Primer Crimp Remover: Swag or Ream?

[462]

I once had an RCBS primer pocket swag for removing the crimp from Lake City .30-'06 brass, however primers were still difficult to seat. I offed the swag set and bought Hornady's large and small reamers, and the nifty, spiffy tool made for correct primer seating.

Lately, I've been processing .223 Rem. brass and rather than use the Hornady reamer, I decided to borrow my son-in-law's RCBS swag tool.

Oops!

Tonight I decided to prime 20 cases, but the first one was quite difficult to seat and the second wouldn't. Got out the Hornady small reamer, reamed the 20 cases and accumulated a pile of brass shavings, and the primers seated effortlessly.

Anyone want to relate their experiences?

 

[oscarflytyer]

I got the RCBS swag die - never used it. Been using the RCBS case neck chamfer tool and it works great for me.

 

[358156 hp]

I ream primer pockets with a Hornady reamer too. I also have a Lyman reamer that has worked well for me as well. 223/5.56 primer pockets are a special problem because of the rather large dimensional variances allowed by SAAMI, which are shown below. It's difficult to accommodate such variances (primarily pocket depth) in a "one size fits all" type tool.

I participated in a rather lengthy discussion on this subject elsewhere, and between primer pocket variances, primer variances, and other factors that the best thing to do is to mitigate these variances using firing pin protrusion near the upper end of spec. The subject was brought up because we had noticed that even when priming military (5.56) cases with matching headstamps we were all getting really erratic primer seating depths. Some of these were found to be causing misfires in bolt rifles with firing pin protrusion closer to the minimum specs. AR15s for example didn't really have ignition problems because all of the ones available for some rather hasty measurements were right at, or very slightly below maximum length.

The short version is that reaming seems to provide the most consistent results for me when used with military brass. Heck, I can't even find the primer pocket spec for military 5.56 cases. I understand it's beyond the purview of SAAMI (shown below), but darned if I can find an actual spec for it. I do know my small primer pocket uniforming tool can't always clean up all military primer pockets either.

 

[Ian]

I use the RCBS swage tool to re-form the radius at the pocket entrance, then use a primer pocket depth uniforming tool by Redding.

 

[Gary]

Since I only resize maybe <100 pieces of brass (military) at any given time I use the RCBS Swaging Tool; otherwise if >100 I'll ream.

 

[462]

Should mention that I had already uniformed the pockets' depth.

358156hp,
Thanks for the drawings.
I had read that primer pocket depth dimension were .119" to .125", a .002" difference compared to the drawing. The Lyman uniformer I returned measured .117" and would not touch any case I tried it in.

 

[freebullet]

I use the rcbs pocket swage die set. It does a splendid job on the pocket. Because it's adjustable it can also do a splendid job Around the outside pocket rim. It works better than any other method I've tried on 5.56 & 7.62.

 

[oscarflytyer]

I use the rcbs pocket swage die set. It does a splendid job on the pocket. Because it's adjustable it can also do a splendid job Around the outside pocket rim. It works better than any other method I've tried on 5.56 & 7.62.

maybe I need to try mine before I part with it!

 

[freebullet]

Wouldn't part with mine.

 

[Spindrift]

I have used a Lyman reamer, and it has worked well for me. Actually, the cheap Lee deburring tool also works quite well for removing the crimp on both small and large primer pockets.

 

[Winelover]

Ream, using the RCBS case neck chamfer tool, then uniform.

Tried to purchase the RCBS primer pocket swagger, but couldn't find any in stock, at the time...........so I improvised.

 

[waco]

I’ve had good luck with the Dillon super swage.

 

[Rick H]

I use the RCBS swage on military 38 sp. and 5.56 brass with no issues. It works well for me.

 

[358156 hp]

Since I only resize maybe <100 pieces of brass (military) at any given time I use the RCBS Swaging Tool; otherwise if >100 I'll ream.

I generally process 1-2K at a time during slow periods. Some friends bought a 55 gal. drum of military brass and we've been hammering away at it for awhile. We keep the Lake City & Winchester cases and sell off everything else. I's kind of interesting to do, We wet tumble them in a cement mixer with about 20 lbs of steel pins to get started, but will probably change the first tumble to lizard litter & car polish for the initial cleaning, then inspect and decap everything before running them through a 1050. There's a lot of waste brass in those drums, a significant amount aren't reusable in our opinion. The ones I do solo at home are all processed single stage.

 

[Bisley]

Dad introduced me to the primer pocket swager 35 years ago when I wanted to reform a bunch of military .30-06 to .270 Winchester. I bent the stem on the die due to faulty adjustment, but did manage to swage out all the brass. Then Dad got me the M1 and I lost interest in the Model 70, and then had a custom '06 built a handful of years later. Along the way, Dad purchased a hand-reamer. Nothing complicated, just hold the case in one hand and the reamer by the wooden handle and clear out the primer crimp.

I then took the remaining military range pick-ups and reformed them to 8mm Mauser for the MG-34 Dad got when I made Nat'l Honor Society at HS graduation. At least I knew the brass was once-fired. I also recycled some of the reformed .270 Winchester. RCBS case tumbler with wet and then dry lube.

Not precision adjustment like I would do today, but effective. I do not remember any of the primers backing out, and the MG-34 was never exactly a 1-minute platform...

Bisley

 

[CZ93X62]

RCBS primer pocket swager gets the call for my LC once-fired 5.56 brass. I recently added the Redding uniforming reamers to the tool pile, to gauge their effectiveness. The jury is still out on that latter question; they do a better job of cleaning primer pockets than the RCBS pocket brushes.

5.56 or 7.62 milsurp brass has not been a problem for me--the RCBS swaging tool does a good job, though kind of a rough operation with that case stripper washer. The cases I have NEVER been able to do one &^%$ thing with were the W-W commersh 9mm brass that both our old Winchester Silvertip and our later 147 grain sub-sonic loads were assembled in. I rassled with those monsters for some time before just tossing the stuff and buying some Remington brass--which would accept primers normally. The price was right on the W-W brass (free), but what a PITA to process--or to ATTEMPT the effort with. CCI--WW--Federal--no go, regardless of primer make.

 

[Gary]

When I ream the military crimp off my brass (almost always .223) I use a HHS deburring tool chucked in my Lathe.

 

[RicinYakima]

Being old school land at this for awhile, I use the LE Wilson system, as I mostly do '06 and 7.62 NATO. FL resized the case in a Wilson press die, take it out and slip it into a Wilson shell holder and square the base to the body. Flip it over and trim to length. Pull the cutter handle, flip the case again and use the primer cutter that totally profiles the primer pocket. This is a once in the life of the case, so I don't mind spending a minute per case.

 

[popper]

Hornady reamer for me. Mostly just 223 reformed to BO. Some primers hard to seat still but lose little to loose pockets now. LC MG for 308W was purchased from somebody else, swaged and no problem.

 

[fiver]

bent the crap out of the rcbs tool 5 minutes in.
bought a Dillon swage tool and double check my work with a primer pocket tool.
life is good now.