5.56 Primer Pockets

[GunDog44]

New to reloading the 5.56 Nato for my AR, can you tell me if the primer in the Nato cartridge is crimped ? I have quit a bit of the LC cases and Winchester.
I hope I don't need to ream / sweadge the primer pocket

Thanks

 

[brickeyee]

If you have the cases just look at them.

 

[Bullet]

My LC cases are crimped.

 

[GunDog44]

I looked and they are crimped, dang !
Looks like I'll toss the 5.56 and keep the .223

 

[Bullet]

Don't toss them. Sell them.

 

[Freddymac]

Yes, they are.

This is to keep them from dislodging due to recoil in full auto guns. It is a mil spec thing. you will not fin it on .223's. I don't reload .223/5.56 so I dont know about reaming the pockets. Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[callgood]

Dillon has a "Super Swagger" for about 80 bucks. At some level "quite a bit" of 5.56 brass is worth the initial investment. There are other tools that ream out the crimp, but you would probably bung up your hand doing a pile of brass. Your call.

 

[mc223]

If you have a drill press or even a hand drill will work, just chamfer the primer swage out. It is a bit time consuming but you already have the brass.

 

[dmftoy1]

How many of them do you have? It's not much of a deal to swage out the crimp. If you were near Central Illinois you could borrow my swager.

Regards,
Dave

 

[GunDog44]

I have about 4,000 5.56 and about 6,000 .223

I tried to chamfer some 7.62 x 51 Korean ammo the other day and I was able to seat the primers fine. However, I noticed that the Winchester LR primers set too deep in the pocket. Does anyone have experience on the milspec 7.62 ? I didn't know the depth of the primer pocket was deeper than a standard .308. Any clues as to why my primers are deep. This is the corrosive KA 7.62 rounds. I pulled the 147gr ball for reloading in my M1A & M1, and was going to reload the brass until I seen the primer depth issue.

Dogg

 

[kid_couteau]

RCBS makes one for about 30 bucks. I have one and it works very good

Kid

 

[BluesBear]

Kepp your brass. You only have to swage the pocket once anyway.

The Dillon swage is very good. It's the fastest/easiest available.
I think it's well worth the price.
Also consider that after you buy one you can then use it on all of that inexpensive GI brass out there. You'll eventually save more than the purchase price.

The number one reason for using a swage is that all of your primer pockets will then be the same. I have seen overzealous loaders enlarge or oval their pockets to what I consider to be dangerous specs.