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Old June 30, 2007, 07:40 AM   #1
Glennster
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Join Date: July 31, 2005
Location: Northern Indiana
Posts: 226
Another 7.62 x 51 Military brass question

I've got some Lake City brass I'm prepping for my bolt rifle.
I loaded a few and was able to prime them WITHOUT using the swage tool. I did use the primer pocket uniform tool.
Here's my question : Should I use the swage tool regardless of how the primers go in?

Also, It appears that case prep is a bigger part of accurate loads than I ever thought. Here's what I'm doing,( Lake City Mil. Brass) any other suggestions?
Size the brass
Trim neck to proper case length
Chamfer inside and outside of neck
Debur flash hole
Uniform primer pocket

THANK YOU for all the help Gentlemen!
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Old June 30, 2007, 08:45 AM   #2
Linear Thinker
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Join Date: February 10, 2007
Location: Blue State, NE US
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Glenn -

You shouldn't swage the primer pocket if you are not having any seating difficulties. Removing the crimp ring is easy with a neck debur tool, that's all that's needed.

You are doing all the right things to your brass, save one: you could turn the outsides of the necks to a consistent thickness, making the bullet pull more even.
If you are measuring your group sizes to a thousandth, you should turn the necks. I use a Hart tool.
If you don't shoot benchrest, this step is of dubious use.
LT
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Old June 30, 2007, 08:52 AM   #3
Unclenick
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You've got it covered. Avoid the swage tool if you already cut the pockets uniform. Its only purpose is to push the military primer crimp out of the way, and your uniforming step has already got rid of it by cutting through. I own a swaging tool (the Dillon) but find it raises the brass around the primer pocket (that crimp brass has to go somewhere if you aren't cutting it out). Fine for pistol, but not conducive to best accuracy in a rifle, for which you want the casehead to start out flat against the boltface so it won't favor one side as pressure increases. Also, that raised brass gets fireformed back to flat against the boltface at peak pressure, which pushes a portion of the brass back to where it started. As a result, you often have to run the brass through the swager a second time after its first reloading. Hard to get consistency, reload to reload, that way.

If you want a really pretty primer pocket profile, it takes two steps: Depth uniforming (cutting edges at the tip of the tool bit) and primer pocket reaming (cutting edges along the sides of the tool bit). The Wilson trimmer has a great profile reamer that leaves a beautifully belled pocket opening that is very easy to prime, but the Lyman hand tool does just fine. Ream first, then depth uniform. That makes the latter operation easier.

Flashhole deburring can make a significant difference with ball powders, but I've never detected any with stick powder. So, its usefulness to me has depended on what I am loading with? Neck turning can help if you have cases that tend not to be too uniform. I find Lake City brass sometimes runs out a couple of thousandths. You can see that on the target. Opens groups about half an MOA. Either sort those out or go to neck turning or use impact plated moly bullets (Sierra, Berger, Norma), which are able to straighten out from that during firing, where plain bullets retain some tilt in the barrel from it. Use a competition seating die, like the Redding, to prevent bullet tipping during seating, which can introduces up to 1 MOA of error.
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