millitary brass crimp removeal

3

308Loader

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I picked up a bag of 223 once fired brass from the range. Their is a lot of crimped primer pockets. Is a primer pocket reamer sufficient to remove the crimp or do I need a swaging die for my press. Just to try it out before I posted this I chucked the reamer up in my cordless drill and reamed one, then primed it with a hand primer. Seems to work, primer went in smooth. Is this method ok?
 
Also sorting the brass by head stamp, worth the time? Or are the case volumes close enough with 223/556 that its not worth the effort
 
I initially used a dremel type rotary tool, but it wore my poor hands out. I had about two thousand pieces of military crimped primer brass in 5.56. The solution was a Dillon Super Swage 600. It is a stand alone tool and bolts to your reloading bench. There cost a little over a hundred bucks but do the job in one quick pull of the handle in less than a second.
 
I did almost 2k of brass with a Lyman reamer chucked into my drill press. Personally I prefer the reamer to a swager.
 
I have swaged and cut to remove crimps and dont mind using a hand power cutter for a few, a powdered cutter will save your fingers though.

I feel swagers do a better job but like the one built into the 1050 the best as it does not add any extra time to the loading process.

IMG_20150120_102721_411-1_zps5ce96744.jpg
 
308,

I also use a Lyman reamer chucked in a drill press to remove the primer pocket crimp in .223 brass. I have done over 5000 cases and it takes less than a second per case. Simple, fast and effective.

best wishes-oldandslow
 
Thanks everyone. Good info as usual. What about the sorting of head stamps? I started reloading for my 308 and found case volumes to vary considerably.
 
You don't need to go through the trouble of swaging to remove the crimp. Just used a 60 degree chamfer tool and chamfer just enough to remove the crimp. You will initially feel the bumps , then as soon as the chamfer tool spins smoothly your done. Primers then will fit perfect.
 
Road clam has the right idea. Chuck it in you drill and just touch the primer pocket to the rotating bit. Fast and easy. As for head stamp sorting, if you're loading near max or loading for max(think competition) accuracy, yes sort. If you are loading plinking stuff mid-range, its probably over kill.

Good luck,
 
I 60 chamfer all my "stubborn" casings. LC and Wolf brass always benefit from a slight chamfer for easily starting the primers into the bore . If you try to over force a primer you risk deforming the surface which could lead to a FTF. RP and Win or W-W casings usually do not need a chamfer from my experiences.
 
Chamfer with countersink, less than 2 seconds per case and done. It know, it seems almost too easy, but it causes zero issues and its practically free.
 
My chamfering tool is too large to fit into my drill, but the bit from the Lyman tool fits easily and produced a nicely chamfered edge and each one is the same. Literally takes longer to handle the brass than it does to cut out the crimp. Either way will work just fine.
 
I would separate the brass by head stamp if you have 100+ of the same head stamp . I'm lucky because where I shoot they rent the range to the navy and coast guard . The deal is the range gets to keep all there brass . Needless to say are range has tones of 5.56 , 308 & 9mm brass for sale cheap . This is how a choose the bag of brass I want . I take a hand full of brass and look at the head stamps . Put those aside and do that 2 more times from the same bag . I take the bag/bags that have the most of the same head stamp . I have got bags with all the same head stamps including year doing that . Before doing it that way I once had a bag of 308 (250ct) that did not have more then 30 of the same head stamp in it . They were all odd cases as well , total waist of $35 . They all went in to the SHTF bucket to use if all else goes to pot .
 
dardascastbullets said:
The Wilson primer pocket reamer is the most perfect tool to produce factory like primer pockets from military brass.
Click to expand...

Not sure exactly what your ream method is but when I started reloading I tried many times to use a "reamer" to remove a LC millspec crimp. I quickly realized this is a huge time consuming procedure and you run the risk of "over reaming" the pocket to the point where the primer fits too loose. The first issue is you cant easily hold the casing you need to clamp the casing in a vice to allow the reamer to spin and cut out the crimps. Second issue is hand reaming takes a huge amount of time , AND you better have a very steady wrist while turning the tool or you will end up with a tapered primer pocket from wrist movement.

I have this Lyman Case prep center, got it used for $70 and it is a HUGE time saver for all the redundant case prep tasks. The male chamfer attatchment removes the crimp perfectly in just a few seconds.
 

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primer crimp

I always cut crimps with a Wilson deburring tool chucked in a drill.Worked fine,no problems.At a gunshow in April,I found a as new RCBS Primer Pocket Swager # 9495 tool set for 10.00 bucks.I haven't had a chance to try it so no report on how it works yet . hdbiker
 
Chamfer with countersink, less than 2 seconds per case and done. It know, it seems almost too easy, but it causes zero issues and its practically free.
Click to expand...

+1 here. Works great in my cordless DeWalt. Just enough to remove the crimp.

And since I only load range fodder, I don't bother with sorting headstamps.
 
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