Primer pocket swaging -- how much to swage?

[edfardos]

The RCBS bench-mount primer pocket swager arrived, so I thought I'd try to reload all this LC brass I've been collecting.

In the past, I tried a pocket reamer (hornady version, and/or deburr tool) with mixed results, so I thought a swager would make this LC brass as easy to prime as commercial brass.

I managed to prime 50 brass, but they all required more force to prime than any commercial brass I've ever loaded.

After damaging two primers, I kept increasing the swager depth, but I'm at the point where I have to use my fist, wrist, and a touch of elbow to get the swaging head in and out of the pocket. Is this normal?

I further discovered that using the reamer after swaging helped locate the primer easier. At this point, I don't think I'm going to be inserting sideways primers anymore, but it does still seem like the pockets are tight. Is that just the way it is?

curiously,
-edfardos

 

[rcmodel]

A spritz of case lube spray in the primer pockets will make swaging and punch removal much much easier.
You Are moving brass around where it don't want to go after-all!

I have no experience with the new RCBS bench-mounted unit.

But on my old RCBS press die set, I had to grind off a couple thousands from the end of the punch to get it to go in the pocket deep enough to round off all the crimp.

You might look into that.

rc

 

[witchhunter]

Get a primer pocket uniformer, I like the one from Sinclair. All primer pockets will be the same size after you use this tool. Do it once and you are done.

 

[edfardos]

Okay, so its not unusual to muscle the swager, thanks.

after you guys swage pockets are they still tighter than commercial pockets?

i'm wondering if i should be swaging even deeper.

thanks again!

edfardos

 

[wally247]

I use the same RCBS swager. I set it pretty deep. They still seat tight but they go.

 

[chiltech500]

I'm using a Dillon Super Swager and after the 1st swage it is more of a challenge priming than with regular brass. I have swaged more than once and deeper and that helps but I had concerns about making the pocket too large.

 

[jmorris]

I set my 1050's to swage like the photo below. The one on the left is swaged the right case is not.

 

[USSR]

Okay, so its not unusual to muscle the swager, thanks.

after you guys swage pockets are they still tighter than commercial pockets?

i'm wondering if i should be swaging even deeper.

thanks again!

Ed,

Buy the Dillon Super Swage 600 and cry once - go cheap and ...

Don

 

[edfardos]

Thanks for the additional hints.

That picture is telling! you swage out the visible ring. That wasn't cut out after the swage?

I cut a piece of LC-11 brass in half and ran the swager into the pocket so I could see it. I'm about .008" short of bottoming out, so I guess I have more room to go.

Regarding Dillon super swage, I'm sure it's a nice piece of equipment, but functionally identical to the new RCBS unit imho plus 33% more cost. There's probably an ergonomic difference, but I'm just trying to figure out how far to jam a swaging head into a primer pocket (regardless of how it's accomplished).

I'll go a bit deeper and see what happens.

cool,
-edfardos

 

[jmorris]

That picture is telling! you swage out the visible ring. That wasn't cut out after the swage?

That is just swaged in station 3 of a Dillon. If I had to swage then cut, I would skip it.

 

[Greg Mercurio]

edfardos: Swaging is cold forming. In this case fairly hard brass. It takes a fair amount of pressure to do that. The RCBS tool looks robust, but not having one does not allow me to observe how much mechanical advantage that lever is providing. I do have a Dillon, and the mechanical advantage is significant. It may be that you are expecting the brass to flow like marshmallow, and it won't.

Cases swaged by me have a very visible radius on the opening of the primer cavity, provided by the geometry of the punch on the Dillon. I have no issues priming these cases. Suggest you go deeper with your punch. At least until the stepped face of the punch is flush with the face of the case. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[edfardos]

Okay, just to follow up, it's working perfectly!

The trick was rcmodel's case-lube suggestion. Every 10 cases I wiped the swaging head with a little rcbs lube from a q-tip. I was able to increase the swaging depth and it was effortless.

This, in conjunction with using the hornady crimp-remover/cutter to give the exterior edge a tiny radius makes the swaged brass indistinguishable from commercial brass, both visually, and primer-insertion feel. At one point I backed off the swage as I thought maybe the primers weren't in tight enough.

I use a progressive press, so primer/brass alignment isn't perfect on the way in, but I had zero crunches/clicks or sideways primers on my last 50 rounds.

Hopefully the case lube in the primer pocket is negligible and wont cause problems -- otherwise this is a huge win!

thanks for all the help guys!

--edfardos

 

[scythefwd]

shouldnt take a ton of force to swage... yeah, they're still tight to insert. You swage to the tight side of spec...

http://s1106.photobucket.com/user/s...6-45BD-B156-38983F81D68C_zpsji0g7irk.mp4.html
You see how little effort it takes me to swage on the one piece of brass.

 

[rcmodel]

As I mentioned in post #2:

Grind just a frog-hair off the end of the swaging plug so the radius can go deeper in the primer pocket before bottoming out.

Then you no longer will need to swage them, and then ream them too!

rc

 

[LiveLife]

Don't want to hijack the thread but this is related topic.

I am interested in the Dillon Super Swage 600 with the rubber band modification. Anyone who has one, does it work as fast/well as shown in the video? Thanks.

 

[scythefwd]

BDS, buddy of mine has that done to his... Works well

 

[FROGO207]

I have the press mounted RCBS like RC. It did take some force to use even when lubing the primer swage pin. Also I needed to separate by head stamp and adjust or I would bend the pin in the body with 5.56 brass. I now have the C4HD kit and like it a lot more FYI.