Military Crimp - proecssing brass

[Farmland]

For 99.99% of my reloading life I never had to deal with a military crimp except for a few 45 cases every now and then. It was no big deal I simply dealt with the crimp using a Lyman hand held military primer pocket tool.

So now that I have finally moved into get around to reloading rifle ammunition up came my AR 15. It is funny how much 223 brass you can collect after 18 years. For the job I broke out the single stage press since over the past two weeks I was able to pick up probably enough 71/2 Rem BR primers to keep my busy for the rest of the year.

It didn't take me long to figure I was dealing with cases that had a military crimp. They deprimmed with no problems but I knew I would not be able to seat the primers. So yeas, I had to try one to find out for my self. I don't recommend do that. it took me awhile to figure out how to get the case out of the shell hold with a half way stuck and mangled primer. It was just one of those things that I knew what would result but you have to try it for yourself.

Yesterday I picked up another Lyman small primer hand held tool that will trim the crimp. My goal was just to get 30 cases ready so I could test some loads and feeding with the AR. Well this tools works great when you only have a few to do but after doing 30 I quickly decided I'm not doing the many thousands I have with this tool. Great tool but yet ready for mass production.

That leaves me with two choices that I know of; the press type similar to what RCBS has or get what some consider the Dillon Super Swage 600.

So for those of you that precess 223 rounds in the thousands which tool do you prefer?

Now I know why I only did handgun reloading for all of these year.

[rjrivero]

I just stepped into loading .223 recently. I have loaded 2K rounds of .223 with mixed brass that I too have been accumulating slowly. I feel your pain with crimped primer pockets.

I decided to use the Dillon Super Swager. I drink the Blue Kool-aid.

Anyway, the Super Swager is a nice tool and effective. However, if you have multiple makes of brass, you will either want to separate it and swage it in batches, or get used to adjusting the swager for each piece of brass due to difference in web thickness.

I am too lazy to separate brass, so I adjust the swager with each piece of brass. It's simple to do and when you get a feel for it, pretty darned quick.

I never thought I'd load 9mm, but the price of that ammo has forced me into that as well. A lot of that brass is military crimped as well. So the Super Swager was a no brainer and I believe it to have already paid for itself.

[jepp2]

I use the RCBS Swag combo with great results. But most have trouble using it. If you do decide to use a swag tool, your results will be better if you sort the brass by headstamp.

[glicerin]

I chamfer pockets lightly, then use the rcbs pp swaging tool. This tool has a knock-off cup which requires a broad flat area around ram(lee c-press won't do. Make sure case positioning post is perfectly set to swage suficiently when ram hits top, and is very tight or it may break(different brands of brass may require adjustment). I was always afraid lyman reamer would cut oval or off-line. If you have a drillpress, put reamer, w/o handle into chuck, then postion a .30 rod in a vise, directly below chuck. Hopefully this will cut straight and be quite fast . good luck

[Ken O]

I once bought 1700 LC .223 once fired cases that needed the crimp removed.
I'm sure the Super Swag would have been real nice, but all I had was the RCBS tool. It was a pain, especailly on the up stroke. I started rubbing a little Imperial sizing wax on the swagging button and that helped a whole lot.

[Farmland]

I have modified the process a little. I took the cutter out of the handle and put it in a hand drill. It does much better but it still is time consuming. I did seat a few primers after removing the crimp and so far the primer hole has been uniform.

I'm thinking since it is ALL the same head stamp I might spring for the Dillon.

[rjrivero]

Originally Posted by Farmland

I have modified the process a little. I took the cutter out of the handle and put it in a hand drill. It does much better but it still is time consuming. I did seat a few primers after removing the crimp and so far the primer hole has been uniform.

I'm thinking since it is ALL the same head stamp I might spring for the Dillon.

Free shipping if you buy it HERE.

[ballardw]

Using the RCBS primer pocket swager in a single-stage press I can swage between 200 and 300 .223 cases per hour without trying to rush it. The only tricky part with .223, is getting the support stem in the case mouth aas it isn't much under 22 caliber.

[PCJim]

I've tried three crimp removers - a die setup by CH, the Hornady reamer and the Dillon 600. The CH die method I did not like and sold the set.

The Hornady unit in a variable speed drill works extremely well although your hand/fingers WILL get tired after a large batch (500+). I very much like the fact you cannot over ream the pocket due to it's design, and it puts a very nice bevel on the pocket to aide in seating the new primer.

