.223 primer pockets, swaged or cut?

When reloading LC or FC .223 brass, you have to get rid of the primer pocket crimp. What do you prefer? Cutting it out with a counter sink type bit or a swagger

I use a hornady cutter. I chuck the brass in my little lathe, put the cutter in the tailstock chuck and send the tool quickly in and out. I push it in and pull it out by hand as fast as i can. I leave the tailstock loose on the lathe bed so it self centers. This way too much doesnt get cut out. The primers go in pretty stiff.

I'm using a lyman cutter but would like to try the rcbs cutter on a drill. The Dillon swager looks good tho but pricey compared to the other options.

"Go Blue" Dillion primer swage for large number of cases.

If it's only couple of range pick ups, I'll swage the primer pocket with the RCBS primer Pocket Swage Die.

The swager work-hardens the brass around the pocket, which helps keep it tight. It is also less likely to enlarge the primer pocket than reaming. I use the Dillon.

I use the Dillion or the RCBS swage, they make perfect pockets, can't see cutting it, it is too easy to remove too much.

they actually use the brass from around the primer hole to create the crimp. I use a RCBS primer pocket swage tool to move the brass back to where it belongs

I've tried just about every method of removing the primer crimp. I have a Dillon Super Swage, the RCBS kit, countersinks, Lyman and Hornady cutting reamers. The Dillon is good and will swage hundreds/thousands without tiring you too much. It can be semi-automated; videos are available on YouTube. I made a glass fiber reinforced saddle for mine to help center 5.56 cartridges and reduce the number of damaged primer pockets. PM if interested. IMO the Lyman cutter is the least desirable of the common methods. The Hornady can be run with a drill or Lyman case prep station. It fully cuts the crimp in 3 revolutions and is a machine shop quality cutting tool. Fingers can get pretty tired if doing a lot of cartridges at once but the cutter is about $9. Grippy gloves help a lot but only if using a portable drill. No gloves around a drill press, lathe or anything with a lot of mass and power. It does not have cutting edge on the end and is therefore incapable of over-cutting the pocket unlike a countersink. Should you go to a countersink, they will do OK but are heavily dependent on your touch and feel. Use a GOOD countersink like a Hanson; not something from a "bargain" table or department store.

If you're using a Dillon press, try CCI primers They seem to feed more smoothly than some brands in Dillon presses. The 1911 gunsmith Jimmy Mitchell enlightened me on that and I found him to be 100% correct.

David

I have both the cutter system (Forster) and the swaging system (RCBS). The typical cutter actually cuts too much of the primer pocket mouth and the side of the primer pocket away and the pocket can loosen more easily because the primer is insufficiently supported at the sides as intended. Too, if you fail to use the cutter just right, it still leaves a tiny ring at the very bottom of the area cut away from the swaged brass and primers tend to hang on that tiny rim. I don't use the cutter any longer because I reload my brass until they begin to fail. Big Boomer

I only swage. Pockets stay tighter longer.

I use the chamfer/deburring tool chucked in a battery powered drill. Just a touch to the pocket and your done! I pick up .223/5.56 and .308/7.62 empties all the time at the range so IF I get too deep, it's no great loss.

Dillon swager.
plink, tink, done.

Dillon on my bench, tried reaming but I wasn't consistent enough and my fingers got a heck of a work out.

I have dealt with the crimp about every way that there is. I have a RCBS swager, a Dillon swager, used a deburring tool, a 45 degree countersink, a Lyman reamer and now a Wilson reamer. They all work, but I like the Wilson reamer the best.

If I have thousands to do, I set the Dillon up. The RCBS works but it is a pretty good workout. All crimps are not equal, some swage better than others. I really prefer to cut it out rather than to move it to another place, which sometimes causes other problems.

All in all, I try to avoid crimped cases. They mostly get used in my AR and H&K where the loss factor is higher.

The Dillion swager makes quick work of a boring chore. It also is pretty uniform from one case to another. Les.

I always swage the primer pockets with the Dillon Super swager. I've got it down to the point I can do 500pcs in 20min once I get the rhythm down. What's nice about that is once the rod is adjusted to your particular tastes, they're pretty much the same from the first to the last piece..

I am a old Scottish tight wad.

I use a 3/8 inch drill bit.

Very easy. Very quick. Very effective, and very economical.

As lightman says. All crimps are not equal.
Have a lucky batch of LC 94 brass here that all I need do is run a case neck chamfer tool in the pocket and they are good. Don't even have to cut deep. Other LC brass I chamfer them then use an RCBS swag tool then a Sinclair carbide uniformer and a Hornady pocket chamfer tool. Then they are still hard to seat a primer.

I always use a flash hole deburr tool (#1 C-Drill) before de capping. This nearly eliminated broken de cap pins. Which I found usually broke from a flash hole burr inside the case deflecting the pin over to the case head or being pushed into flash hole along with pin to jam it up. I ground most of the point off the #1 C-Drill so I could get a little chamfer with primer still in. Also always use a Sinclair carbide primer pocket uniformer to set depth for the primer pockets.

Just recently I've adopted a plan to anneal all my mil surplus case necks. After pulling out a 30 caliber ammo can full of 5.56mm with shelf life issue. I'd loaded them up in 1984. Cases had been loaded a few times which certainly made it worse. But about one in five case necks had split while in storage. Then of the rest about one in three would split upon firing. I stopped shooting it and will just pull the bullets. Found out this is age hardening and will happen. I've also found that annealing case necks noticeably improves accuracy. This military stuff takes a lot of sizing to bring it back down to spec. Some a lot more than others. Work hardening the brass first time around IMHO. So annealing uniforms the case neck tension. When I loaded that batch up in 1984 I never imagined it would sit on a shelf for thirty years. To anneal I just set a propane torch on my bench. With a coffee can with water under the flame. Hold the case between fingers and twist roll three times slowly then drop. Necks just start to color about the time case head gets hot to hold. No issue with softening heads as you can't hold on to them long enough for that. Consistent timing of each case keeps uniform results. I size them with no neck expander button installed then set a neck expander die in station one of my Dillon 550 When loading. Not sure if that's the best way. Just seams the little bit of brass work after annealing would help uniform tension. I trim length before annealing since they cut much easier when brittle.

That was pretty windy but I hope that helps someone.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/804...ProductFinding

^^^ That's the one I use. It's quick, takes only the crimp, can be mounted in the RCBS case prep machine,(just the cutter head is 8/32 thread).

My case prep for .223 LC crimped brass, is to FL resize, trim to length using the lee case trimmer/spinner, then a wipe with a rag to remove lube while it's spinning. Those then go to the RCBS case prep to chamfer and have the primer crimp removed.

Any kind of drill, chamfer tool, or countersink can and will remove too much brass from the edge of the pocket. It's darn near impossible to accurately and repeatedly remove the same amount in a hand held scenario. OR keep it exactly lined up straight.

I tried the RCBS swager, it would NOT remove enough of the crimp to allow a new primer to be inserted. The "nub" was just plain too small to push the crimp back where the brass came from to start with. I called RCBS about it, they sent me another one, dimensioned the same, it still didn't work! SOOOO it sits on a shelf, one more failed reloading tool!:evil:

Counter sink in a drill press

I've used chamfering tool and RCBS swaging tool and both are effective but slow. I currently have a Dillon 1050 on my bench that is on loan to me for the time being and it has the swaging station built in and it works like a dream. I will really miss this press when it has to go back to the owner, but for right now, I'm a happy camper.

wcp