Prepping military .223/5.56 - tips from experts?

Kaldor said:

Same here. I clamp a wood block with a hole slightly bigger than the case neck below to more or less hold the brass taking some stress off my hand as I lower the handle. I also wear rubber coated gloves so my hands are more grippy. Its pretty fast and efficient. Ive kicked around putting a foot pedal on my drill press to make it even faster but never finished it.

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I just leave mine running move the platten out of the way and push the case on. Takes between 3-5 seconds each. I use two small bins and when the bin is empty I do something else for a while.

A couple of years ago I bought 223 brass from a local range and most was mil with crimp primer. I bought the rcbs version of the dillon super swage. worked alot better than anything short of taking the brass to my friend who now lives 300 miles away and using his 1050.

Drill press, 60 degree small countersink. I trim them first so I can remove the crimp, flip the case over and LIGHTLY remove any burrs inside the mouth. I push the case up into the countersink by hand, don't actually use the press for this. For trimming I do. I do a couple hundred till my mind wanders, (sometimes it's not even 100!), keep at it off and on, pretty soon, all done!

I've used the RCBS Military Crimp Remover in both my case prep station and a drill.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012921650?pid=254170
I've also used the RCBS press-mounted swagging set-up.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012920663?pid=235832
I prefer using a reamer in my case prep station.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1165253550?pid=617234

YMMV

rwebster71 said:

OK, I've got about 8-10 5-gallon buckets full of .223 mil brass. I thought I had a lot until I saw that picture!

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Just you wait, there’ll be a contest here shortly, guess the number of brass pieces in each box. That is a ton of brass!

Dynamite Rabbit said:

If by chance you have a Hornady LNL progressive, Hornady makes a great setup to swage the primer pockets.

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They make a single stage swage die as well. It works great. I used to use an rcbs "military crimp remover", and it did a pretty good job, especially set up on a drill press. Swaging is quicker and cleaner.

I've done thousands of both 5.56 and 308 military cases . I started with the RCBS press mount swager ( SUCKS ) . Way to slow and needing to carefully guide each neck over the mandrel was hard to see when mounted in the press .

Then I got the Lyman hand tool that cuts them out ( SUCKS ) Again slow and fatigues the hands and fingers .

I did like the results of the cutting method so chucked the end cutting piece into a hand drill and away I went . Now , I'm in construction so I work with my hands and fingers are strong so this method works well for me . Super fast , Once you get the force needed and timing it's pretty fast . I can do one case every 2 or 3 seconds , so 1000-ish an hour and I usually do about 500 at a time and maybe 1000 a day or every couple days until I go through the whole lot .

I recommend trying that method since you already have everything you need at home now . I like the idea of a drill press but how many people have a drill press . I've been in construction ( own the company ) for 35 years and have a ridiculous amount of tools , I don't have a drill press :-(

That all said last year I bought the Dillon super swager and it's on a whole other level of greatness . If you have the money just get the Super swager . Short of having someone else doing it for you the Dillon super swager is the best way to go .

There is one thing to consider when using the super swager . It creates a rise/crater edge around the primer pocket .

EXAMPLE :

This is a case head I did a few flat strokes on a sanding stone before swaging to see if the case head is flat . Note how there is even and full area sanding on the case head .



Compare that to this sanded case head after swaging . You now can see the sanded ring around the the primer pocket that was pushed outward when swaging .





My best guestament on how much that craters out is about .001 to .0015 . Doesn't sound like much but that will throw off your head to datum measurement by that same amount . Once fired that will flatten back out . There is a possibility if the first swaging was not enough . When that crater is pushed back down upon firing it "could" narrow the diameter of the primer pocket a tad again . You will still be able to seat most primers but some may hang up from time to time .

Metal God said:

That all said last year I bought the Dillon super swager and it's on a whole other level of greatness .

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Metal God said:

There is one thing to consider when using the super swager . It creates a rise/crater edge around the primer pocket .

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The Dillon Super Swagger is another level of greatness, but then it takes 2 steps ? First swage, then sand it down ?

