reaming or swaging to remove primer crimp

[sam700]

I have a bunch of radway green .556 brass that I am looking to reload. I believe the primers on these are crimped (haven't punched them out yet). Assuming radway green brass is crimped, which method do you guys recommend for removing this crimp. I have roughly 1000 pieces.

Is there any accuricy benefit to swaging vs reaming? I don't own the tools for either yet.

 

[Chawbaccer]

For just a few rounds I will use the case mouth reamer, just a couple twists is all it takes. For large lots I set up my RCBS swager in the press, thumpa thumpa thumpa. Dillon has a nice swager that I have my eyes on but just never got around to buying.

 

[USSR]

sam700,

If you just had a few brass to decrimp, I'd say it wouldn't matter what way you go. With a thousand, save yourself alot of time and grief and go with the Dillon Super Swage 600.

Don

 

[P-32]

+1 with what USSR said.

The Super Swage is a little on the spendy side but it will swage any USGI brass there is plus some. It's easy to set up and makes swaging a lot of brass easy.

 

[Shrinkmd]

Silly question

The small and large rod mean it can decap 9mm, .223, .308, and .45acp, right?

 

[Walkalong]

Yep.

 

[CU74]

Either will work, but I prefer the RCBS swager.

 

[sam700]

So I went ahead and decapped one and can't see any crimp in the primer pocket. Is it just that the crimp is difficult to see or does Radway Green not crimp their stuff? For what it's worth, I've never loaded millitary brass, so maybe I just don't know what to look for, but I can't see any differance in the primer pocket other than the fact that they used a large amount of primer sealent.

I could always try seating a primer and if it goes in with normal resistance I guess I'm good to go.

 

[Shimitup]

I have an RCBS swager that never opened the pocket enough to start the primer well on my crimped 223 cases so I chuck a 5 flute countersink in the drill press,worked like a charm. As fast as I can pick em from one bucket, bump the countersink for about 1/4 second and drop them in another bucket. It only takes a few minutes to do 100. It does take a little practice to get a tight hold on the case just the right bump to get the right depth and avoid chatter but it goes so fast the practice payed off.

 

[NorCalRanches]

Not fancy, but it works better than anything else I have tried.

I bought a CH Tool and Die swager, did an excellent job on 50 cases of .308 I had, and worked great on 50 cases of PMC .223, the rest of the .223 brass I had seemed to soft (winchester), and I couldn't swage it very well. So I use this. I do it last step before priming, that way if the case needs a little more reaming I do it right then.

I should buy an actual reamer as I've wondered about wearing out my chamfer tool, but it is still sharp.

Probably done 1,000 cases at least this way.

 

[coloradokevin]

I tried reaming in the past, and spent most of my time swearing and wasting time.

I just got a Dillon Super Swage 600 as a late Christmas gift, and so far it seems like this is the way to go! To be fair, I haven't done much with it yet, but I set it up and ran ten pieces of .223 through it before work the other day (Federal and LC brass). I seated primers on 4 of these casings, just to be sure, and things seem to be working fine thus far. It sure is a heck of a lot faster and easier than reaming for me!

I'll keep you guys posted after I run a real good test on this new setup!

 

[sam700]

So, I've got all the brass decapped and can't seem to see any crimp. Is this crimp very small and hard to see or is it possible that Radway Green doesn’t crimp their primers?

I went ahead and tried to carefully seat 3 primers. They all seated fine. There might be a bit more resistance than normal, but it might be my imagination.

If the primers were crimped would it be obvious by looking at it and would it make it impossible or very difficult to seat a new primer or is it very subtle. Am I tempting fate if I try to prime the other ones?

 

[NorCalRanches]

Most all .223 brass I see anymore is crimped. It just looks like an additional ring on the head. Often sort of off center. I'd imagine however if your getting primers in without them getting squished all to hell, it isn't crimped.

This article has a picture of some crimped ammo.

http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting2005/squeezeplay2/index.asp

 

[sam700]

Thanks, I'll take another look at that brass. It might take a bit more resistance than normal, but it is pretty subtle. It sounds like it would be a pretty noticable differance if the brass was crimped from what I'm hearing.

 

[crawfobj]

I've been working through my once-fired .223 cases. I have the hornady primer pocket reamer and the CH4D swager, but I've found that there are only a few crimps out there that will not allow you to seat a primer with normal pressure. I'm using a lee autoprime, so I have a pretty good feel for the pressure that it takes. In the batch of mixed headstamps last night (LC, WCC, FC and various others) only about 5% of the 500 or so required reaming before the primer would seat, and the amount of crimp varied quite a bit even within a headstamp.

Is there any reason not to try priming the cases first before going through a potentially unnecessary swaging/reaming operation, if you're careful with the primer seating? Am I missing something?

 

[jcwit]

crawfobj--Nah you're doing OK, as long as the primer seats all the way. As many .223 cases as there are out there I doubt I'd even worry about the ones needing reaming.

 

[crawfobj]

Thanks jcwit. Unfortunately, I'm way too much of a brass hound to throw away a perfectly good case!!!

Also, the hornady reamer is really quick and easy in the RCBS case prep station.

 

[280shooter]

I use a cordless drill with a drill bit, just enough pressure to remove the crimp. light pressure works like a charm for me,

 

[sam700]

Sounds good, I'll give it a shot.

 

[sam700]

I got most of the brass primed. Looks like one and ten take quite a bit of resistance to seat. Since there was only 40 or so that wouldn't seat, I went ahead and got a reamer, but if there was more than that I think swaging would have been the way to go. Thanks for the help

 

[Sunray]

The important part is removing the primer crimp. Any resistance seating the primer means the crimp hasn't been removed sufficiently. That can cause a high primer, that can cause a slam fire.
Remember that Radway is Brit milsurp brass. Reduce the powder charge by 10% and work up.

 

[sam700]

Thanks, I'll remember that. I knew to reduce the loads for mil brass, but I'll have to doublecheck to make sure I don't have any high primers as some seated with slightly more risistance than normal while others slid right in.

 

[angus6]

I got most of the brass primed. Looks like one and ten take quite a bit of resistance to seat. Since there was only 40 or so that wouldn't seat, I went ahead and got a reamer, but if there was more than that I think swaging would have been the way to go. Thanks for the help

I started out with the RCBS swagger and went to the hornady primer pocket reamer much nicer in my opinion , chuck it in the drill press and go , have ordered a small electric motor that I'm going to set it up with on my bench.

 

[jimmertoons]

I own both the RCBS and the Dillon swagers. My 11 yr old daughter does my swaging for me now with the Dillon. I use mostly 308, 30-06 and 7.62x39, and she can handle all of them for me.