I've only done one batch of prep work using the Dillon and have not yet determined how well the resulting work compares to the Hornady reamer. It is quicker than the reamer and my fingers appreciated that aspect. I did not readjust the swage depth although it was mixed headstamp.

[Unclenick]

If you bolt the Dillon to the bench and presort the cases and have the bins in position, you can do a case every three seconds pretty easily on it. That's 1200 an hour. It is quick. Good thing, too. I find that all swaging slightly upsets the case head around the primer pocket, forming a slightly raised area. This flattens right back out on the first firing, but in a minority of cases enough brass flows back towards the pocket that they feel a little tight to the priming tool, so I want to run them through the Dillon again, after which there are no more problems. I have taken to swaging all cases a second time after the first reload just to be uniform about that. So from that standpoint, the faster the tool, the better.

I think, if you're into accuracy, and especially if you are using spherical propellants, you will find you benefit from deburring flash holes. Doing that before swaging with either swaging tool helps level the brass so the same swager setup hits every piece uniformly. It also prevents a swaging tool from pushing the burrs over the flash hole.

If you don't adjust the Dillon to maximize the depth the ram reaches into the brass, you loose out on the shoulder radius in the ram profile that helps seat primers.

[Farmland]

I did a little over 100 last night with the Lyman reamer in a drill. It didn't go so bad and was a little better on the fingers. I was able to pick up a RCBS swag today so I will give it a try. The Dillon is still on my list so if the RCBS doesn't work so well I will place an order on Monday.

The reamer on the drill bit went fairly fast however I don't know if I like taking brass of the case.

This is just for plain old shooting so accuracy is not a key feature right now. I think I will probably buy new brass if I start using the Ar in competition again.

I do know one thing if this brass wasn't free I would have to think twice before buying any brass that has a military crimp, if would have to be dirt cheap.

[Unclenick]

If you come to buying fired military brass, get it from Scharch Manufacturing (Top Brass). They pre-process it, taking out the crimps, cleaning, sizing, trimming, deburring, and chamfering. They will even pre-prime it for you if you want to pay for that? You pay a little extra for all that service, but not very much. and I figure just the fact they process it will cull some of the discards I would otherwise have to toss myself, so it seems worthwhile.

I met these guys at one of the NRA annual meeting gun shows a fews years back. They seem like good eggs. I've bought their new manufactured brass in .45 ACP and .44 Magnum. Very good quality on the new stuff. Like Starline, it has about half the weight variance of Winchester and IMI. Delivery was prompt. I've not tried their once-fired product, but figure it will be as good or better than the rest, owing to the attention it has gotten.

[Farmland]

IMHO preprocessed military brass like that is worth a little extra premium.

[Farmland]

I just tried the RCBS swag tool and what a vast improvement over the reamer. First is was faster and the primers were easy to set. In addition they had a better fell going in. I had 100 cases done in no time, well I am not including the time to fix the 223 case rod.

The directions could be a little better for the set up. Though I will admit I was a little impatient. I bent the case rod on my first case. When they say they will bend they mean it. I apparently had the rod tool low, though I was sure I set it up per the instructions.

It took me about 20 minutes to figure out and get the rod almost straight again. I had bent it on the threads and lower don towards the end making a S out of the rode. I used a hydraulic press and some wood but I was able to get it in a working condition.

I found it this tool works best by inserting the case on the rode then lifting the swag on the ram into the primer. Once you get going you can swag a case in a few seconds.

It sure beats reaming when you have a lot of brass to do. I would bet it reduced the time by 70% in removing the military crimp. If the Dillon is better yet then removing the crimp may not be that much of a problem.

Though Scharch Manufacturing sells 500 pieces of 100% Processed once-fired 223 Brass that has been reamed( crimp removed, cleaned, full length sized and trimmed to 1.75"(+/-.003). The price is fair at $64.

I wonder if this tool caries the RCBS life time warranty?

[jepp2]

Yes, RCBS will replace the rod for you, no charge. You did have it screwed ALL THE WAY into the body, right? I don't understand how it bent in the threaded section if you did....

[Farmland]

Well to tell the truth no I didn't. In any event it has a few waves in it but I used it today to swag over 300 pieces of brass. I found you really don't need a lot of force. I just watch the bottom of the brass and when it reach swag bottoms on the brass I back off the ram.

The first time I put it together though I had it set up right and really put the pressure on the ram. I had the rod just a little to low and ended up with a bent one.

Oh well you learn something new every day.

[c.j.sikes]

i use the dillon swedge, works great cjs