Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters primer pockets swaged vs cut

I hate to bust some myths, but I have done the cheap route for years without all the drama that many post about.

To start with, when I bought my first 223 over 30 years ago, I bought fired military brass from various sources and started with that. I put a 3/8 inch drill that I put in the vice and put a drill bit in it and put it on lock with the drill running full time. I just took each brass and put the primer pocket on the drill and cut the rim off the primer pocket and reloaded them.

When I bought a 222, I couldn't afford new brass, so I sized and cut down some of the 223 military brass to make 222 brass out of it.

30+ years later, I have been shooting these cases and reloading them dozens of times without trimming the cases and worrying about all the problems that people seem to experience when they reload.

With all of this cost and time saving I have done with these cases and cartridges, I still hit what I am shooting at with deadly regularity, making it unnecessary to worry about all the minor nuances of reloading.

I have also been using H335 powder with no pressure spikes regardless of temperature...