Primer Crimp Remover: Swag or Ream?

[Brad]

I just avoid military brass. For the rare 9mm that comes home from the range a quick twirl with my Wilson deburring tool and it is gone.

 

[CZ93X62]

That Winchester commersh 9mm brass was the bain of my existence. It wasn't a "crimp", per se--I think the pockets were just undersized. Back when I had the brass I didn't have the pin gauge sets I have now, and the Redding uniformer likely wasn't in production.

 

[L Ross]

I used to use the old RCBS press mounted swager, but I hated the violent up stroke that knocked stuff over on the bench. However, it did a perfect job on both large and small pockets with a nice radius and a firm pocket.
Then I bought a Dillon super swager to speed things up because I have several 5 gallon buckets of .223 to do and I buy every cheap mil-surp 30-06 stick of brass I come across. The Dillon is very nice, very fast, can destroy a primer pocket in a heart beat if you aren't lined up right, but does not put quite as nice a radius on the pocket, but certainly useable.

 

[FrankCVA42]

Depends on how many 5.56 or '06, 7.62 cases I'm doing. Stick the primer pocket reamer in my Wilson tool and away goes the crimp. Have the RCBS swaging tool but haven't used in in quite some time. And a couple of old Lyman primer pocket reamers. Always have a plan B in case plan A doesn't work. Frank

 

[Walks]

I started out using a ream tool that Dad made before I was born(1954).
Bought the RCBS tool in the late 1970's, primers fell out, 300 .30-06 cases into the trash. Started with the Lyman hand ream tools, small & large worked great.

Friend got the dillon tool about 15yrs ago. same problem as the RCBS. 100 Fed cases into the recycle bucket.

Use the Lyman Powered case Express to ream PP's. Works like a Charm.

 

[Dale53]

I have done thousands of GI .45 ACP cases using the RCBS Swage without issue. However, if I was in the market these days, I would buy the Dillon Swage Tool. It is considerably faster to use and does a good job.

FWIW
Dale53

 

[popper]

Hornady's small reamer. Insert in drill and go to it. Some pp are crimped,some staked.

 

[Rally]

I ream mine with a tool that came with my RCBS electric case prep unit. I have it and the Giraud going at the same time and it doesn't take too long to make short work of case prep.

 

[MW65]

Have the Dillon swager, and once it's setup works great. I found that separating out the different makes of brass helps. Sometimes they need a little more adjustment to get it right. Before, I used the Lyman tools and had mediocre results.

 

[Walks]

It's kind of interesting to Me that so many of Us use the same tools with different results.
Back when I was stationed on the East Coast (1974) I got a 1903A3. And 200rds of DM 42 ammo. Everytime I shot up some ammo, I'd decap the cases using a Lee decapper. Then wash the brass in boiling soapy water.

Later I'd cut out the crimp using an old pen knife. That worked just fine.

 

[trapper9260]

I use the Lyman reamer for my brass and done a load of LC 7.62 brass with it and no problems after and then have some that give problems that I bought used and done them . The Lyman works for me .

 

[Cherokee]

Back in 74, I started processing GI 5.56 brass using the RCBS pocket swage. I recall having a set of the Lyman large & small reamers (still have them) but went for the RCBS (still have it) due to volume. Yes, bent a few stems but generally it worked fine for me and if I had a tight pocket seating primers, out came the Lyman reamer for that case. I've also used a carbide burr in the drill press or lathe to ream out the crimp. I followed the same path for 7.62 until I bought a Dillon super swage for 5.56, 7.62 and 9mm cases. Currently, I avoid any brass with crimped primers. However, I do have 3k 5.56 GI cases on the shelf but I'm not sure I'll work thru my prepared cases and get to them in my remaining lifetime.

 

[Bliksem]

I have used the RCBS swage tool as well as reamers but arthritis and CTS forced me to look for something easier on me. The scope of work also required the ability to process a fairly large number of brass in 223 and 308 as I needed to feed a number of self loading rifles.

At that time Hornady had just released their LNL AP Primer pocket swage tool and as I already had a number of Hornady presses I bought both sets. Yes, they are pricy and caliber specific but they do the job very well. I added a 3d printed chute to the mix to decrease the hand movements more and now doing large batches of brass is no longer a painful process.

 

[10x]

Swage - no metal is removed , Swaging is easy to produce a consistent primer pocket.

 

[Charles Graff]

Bought a CH military primer pocket swager back in 1960. Simple gizmo to use. works great and primer seat with no problems. Still in service today.