I don't know about that. Buy an expensive tool to achieve the next level of greatness, but that changes a one-step process into two ?

I can cut the swage out with a cutter mounted in a drill. Once, it's done.

No second step of sanding, or re-swaging after firing.

Doesn't much sound like 'a whole other level of greatness' to me. Sounds like an overpriced Dillon tool that doesn't do the job correctly the first time.

Maybe it's just me; I haven't drank the blue KoolAid.

I use the Hornady swager for the LNL-AP. It's fast. You do need to sort head stamps, though. Other than that no problems.

Hooda Thunkit said:

The Dillon Super Swagger is another level of greatness, but then it takes 2 steps ? First swage, then sand it down ?

I don't know about that. Buy an expensive tool to achieve the next level of greatness, but that changes a one-step process into two ?

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That’s just how one guy does it. I’ve never needed to do any sanding after swaging on the Dillon swager

Hooda Thunkit said:

The Dillon Super Swagger is another level of greatness, but then it takes 2 steps ? First swage, then sand it down ?

I don't know about that. Buy an expensive tool to achieve the next level of greatness, but that changes a one-step process into two ?

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No no sorry I only did the sanding to show the cratering . No I do not sand them that was only to show the high spot around the primer pocket . It's hard to see by eye , you need the right light at the right angle and there it is . doing a few quick circles shows it clear as day . Oh man could you imagine needing to sand down thousands of cases , no thank you haha

https://www.amazon.com/Frankford-Arsenal-Adjustable-Positioning-Auto-Eject/dp/B0779B5Q6D

I use this tool for swaging primer pockets. Worked a lot of overtime 2 summers ago and bought myself a little something nice after fighting with the hand reamer dinguses for years (half the battle was finding it every few years when I needed to prep mil. brass). From what I've seen, it seems to function in a manner similar to the Dillon without the Dillon price. It is effective at de-crimping military 5.56 brass across most headstamps. You can either dial it in for a specific case, or set it at "good enough" for mixed range brass. I keep a primer pocket cleaner tool handy. If a de-crimp stroke feels soft, I use it to guage the primer pocket. If the pocket is still tight, I'll usually scrap that particular case and often that entire brand of brass (free range pickups) as I assume the web is thinner than average. I've only encountered one paramilitary headstamp that had this issue. All of LC, WCC, TAA, FC, Win, Hornady, RG, and some others work well with a "good enough" setting. Some will feel tighter on priming, but not to the point of crushing precious primers, seating to erratic depths or shaving the plating off to plug up my ram prime.

lightman said:

I may be the only guy alive that didn't like the Dillon Swaging tool. It works great once its adjusted but some crimps require it to be readjusted.

II have had a few others that got dull rather quickly and the Wilson tool seems to be made of better steel.

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I am with Lightman on this opinion

This process of removing the military crimp is the achilles heel of my reloading. First I tried the RCBS crimp remover...found it useless. Next I bought the Hornady drill type. It worked well enough but I quickly wore it out, bought another and that one did not last long.

Next I bought the Wilson titanium ($50) that I used on their lathe. Works great but requires inserting into the sleeve and grinding the crimp out using my fingers to turn it. Remove and repeat gets old fast. Even with the Titanium more than half will not allow the go-no go tool to enter the pocket.

I am convinced that the Dillon bench tool ($150) requires me to adjust the length, even on similar headstamps, way to frequently.

If the DIllon does not require constant jiggering I would appreciate you guys telling me. And how to avoid changing the tool to account for differences in case lengths.

If someone ever invents a method of Military crimp removal that works, and quickly, and does not cause finger pain or constant fiddling, I would buy it.

