.45 ACP Question

[BrianB]

I hope this is relevant to this forum, I couldn't find any more appropriate place.

I picked up a new mold a week or so ago for some cheap .45 ACP shooting and also a few hundred miliary cases. I have been told/warned of primer pocket crimps on military brass but I can see no difference between the military cases and the commercial one's I usually reload. Can someone tell me what I am looking for?

[mike in co]

I hope this is relevant to this forum, I couldn't find any more appropriate place.

I picked up a new mold a week or so ago for some cheap .45 ACP shooting and also a few hundred miliary cases. I have been told/warned of primer pocket crimps on military brass but I can see no difference between the military cases and the commercial one's I usually reload. Can someone tell me what I am looking for?

if the cases have been reloaded you probably will see no diff...someone else took out the crimp. if match brass probably no crimp.

basically the pocket is a straight hole with no radius at the entrance. you may be able to see a mark around the hole. this is where material has been pushed in on top ot the primer to keep it from backing out.

you need to create a small radius at the mouth to remove that material and to create a place to start in the new primer.

on lagre pistol a countersink may work, the rcbs style chamfer tool may work.

mike in co

[Dale53]

A crimped military case has an annular ring around the primer pocket. This crimps the primer into the case (keeps full autos from blowing primers with their sometimes loose headspace). After the case is decapped, the crimp must be removed before you can easily reprime the case.

There are basically two ways to remove the crimp. You can use a primer pocket reamer OR you can swage the primer pocket. I prefer the RCBS primer pocket swage used on a single stage press. It is a one time thing.

You will also find many new commercially loaded rounds with crimped primer pockets these days. As the ammo companies have "ramped up" because of military needs, they have decided to run all of the cases the same.

You need a good sturdy decapping pin to remove crimped in primers. Some die sets have a rather light duty decapping pin that may break under 'heavy duty' use.

I segregate all of my military .45 ACP cases and decap, then swage the primer pockets. I actually prefer military cases for the 1911 platform. They tend to be thicker and give greater case neck tension. I like heavy case neck tension - it helps avoid deep seating bullets when the round is chambered.

Dale53

[BrianB]

Thanks Mike.

So there should be a visible crimp at the top of the pocket if it has been crimped?

I have an RCBS case trimmer so buying the part to remove the crimp is no problem if I need to. I just don't want to buy something I don't need and add extra time to the process for no reason.

[BrianB]

Thanks Dale,

if need be, I like the idea of swagging over reaming.

[cumminsnut76]

Correct me if i'm wrong but when you deprime this brass there will be a slight rim inside the primer pocket from where there was a crimp on the military brass. if there is no rim then it is just commercial brass. If it is military brass then you can just buy a primer pocket reamer from either rcbs or hornady (i think they both have one) and just ream out the pocket.

[BrianB]

Cumminsnut,

that's what I was looking for, but I can find no difference between the military pockets and the commercial. I guess it could be as suggested earlier, they have already been reamed or swaged. (The guy I got them from said he regularly shot military brass and did not say these were once-fired.)

[DLCTEX]

Just try seating a primer in a few. It will be very hard to impossible to seat a primer in a crimped pocket.

[AviatorTroy]

I usually am able to run case mouth chamfer tool once around the primer pocket and it pretty much takes care of this. There is a specific tool for this, but I don't own one and never needed it. Even military surplus .223 is easy enough to re prime, and I don't even bother to do ANYTHING to the primer pockets on those.....

[Gohon]

From left to right....regular pocket, military crimp, and stake crimp.

http://i42.tinypic.com/2rohqph.jpg

[BrianB]

Gohon,

thanks for the image, that shows me exactly what I needed to see. Looks like I only have a handful with a crimp.

[mpmarty]

Brian the primer pocket swage is a better solution than just reaming out the pocket. The hardened nose of the tool makes the pocket more uniform and doesn't remove any of the brass. Makes for longer case life.

[BrianB]

Brian the primer pocket swage is a better solution than just reaming out the pocket. The hardened nose of the tool makes the pocket more uniform and doesn't remove any of the brass. Makes for longer case life.
I agree. I'd rather not remove any brass.

[mike in co]

I agree. I'd rather not remove any brass.

if you swage you need to understand what you are doing.

the pocket forming tool bas the case pushed on by the spud on the press(depending on how you look at it). you adjust the lenght of the spud to get the job done. the issue is that case head thickness varies from lot to lot of brass. so unless you have only one lot of brass( not mixed), then some brass wil swage well some not an dsome will cause the spud to bend....and then the rest will be a mess.
i have had a rcbs swager, and i still have a dillong super wager.

BUT

for large qty primer pocket crimp removal..i use a lymann vld inside neck reamer and for large pockets , grind the tip down till it works.

no mess no fuss no set up no readjusting. chuck it in a dril.drill press/lathe, and go to down.

i have been known to use the double ended rcbs chamfering tool on small lots.


mike in co