Priming 5.56 cases

B

Bucksnort1

New member
All,

I load .223 but not 5.56 and have never knowingly loaded 5.56; therefore, I have never had to remove military primer crimps. When I find 5.56, I give them to someone or discard them. While sorting through some cases I loaded and fired, at some time in the past, I noticed the cases are LC military 5.56.

I don't recall every having a hard time seating primers and that includes these 5.56 cases. I must have overlooked the head stamps. I seated some primers to see what would happen. All primers seated without difficulty so I'm thinking it is possible to seat 5.56 cases without removing the crimp.

Just curious. Any comments?

Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
 
IIRC lake city 556 brass uses a round crimp, i.e. all the way around. This makes the the hole above the primer smaller in diameter than the primer. What will happen is the primer will start crooked then crush. You'll know. My guess it you've picked up someones brass who already cut out or swedged out the crimp. Both can be hardly noticeable when done right.
 
Someone may have already removed it. In fact, all my pick-up LC 556 have been like that. If left on the ground, they were most likely loaded a few times before.
A counter sink drill bit, 1/2" and 90 degrees angle will remove the crimp. I use a screw driver handle and the bit has a hex shaped shaft. I used to use a drill, but it only takes a few turns. I also have the Lyman champfer multi-tool which has primer pocket reamers and pocket cleaners that store in side until needed.
Best option in my opinion, is buy LC once fired (crimp proves they are once fired), and either have the seller process the primer pockets (adds ~$20 per 1000), or do it yourself. You only do it once for the life of the case. Whenevet I primet does not want to go in, I have a look and give it a couple of turns.
 
Bucksnort1 said:
All,



I load .223 but not 5.56 and have never knowingly loaded 5.56; therefore, I have never had to remove military primer crimps. When I find 5.56, I give them to someone or discard them. While sorting through some cases I loaded and fired, at some time in the past, I noticed the cases are LC military 5.56.



I don't recall every having a hard time seating primers and that includes these 5.56 cases. I must have overlooked the head stamps. I seated some primers to see what would happen. All primers seated without difficulty so I'm thinking it is possible to seat 5.56 cases without removing the crimp.



Just curious. Any comments?



Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
Click to expand...



I looked into this quite extensively prior to making the jump to reload.223/5.56. Since my department shoots a f&$@ ton of rifle. (Government perks) they leave it behind and I reload it. So being said most of the rounds we shoot don't have this crimp. Only some, heck I think that "some" is my brass I purchased. Thus not all 5.56 has that crimp. I found a swager on eBay for a 90$ price tag (after small bidding war) which is pretty cheap.

Also an alternative route is a reemer Lyman makes that neat multitool for 20-30$ heck sometimes I don't bother with the swager I just Reem..

However I have a half bucket full of brass still under sized and needs deprimed. Swager does make it faster.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
There are perks to chamfering primer pockets other than removing crimps (I've used 1/2", 60 degree countersinks for well over 20 years removing primer crimps) . I have come across some brass (S&B) that has very little to no chamfer on the primer pocket mouth. Occasionally primers will get started crooked and get crushed. Some brass gets dinged from ejecting and landing on a hard object and raising a small ding in the primer pocket mouth making primer insertion difficult. Primer pocket IDs can vary and smaller (but still in tolerance) pockets can make priming difficult and a chamfer helps seating straight.

And while not applicable to very many, when using a Lee Loader and priming, a chamfered primer pocket eliminates the occasional OOPS/Bang!

I'm not talking about 1/8" or 3/16" angle cut in the mouth, just a few thousandths to "break" the corner and give the primer an easier start. And no, I don't chamfer all my brass, but I do a lot of my 45 ACP and nearly all of my 30-06 Garand brass...
 
I think the answer is another loader removed the crimp and the cases slipped by me when sorting brass.
Click to expand...
Or somebody loaded some new LC brass before you got it. Or it's from commercial "remanufactured" (aka reloaded) ammo such as Black Hills or others.
 
I've had primers go into .223 cases I'd missed swaging. Some extra resistance, but not a lot. Not like 7.62, where failing to remove the crimp can be fatal to priming. But as the others suggest, I would not do it on purpose. Straight, properly reconsolidated primers are important to achieve best precision on paper.
 
I've bought new, unfired LC 5.56mm cases... with no crimp. I have fooled with priming around a pocket crimp... some went in no problem, some turned sideways, some didn't go in at all. If you are priming without problems, I'm guessing you have some that weren't crimped, or have had the crimp removed.
 
I load A LOT of LC cases and never have I been able to seat a primer with out swaging or cutting out the crimp . I prime by hand so it's very noticeable when the primers don't want to seat . On the other hand I've bought 2k verified once fired WCC-12 and 1k WCC-11 9mm brass . The primer pockets clearly look crimped in both lots but all the WCC-12 cases did not need swaging but ALL the WCC-11 did .

Not sure what that means to the OP but I've come across at least one set of military brass ( al be it 9mm ) that had a less then adequate primer crimp . I sure wish I ran into that when load 5.56 cases thank goodness it's a one and done type of deal .
 
Some companies like Black Hills use LCC brass, and do not crimp them. A couple of local stores, as well as the range I shoot at sold a bunch of it. I would eagerly watch guys do mag dumps and leave the brass. I picked up many. I am still shooting from them.


For crimped I have an RC4 press with a swage die. Crimpa are removed in a couple of seconds.
 
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