I just ordered a .223 rod and locater for my Dillon super swager. It makes short work of this task. I also have a Giraud triway cutter coming for 5.56. I have the 7.62 version and it will trim a lake city 7.62 case down to length in about 5-7 seconds and, while it does require some effort on your part, it isn't much and you could sit there and probably do a thousand cases before your arm became fatigued from pushing the case into the trimmer. I chuck mine into a drill press so I have to reach over and up and push up on the case for a few seconds and then toss the case and then reach over for another one and repeat. Once you get into the rhythm, it's a 5-7 second affair so, let's say you manage 6 seconds per case, you could theoretically trim 10 cases per minute or 600 cases per hour or 4,800 cases per 8 hours. It's noisy so you can always put on some headphones and listen to something while you work. the Dillon super swager operates at about the same rate so double that. I use the RCBS case prep center for primer pockets and flash holes and brushing out the cases. those operations can probably be done in 20 seconds per case going from one station to the next. so that would be 3 cases per minute, 180 cases per hour and 1,440 cases per 8 hours. This will be your bottle neck after acquiring the aforementioned tools.

ETA: my dillon parts were literally delivered while I was typing this. LOL

Me said:

My best guestament on how much that craters out is about .001 to .0015 . Doesn't sound like much but that will throw off your head to datum measurement by that same amount

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I no longer need to guestamate . I just swaged 600 - 5.56 cases in 45min on the Super swager 600 . While doing so I compared several head to datum measurements before and after swaging . All before and after measurements were different from one another . The most it changed was .001 longer with about half only measuring .0005 longer .

I had this dilemma, had all the equipment to do it, and then thought. Hmmm, This is gonna be very time consuming.
Called up the local brass processor guy and asked how much?
Cleaned, Sized, Swaged, Trimmed- Ready to load. 3 1/2 cents a round! DEAL! Worth every penny.

The super swager is pretty easy. Setting up can be a little tricky as far as mounting it and then adjusting for the proper swage but I found that you can use your handy dandy primer pocket uniformer as a Go/No Gauge pretty darned effectively. Just mount the swager and then swage a pocket until the primer pocket uniformer fits it easily and then turn out your case locator rod another 1/8 of a turn and swage it out a little bit more and then uniform your pocket and flashhole as you normally would and you're in business. Swage maybe 10 of them like this and try to pop a primer in them. If 10/10 go in easy peasy, then you're probably right where you want to be. if you get some resistance, turn out the rod another 1/8 of a turn and see if that pops them in right and it probably will. Then go to town and knock them out.

I don't know if it's easier than cutting them out but it's pretty easy and it's quiet. I wouldn't want to use my drill press for this task either because, it is noisy as heck and because I already use it to trim cases and I don't want to tax the motor more than I need to and I hate any reloading operation that involves a hand drill.

thorswhisper said:

I had this dilemma, had all the equipment to do it, and then thought. Hmmm, This is gonna be very time consuming.
Called up the local brass processor guy and asked how much?
Cleaned, Sized, Swaged, Trimmed- Ready to load. 3 1/2 cents a round! DEAL! Worth every penny.

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I just bought a thousand that were ready to load but I probably have 5,000 5.56 cases that need everything and I'll be damned if I'm gonna let them go to pot so they're gonna get processed.

What about the Lee APP with their swaging die? Any thoughts?

Megawatt maker said:

Dillion super swage user here, but I found a guy that makes a slick add on for it. Saves even more time.

View attachment 1065163View attachment 1065164


If anyone is interested..I can dig out his contact info and PM it to you, but you'll have to use FB messenger. I told him about THR but not sure if he joined yet

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Yes please! I've used several different methods, including reaming like the OP, and have found the super swage to be the best balance between ease of use, accuracy, and speed.

A McJ reamer in the Frankford Arsenal case prep machine. Trim to length, remove crimp from primer pocket, de-burr neck... all in a few seconds. WELL worth the $150 I paid, along with McJ tools/bits off Amazon.

Extra case trim bits are the same as what fits in a crank type RCBS trimmer and the other bits are the same size as what screws into handheld Lyman tools. REALLY neat tool.

I try not to use anyone else's " once fired"
after the mess I had a while back.
I used to have an RCBS swager, but since
my time is irreplaceable and the most
valuable thing I have, I won't waste any
of it with uncooperative brass.
If I have to do anything other than the
standard loading steps and procedures
to make it work and get it to shoot, I
smash it and it goes in the scrap bucket
with other junk cases