The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - What do you use to make case mouths round again?

thedaddycat · February 4, 2012, 04:15 PM

I have been doing a lot of case prep over the last couple of weeks, most of it rifle cases. I've done .223, 6.5 and 7mm Muaser, .30-30 and .30-06. I noticed that mostly with the .223 and .30-06 there would be case mouths that were dented or otherwise out of round. Most of these cases were fired from semi-autos. Some were bad enough that the length gauge pin on the trimmer would not fit.

I looked in the tool box and came up with a big line-up punch. It has a long gentle taper to it and if I put it into the case mouth and give it a little bit of twist it seemes to make things pretty much perfectly round again. I'm not jamming it in there and stretching the mouth into a funnel, just enough to re-round the mouth. That way the case can be trimmed to length smoothly and evenly and there are not issues with the chamfer/deburring tool.

Here is the Zip Trim set up with some case prep tools. The brass is .30-06 in this pic, with the two next to the line-up punch showing how far into the case it goes to make them round again. You can see the gentle taper of this punch, which should not stretch the case mouth as it rounds it back into shape. Also, in the green bin to the left are all the spent primers I've removed from the brass I've done. Some of the brass was already decapped, but this accounts for most of what I've done so far.

So what is the option of choice for you when you have to take the dings out of a case mouth?

February 4, 2012, 04:15 PM	#1
thedaddycat Senior Member Join Date: September 25, 2011 Posts: 388	What do you use to make case mouths round again? I have been doing a lot of case prep over the last couple of weeks, most of it rifle cases. I've done .223, 6.5 and 7mm Muaser, .30-30 and .30-06. I noticed that mostly with the .223 and .30-06 there would be case mouths that were dented or otherwise out of round. Most of these cases were fired from semi-autos. Some were bad enough that the length gauge pin on the trimmer would not fit. I looked in the tool box and came up with a big line-up punch. It has a long gentle taper to it and if I put it into the case mouth and give it a little bit of twist it seemes to make things pretty much perfectly round again. I'm not jamming it in there and stretching the mouth into a funnel, just enough to re-round the mouth. That way the case can be trimmed to length smoothly and evenly and there are not issues with the chamfer/deburring tool. Here is the Zip Trim set up with some case prep tools. The brass is .30-06 in this pic, with the two next to the line-up punch showing how far into the case it goes to make them round again. You can see the gentle taper of this punch, which should not stretch the case mouth as it rounds it back into shape. Also, in the green bin to the left are all the spent primers I've removed from the brass I've done. Some of the brass was already decapped, but this accounts for most of what I've done so far. So what is the option of choice for you when you have to take the dings out of a case mouth?