Dillon 600 swage setup

[stanford]

I just got my Dillon 600 swage and I am trying to swage the pockets of some LC .308 brass. How do you know how much to insert the tool into the primer hole?

Also I am not understanding when they say this tool will remove the crimp from the primer pocket, is it just making the primer hole rounded at the beginning of the hole?


Thanks guys.

[Wolftracker]

It's just squeezing or rounding the beginning of the hole and might be enlarging it a little, I'm not sure. Adjusting for the minimum amount needed to seat a primer is usually the best way to go so you don't damage the case.

[Love Life]

I would order some primer pocket gages.

The poor mans way is to run a piece of brass over the swager, and test if a primer will seat. Keep doing that until a primer seats with some minor resistance.

Also, I would separate by HS.

[stanford]

Thanks guys. All the pictures I have seen doesn't really seem any different from the original after its swaged. I keep looking at the pockets under a magnifying glass but I don't see much difference after I swage them. I had tons of primers that I recently threw away because they were 21yrs old. I wish I had kept them for purposes like this. Also I noticed that the prices are a vast difference now, my CCI primers said $3.30 for a pack, now they are $30 a pack.

[stanford]

Thanks I will have to order some just to be on the safe side, they don't look very expensive.


I would order some primer pocket gages.

Also, I would separate by HS.

[Love Life]

Off topic here, but why did you throw the primers away.

Also, the reason I sort by head stamp is because I had my swager set up for LC brass and some of the other HS wouldn't swage enough.

[ammohead]

Stanford,

my experience is that LC brass will have a tight primer pocket no matter how much you swage it. the swage is adjusted by lengthening the rod that goes inside the case and supports the flash hole during swaging. If you lengthen too much the brass won't want to lower into place for being too long. I stop just short of that and chamfer the primer pocket mouth for easier priming.

[dragon813gt]

Why would you throw primers away? I'm shooting some of my grand fathers primers that are from the fifties. I adjust the rod until I can seat a primer w/ normal resistance. It's definitely a feel thing. Once it's set I will run the entire batch, which can be tedious. As said sort by headstamp to avoid potential problems.

[tiger762]

Correct. If you can actually see a difference, you've gone WAY too far but like Ammohead said, if you set the swager too deep you'll not be able to lower the brass into position. What I do is set it, prime with a spent primer, then possibly fine tune the depth. Then deprime the brass again...


Thanks guys. All the pictures I have seen doesn't really seem any different from the original after its swaged. I keep looking at the pockets under a magnifying glass but I don't see much difference after I swage them.

[257]

I have a 600 it is a trial and error , I also use a Wilson trimmer with a primer pocket reamer does a perfect job but quite slow

[stanford]

Appreciate all the responses. I had to throw the primers away because I wasn't sure if they were good and didn't want to take any chances. At one time I had everything in storage (not climate controlled) and didn't know for a fact if I would be able to use any of the stuff that I had.

The primers, powder, reloads were in all sorts of varying temperatures here in TX. I took my 40cal to the range 3 weekends ago to test whether the reloads were good. After I fired the first shot there was absolutely no recoil, all I got was smoke coming out of the barrel. I tried it a few more times and I would get a shot every so often but mostly smoke. That's when I realized that all of my stuff was no good and needed to be replaced.

If I had everything stored in the house then I wouldn't be paranoid about trying to use them. I just didn't want to take any changes of something going wrong.

[stanford]

I think when using the 600 swager the confusion is mostly how much to allow the rod to go into the primer pocket. When I look a the rod and I picture in my head how its supposed to work, it looks like the rod only needs to go into the primer hole a little, just enough to force the tip of the primer hole back and *sometimes* give you the rounded tip like in other calibers. I have not experienced the rounded part at the top of the primer hole, ths why I am wondering if I am doing it right. If you use a reamer on the hole you will see the difference right away.

This pic shows the brass with the circle just outside of the top of the primer. I am guessing this is what they call the crimp.

http://home.comcast.net/~imashooter2/pictures/LC1.jpg


I found this picture but I couldn't directly link to it, this primer pocket is rounded at the top, I am assuming this is what I am after.
You will have to scroll to the middle of the page where the picture is enlarged.

https://www.google.com/search?q=308+lc+brass&biw=1440&bih=737&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=8h9FVNqZGqWr8gHb5YGIAw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAw#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=E974SDf1PInh6M%253A%3BaMAKcxdGOghO_M%3Bhttp% 253A%252F%252Fimg155.imageshack.us%252Fimg155%252F 7706%252F308primer1.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fforum s.1911forum.com%252Fshowthread.php%253Ft%253D33218 6%3B905%3B592

[DukeInFlorida]

Yes, your presumption about the result from the decrimping process is correct.

