The best thing I've found for crimped primers is the Lee Depriming die. That thing is tough. Mine has deprimed thousands of crimped .30-06 cases and a huge amount of 5.56 crimped brass.
It has survived the occasional Berdan-primed '06 case. Helps keep my Garand and O3A3 fed.
Have one and will plan on comparing it to a single operation on different lots of brass. Getting a pretty decent collection, not quite a lifetime supply - if I go long - yet still no "mixed batches." All just in case.
Mentioned in a powder availability thread that lately I have been heavily mining old threads for information and dang there's a wealth here on the 223 and 5.56!
Thanks men!
"I can't be canceled, because, I don't give a fuuck!" --- Kid Rock 2022
I bought the RCBS swaging setup back during the Obamascare. Just in case I needed it. I recall trying it out, and being less than impressed with it's performance. At the time I was sitting on about 1500 new WW cases, and about 2000 bullets, so I felt that I didn't need to stress too much about reloading pick-up 5.56 brass - but I could if I had to. With the radical shift in today's political climate, I'm a bit more concerned about being able to utilize any case I have, so the RCBS unit is back out. And still underwhelming. I'd say I'll have to chamfer the pocket of at least 70% of the cases processed with it. I also have been running the RCBS primer pocket uniformer (made for their automated case prep center) in my cordless drill. It does the job of cleaning up the bottom of the pocket, but isn't cleaning up much of anything from the sides, which is where the main portion of the "swaged" crimp is. A couple quick twists with a neck chamfering tool seems to clean up the pocket's edge enough to seat the primer properly. Without that step, though, it's 50/50 as to whether the primer will seat.....
The best thing I've found for crimped primers is the Lee Depriming die. That thing is tough. Mine has deprimed thousands of crimped .30-06 cases and a huge amount of 5.56 crimped brass.
It has survived the occasional Berdan-primed '06 case. Helps keep my Garand and O3A3 fed.
I think you should at least take a look at it.
Without looking at the Lee, I’m confused. Does it remove the crimp after the primer is pushed out?
I’ve sized/deprimed literally thousands of 5.56 cases without ever losing a pin to a crimped case. The problem is not removing the primer but removing the crimp afterwards so you can reprime it. This is where the Dillon Super swager comes in.
No, it does not remove the crimp but it is robust enough to punch primers out without the decapping pin needing constant replacement.
I've never tried 5.56 on a regular decap setuo, but the milsurp .30-06 cases would break numerous decap pins.
God forbid a Berdan-primed case...
I remove the crimp with a chamfer tool, but enough people talk about the Super-Swager that it's something I might think about, 'specially in auto-eject.
Like I said I’ve never broken a pin on crimped brass and I have been using the Dillon Super Swager for several years.
But I just wondered if I was missing something on the Lee.
Loading crimped brass is not taboo, buy good tools and use them. Most of the LC and especially IMI brass is good brass and you can load better ammo than you can buy, that’s why I’ve reloaded everything I shoot except rim fire. It’s never really been about saving money with rifle ammo anyway.
No, it's just a depriming die, and tough enough to survive a little mishandling, i.e., a Berdan primed case that had slipped in there.
I've had several RCBS pins give up on milsurp .30-06 brass, got the Lee die before I started loading 5.56 in large volume so just use it on both. I haven't had an issue with decap pins since. I've used it on thousands of IMI, CBC, and LC cases in 5.56, and they seem to deprime with a lot less effort than '06s, so I might could get away with using the Redding .223 dies I have
A secondary reason for the die was some of the '06 cases I used to get had corrosive primers, and the salts persisted enough I would wet tumble them to avoid corrosion in some out-of-the -way spots in my Garands. I haven't run into any of those cases in the last few years, most recent batches were LC late enough to be non corrosive.
After the initial deprime/decrimp operations, I go back to a normal f/l die.
No, it's just a depriming die, and tough enough to survive a little mishandling, i.e., a Berdan primed case that had slipped in there.
I've had several RCBS pins give up on milsurp .30-06 brass, got the Lee die before I started loading 5.56 in large volume so just use it on both. I haven't had an issue with decap pins since. I've used it on thousands of IMI, CBC, and LC cases in 5.56, and they seem to deprime with a lot less effort than '06s, so I might could get away with using the Redding .223 dies I have
A secondary reason for the die was some of the '06 cases I used to get had corrosive primers, and the salts persisted enough I would wet tumble them to avoid corrosion in some out-of-the -way spots in my Garands. I haven't run into any of those cases in the last few years, most recent batches were LC late enough to be non corrosive.
After the initial deprime/decrimp operations, I go back to a normal f/l die.
I've not had any issues (thus far) decapping my 5.56 brass with my Redding .223 die - I can feel that it's taking more force to perform the task than your average .223 case, but the decapping pin seems plenty robust enough. I don't feel any "flex" in it or any other indication that it might break/give out. I've never done any crimped military brass for other cartridges, so I can't speak from experience as to whether the crimp on the larger casings is tougher to break through - though I do think i have a bag of 7.62 NATO stashed away somewhere......
Are you referring to the press mounted or bench mounted RCBS swaging tool?
Seen hundreds of posts cussing the press-mounted unit. Had almost purchased such, almost, for a few years before researching. Don't see much negative about the bench tool.
"I can't be canceled, because, I don't give a fuuck!" --- Kid Rock 2022
Are you referring to the press mounted or bench mounted RCBS swaging tool?
Seen hundreds of posts cussing the press-mounted unit. Had almost purchased such, almost, for a few years before researching. Don't see much negative about the bench tool.
The die mounted swager has to be set up properly for it to work. If the swager goes too deep, it binds. If it doesn't go deep enough, it doesn't fully remove the crimp. I used fired primers to test the primer pockets. It took two or three small adjustments, but it was done. I tightened the lock ring and that was that.
Ocassionally, the swager binds slightly, but a light tap on the press handle frees everything. Mine is set for my Rock Chucker. If you use different presses, pick one and always use that for swaging. It saves messing with the depth adjustment.
One of the tricks is to feed the brass into the die with your hand, raise the swager up to it, then in the whole way. You won't pinch your fingers that way.
One of the tricks is to feed the brass into the die with your hand, raise the swager up to it, then in the whole way. You won't pinch your fingers that way.
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