To swage or not to swage?

[General Lee]

Ok so I have been reloading for about 6 months now and I have never swaged a primer pocket. I shoot my own once fired federal brass and I have had no problems.

Just a question to throw out there. Do you guys swage all of your brass or just crimped brass? I have heard that swaging even non crimped brass will help out accuracy, but I am hesitant to believe this when the primer seats fine without it.

 

[cavman]

I only swage crimped brass.

I shoot Bullseye and have never heard of any of my shooting colleagues swaging non-crimped brass. Have never heard of the accuracy issue either.

 

[evan price]

I only swage brass with military crimps. That's generally 223 and 308. Crimped 9mm goes in the junk bin, why waste time on it?

 

[Tilos]

One twist of a case deburring tool takes care of any crimped 9mm cases I come across.

I don't look for crimps but can feel them before priming.
I pull that case,set it aside or "debur" it, return it, and continue.

When progressive loading, I keep a few extra cases, some just sized, some sized primed and flared, as replacements, so I can continue on when a bad case needs replacing.

 

[snuffy]

Just a question to throw out there. Do you guys swage all of your brass or just crimped brass? I have heard that swaging even non crimped brass will help out accuracy, but I am hesitant to believe this when the primer seats fine without it.

Where did you HEAR that? somebody was trying to BS you or they just were making something up. Swaging primer pockets does one thing, it removes the military crimp from the edge of the pocket.

Could you have misunderstood him, when he was saying uniforming a primer pocket? Primer pocket uniformer's are cutters that square up the bottom of the pockets, making them the same from one to the next.

 

[MtnCreek]

No swage needed unless crimped. For consistant brass, uniform primer pocket (square) and debur flash hole. Both of these will be noticable when trying to get the very best out of a round.