estimate of how far they are behind .

Looked at the RCBS site for the replacement small rod part from the manual but their site kept hanging up .

Would rather not remove the crimp if possible .

Thanks for your ideas .
 
Was doing one head stamp the LC brass to start with .

Have a bunch of federal that needs to be done also .

It was my fault on the breakage , was not sure if it was worth getting the replacement part or moving on to another unit .
 
After guys here cued me in setting up the RCBS swager it went a lot smoother. But I still have to wiggle the case too often to center the rod. Since all my .223 & .308 cases are Lake City a Super Swager is number two on my getta list after a Labradar..
 
I modified a VLD I.D. reamer by taking like .020 off the end and I cut the crimp out of my 223 cases.
I have found swagger ed pimer pockets, the primers get loose after a couple firings

My .02 cents
 
Using the RCBS swager is slow going. It requires careful guiding of the case by hand into the die to be sure it's decently centered with the swager rod. It works well for me, but then again I've never needed to swage more than a hundred or so primer pockets at any one session. Not sure I understand how you broke the rod? :eek:

Picked up the RCBS swager and have had a hard time with it and ended up breaking the small rod .

It seems that the case was not on the rod correctly when the handle was brought down on the press.
 
I have the RCBS swager, and it is indeed slow going. I go through my deprimed cases with the Lyman Pocket Cleaner which does two things. It cleans some of the crud out of the pocket, and it is my gauge to check if the pocket has a crimp. The pocket cleaner doesn't fit in a crimped pocket or it is extremely tight. From the second-hand brass I get, a lot of so-called "once fired" LC brass has already been swaged. Just winnowing out the cases that don't need to be swaged saves me a lot of time.
 
Broke or bent a couple rods with my RCBS swager. Found you have to adjust the rod for each type and brand of web thickness. They will send you replacment parts for free. I checked around and purchased the CH4D combo swager/ram prime kit. It uses your shell holder in the die on top of your press just set the brass in it and raise the ram with your swager pin in it. Look on youtube for videos on how they work. Cost around $ 50 all in IIRC. Fastest one out there as far as I am concerned.
 
I bought two of the RCBS press swaggers, they are dust colletors nown i boughr a Dillion 600 and liked it so much I bought another so I have one set up for small primers and one set up for large primers.

I had some extra cash and seen the RCBS BENCH SWAGGER at Sportsmans Wsrehose for $109 and bought one. Haven't tried it yet.

The RCBS press swagger is not the way to go if you have any amount of brass to do.
 
Second the Frankford Arsenal was using CH4D similar to RCBS. Like RCBS products and Dillon but Frankford lot easier and faster does better job
 
Looks like we have a lot of opinions on what set up works best .

I knew the LC brass would need to be done but found out going through the Federal brass I have seems to be the same .

To clarify when I meant I did not want to remove the crimp, I did not want to remove material and would rather take care of the crimp the way the RCBS tool does it by reshaping the pocket.

I broke it because the case did not seem to line up correctly on the rod and the force of the press was too much .

It was my fault that I should have stopped when I felt it hang up and not try and force it .
 
For those of you having issues with the RCBS one not centering properly, a simple fix that will only cost 5-10 cents is to literally just put a few pennies on top of the hole closest to the beveled swaging part. Start with 3 or 4 pennies, and just add them one by one until the case is relatively close to the proper height. I personally think I use 6 pennies, but it has been over a year since I fiddled around with it.
 
May have to check into that CH4D you mentioned FROGO207. the videos were interesting . appreciate everybody taking the time to help me out.
 
RCBS will most likely replace your damaged part. Their CS is legendary! I would call them.

I prefer to ream mine vs swage them. My RCBS worked well but was slow. I may be the only guy alive that didn't like the Dillon. I use a reamer that fits in my Wilson trimmer. Its slow too but I like it better than most other things I've tried. A drill and a 45º carbide counter sinc do my pistol brass.
 
Hum never had trouble myself. I would recommend using it on a good single stage press solidy mounted and I use a cue tip and put a little imperial lube around the nipple every 5 to 8 cases. Put brass on rod first and it kinda guides itself to swager.
 
Hum never had trouble myself. I would recommend using it on a good single stage press solidy mounted and I use a cue tip and put a little imperial lube around the nipple every 5 to 8 cases. Put brass on rod first and it kinda guides itself to swager.

That is where it seems I made the mistake not putting the shell on the rod enough and it did not seat . was trying to use it like my sizing die and found out it did not want to work that way . live an learn . appreciate the tip on the lube .
 
I have the Swagger for my APP. Still figuring it out, pretty simple to use though.
 
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