Proper primer pocket swage

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Charlie1022

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I just ordered and received a Frankfort Arsenal swage tool and need to know the proper amount of swage to apply. I have mixed head staped 223/556 brass. Some cases get more champfer than other on the primer pocket. I have been removing the primers with my new Universal primer tool. I just want to learn to do it correctly and not over or under swage the primer pockets! Thanks for your thoughts!!
 
I had three different swagers and never could get any one of them to function easily and properly. I also have a lot of 223 with military crimp that I just grind out with Hornady tool.

Still thinking about buying the Dillon but cannot bear the thought of paying $125 and finding out that I cannot operate that one either.:cuss:
 
I sort by headstamp and work through one headstamp at a time.

When I switch headstamps, I start out with less swag than needed and slowly increase the amount of metal displacement until I can smoothly seat a primer. It is pretty easy, but I'm using the Hornady setup for my LNL AP
 
2011redrider said:
They make a go no-go gauge for that to, Made by a company called Ballistic Tools.
Click to expand...
Without a gauge, you are working in the dark. The Ballistic tools gauge made adjusting the swage on my Mk7 a piece of cake. You can also easily check to see if a military crimp has already been swaged or reamed, saving you the trouble of swaging every case. You may find that many, if not most, range brass has already been swaged.
 
gifbohane said:
I had three different swagers and never could get any one of them to function easily and properly. I also have a lot of 223 with military crimp that I just grind out with Hornady tool.

Still thinking about buying the Dillon but cannot bear the thought of paying $125 and finding out that I cannot operate that one either.:cuss:
Click to expand...

If you can't get the Dillon to work right, you need to find a new hobby. If you add a rubber band to the backer rod you now have auto eject. With this simple mod you can swage each piece of brass and not have to sort by swaged or not because its faster.
 
gifbohane said:
I had three different swagers and never could get any one of them to function easily and properly. I also have a lot of 223 with military crimp that I just grind out with Hornady tool.
Click to expand...

The RCBS primer pocket swaging die works best for me...

Bayou52
 
Swaging or cutting, I simply remove the crimp just enough for a primer to go in and nothing more. Lots of tools will do the job.

517C12E3-5EF2-4A9D-ADF3-3F09FFE2C686.jpeg

The goal is to make the case on the right look like the one on the left.

4B6955C7-9CA4-4666-96A7-9A3CF7804595.jpeg

Well... and what I really need it for is to find those cases that need swaging... vs cycling them through the swager every time.
Click to expand...

That is why the 1050’s are my favorite for the task, they are no extra operations, if a case needs swaging, they are swaged, if not, they are not. All as part of the regular reloading process.
 
Charlie98 said:
Well... and what I really need it for is to find those cases that need swaging... vs cycling them through the swager every time.
Click to expand...
FWIW, I mark the cases that I have loaded, so it is easy for me to keep them separate from range pickup when I get home. I know that I have no case prep to do on my cases, including swaging.
 
Charlie98 said:
Well... and what I really need it for is to find those cases that need swaging... vs cycling them through the swager every time.
Click to expand...

I found it easier to just swage every case . I use the Lyman or RCBS swage tools and chuck them into a drill . This allows me to swage each case really fast . Meaning it takes me longer to grab a case and check to see if it needs swaging then it does to just run it through the swaging process . Why handle the brass twice hell if you’re going to check every case if it needs swaging , you might as well separate it at the same time . If you do that you know which ones need swaging as well .

Now this isn’t to say I don’t prefer to separate my brass which tells you most of the time if you need to swage or not . How ever sometimes I have a bunch of mixed brass that I know separating them will be a waste because I’ll have less then 100 of any one headstamp, In those cases I just swage them all , there’s no need to handle crap plinking brass twice . It’s only going to be loaded light and shot at steel .
 
Would you mind telling me how you mark your cases? That is a good idea. Because of the nature of my range I have to treat all brass as either all mine or all range.
 
Mark them by running a wide tip permanent marker over the case head. I put 60 in a tall loading block primer up as the final stage of inspection and run the permanent marker down the rows. Black or blue show up the best. It comes off in your tumbler.

ETA: I also use that method to ID loads when working them up and link color with performance at the range.
 
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Got off topic a bit sorry. I now use the CH4D primer pocket swaging system. It is fast and once set up for amount of crimp you do not need to adjust when changing brands of brass as it does not depend on web thickness to work. Works on top of press. Google it on you tube videos of it working. After decapping a bunch I will inspect and swage a bunch. Then size/clean/trim/ chamfer in that order.
 
Good question Charlie! I have the RCBS tools (large/small). I'm tired of swaging just enough to make the primer seat. A waste of time and effort.. I adjust till I can see a rounded edge to the top of the pocket. Then there is no question if the case has been swaged before or not. I have suffered no ill consequences from this.
 
FROGO207 said:
I now use the CH4D primer pocket swaging system.
Click to expand...

That's what I have... it does take a bit of familiarization to use properly, however. I was just about ripping the rims off my .308 cases when I first started using it. The leverage from even my little RS3 press makes very, very easy work of it... I wasn't expecting that.
 
Metal God said:
I found it easier to just swage every case .
Click to expand...

Not really... for me. I can set in front of the TV and check the pockets, separating them into either/or piles. I don't pick up range brass... I use my own fired brass, in lots of 1000, so I know what I have. That's just me... your mileage may vary, need not be present to win, void where prohibited by law.
 
+whatever for the RCBS swaging tool and the Ballistic Tools gauge. Have both and love them. Get the Ballistic gauge for 223 neck sizing while you’re at it.
 
BiknSwans said:
Without a gauge, you are working in the dark. The Ballistic tools gauge made adjusting the swage on my Mk7 a piece of cake. You can also easily check to see if a military crimp has already been swaged or reamed, saving you the trouble of swaging every case. You may find that many, if not most, range brass has already been swaged.
Click to expand...

My oldest tool is the press-mounted RCBS tool. I found it irksome to have to jerk the press handle to back it off the case head.....was worried it would eventually break the press! ;) But I got the new bench-mounted tool similar in operation to Dillons....and found it to be easy peasy.........The I found the little button that drives into the primer pocket of the old tool make a perfect gauge that I already had. It makes it easy to tell if the brass is already swaged for not......

Fast forward to the present and of course I had to test the new Lee APP with it's swager die. At first I thought it didn't work......cussed it.....posted a cussing....then realized that I shoulda read the directions better. Once followed, it beat the others hands down for speed. Has something to do with that case feeder!!! So now the Dillon 1050 is the only method I know as fast.....well maybe the Hornady swager add-on to their AP too......but nothing comes close other than those.....and they don't match the price of an APP.

I still use my "gauge" the old press-mounted swage button on my oldest RCBS swager.

total recoil said:
Good question Charlie! I have the RCBS tools (large/small). I'm tired of swaging just enough to make the primer seat. A waste of time and effort.. I adjust till I can see a rounded edge to the top of the pocket. Then there is no question if the case has been swaged before or not. I have suffered no ill consequences from this.
Click to expand...

And that's the way you should use a swager!....round the edge so the primers don't catch an edge. I always used my old press swage driven into the pocket to the hilt! The hilt is filleted for that very reason.
 
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