On military brass, the primers are crimped into place, so that no matter what... the primers will not work themselves out. If they did, the gun could jam (especially in full auto), and that would be disasterous.

The crimping happens with a tubular shaped tool (at the ammo factory), after the primer is in place. That cylindrical tool comes in, and embosses a ring of brass, pushing that brass up against the primer edge/curve. When you pop that primer out, it will leave the brass "lip" still in place.

What the Dillon Super Swage 600 does is to push that brass back towards where it came from on the case head. It does that by use of that little nib that comes out from the face plate, when you actuate the lever. If you look closely, the nib has a taper to it. Adjust the pusher arm (the one that you put the brass on) until it pushes the brass case head deep enough into that nib to push all the brass back. Because all metals (including brass) have some residual spring back, you need to go further with the nib than you would think.

As others have suggested, the "proof" that you did it right is somewhat haphazard. You test some brass, and see if the new primer lides into place properly. If there's any hang up, re-adjust the pusher rod deeper. You CANNOT go too deep. You won't ruin any brass.

[fredj338]

Thanks guys. All the pictures I have seen doesn't really seem any different from the original after its swaged. I keep looking at the pockets under a magnifying glass but I don't see much difference after I swage them. I had tons of primers that I recently threw away because they were 21yrs old. I wish I had kept them for purposes like this. Also I noticed that the prices are a vast difference now, my CCI primers said $3.30 for a pack, now they are $30 a pack.

Wow, that was a huge mistake. I just finished up my last box form 1991! All went bang. Unless you are storing your components outside I the elements, they'll last decades.
I have the RCBS version of the SuperSwage & it has a built in stop, you can't over swage or set it too deep. I have to think the Dillon is the same. The crimp is very minimal so you aren't going to see a huge amount of metal moving.

[GRUMPA]

Alright....this might help. Figure I would post something with pictures since I get asked this question a lot. Mostly with the 300BO crowd but the results will be the same.

Notice how the press itself is over-extended over the edge of the table, the handle must be able to go this far.

119721

Next is to make sure you have the right sized swage rod in there. The 1 for the small primer measures .172(ish) and the large 1 measures .310(ish). It's obvious which is which just by the size but be sure you have the right 1 in there. If you don't your going to have to remove the "E" clip from the pivot rod for the handle, once that's done remove the pin by sliding it out and the whole thing will almost fall apart once the handle is removed. Simply insert the correct sized rod and assemble in reverse order. The 1 for small primer pockets is the top 1 and of course the large 1 is the bottom. The size I mentioned is the size of the little tip of the swage rod that goes into the primer pocket itself.

119727

This is a close enough way that I'm using for demonstration purposes. The rod when I adjust it I hold the handle at about a 9:30 position, then I loosen the nut (with the case on the rod and in position) on the locating rod and spin it so the case makes contact with the swage rod.

119726

Just remember that the handle must swing down past (what I call) the "0" degree axis in order for the swager to be "FULLY" functional.

The amount of the swaged out crimp is adjusted by loosening the nut (there's only 1 on the machine) and adjusting the case locating rod back and forth. Just don't make the machine swage "too much" but enough to insert a primer in the case, perhaps just a little more.

All you other guys add your .02 into this if I missed something, I have more pictures.

[Lizard333]

As others have suggested, the "proof" that you did it right is somewhat haphazard. You test some brass, and see if the new primer lides into place properly. If there's any hang up, re-adjust the pusher rod deeper. You CANNOT go too deep. You won't ruin any brass.

Not a true statement. I had a guy run through about 3000 pieces of LC 556 brass for me and you CAN swage too much. This was all once fired. Now, about 1 in 30, the primer pockets are so loose the primers will just fall out after seating them.

The brass was sorted by head stamp and ran through the swager. It was adjusted too deep.

Bottom, line, do as little as needed to get a primer to seat with too much force. Otherwise, you will screw up some perfectly good brass.

[ShooterAZ]

Correct. Too much can ruin brass. I turn it in just enough to allow the primer to seat with a bit of resistance. And yes, if you switch to a different headstamp, you will need to re-adjust. Trial and error, but simple and quick once you learn it.

[M-Tecs]

Not only can you loosen the primer pockets but on 5.56 brass you can compress brass into the primer pocket from the inside of the case. Its a great tool but like most tools it has to be used properly.