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

I use the LE Wilson reamer setup, for .223 and .30-06 milsurp brass. Slow as the dickens but very precise, and never an issue. I gotta stop buying that kind of brass....

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This.Have reloaded Lake City many many times for my AR`s.

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...

I would like to thank everybody for their answers. and the names of the most respected people to my opinion on here seems to be the same answer cut is just fine as long as you don't get to doing something stupid. which brings up another question how many have actually used go and no go gauges on your primer pockets? while doing some other internet research on this subject I discovered some tools to actually tighten primer pocket switch I've not yet formed an opinion on this if it's good or bad but I was surprised. a side note any reconditioned maybe I should say professionally reconditioned milk brass I have ever bought or seen the primer pockets were cut that's one thing that led to my question.
another very specific question for those who have the Hornady primer pocket reamer is it designed to bottom out on the primer pocket to keep all your bevels equal? I took some sacrificial pieces and did this with they look good but the bevel does seem to be extreme..

My 10 bucks says this is a dumb post

Yes, but as I stated above, in my experience, it over chamfers the pocket and I can definitely feel reduced resistance when seating a primer when compared to my swaged and lightly chamfered brass.

I have a Country Gunsmith bench mounted large primer swager that I got in 92. It works excellently designed to give the tiniest bevel to get your primers started. Every round is moved to the appropriate primer pocket uniformer on my RCBS case prep machine. I have been using this system since 92 and haven't had a loose or gas escaped primer yet. I use it on 30-06, 7.62x51, 8mm, 7.65 Arg, 303, 45acp and any other boxer primed surplus brass I can find.

I'm in for a Benjamin. Any takers?

Wilson tool in a drill adapter in a drill chucked in a vice. I use a tie wrap to keep it running at the speed I like. It’s way faster than a swage, way faster!!!

I suspect the grove "weakens" the case far more than cutting the crimp out if you don't overdo it.

NVhntr, no disrespect, I just tried my Hornady primer pocket reamer on some R-P commercial brass, it just barely touched the top of the pocket. Perhaps the big red H doesn't have a very narrow spec?

Have found it interesting that Castle_Rock has not posted here again after this post about my experience with early .17 Hornady Hornet brass: "My 10 bucks says you had your dies set so the decapper was too low and the collet for the pin was pushing down from the inside and shortening the pockets. Ammo companies don’t make faulty cases then primers to match." I suggested he might Google the problem.

He has been on the Campfire since then, so dunno where his 10 bucks went.

Mayhap it went to the roundoak manure spreader GoFundMe.

I can't imagine applying enough force to the decapper to move that much brass in the head area to not notice something was wrong.

I've got 100 bucks that says you're a moron.

I have a primer pocket swage kit, and it works so well and fast on military brass, I don't know why anybody would choose another method. Is there a reason to cut them?

I believe it's in the Scofield Bible where there's an account of Jesus admonishing his apostles for wasting their time with the various primer pocket swagers available at the time.

It's been a while since I read it, but I took it to heart after pissing away a bunch of time with a couple different swagers, and ended up having to remove some brass anyway. Now, I chuck up a cutter and go.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012921650

Rcbs makes this crimp cutter for the Trim Mate that removes the crimp and only the crimp.
Just chuck it in a small drill and go to town on them.

It can't take too much off because the shoulder hits up against the case head and can't go any deeper in the pocket

I think it's the best one out there. it's the one I went after and my local dealer was out so I bought a Hornady version to cut this sample I'm working on now. I think the Hornady does fine but may bevel a bit more than necessary. Also ordered some go and no go gauges for primer pockets to help set up my swagger maybe I'm over working it and don't need to so much. my gauges are thanks for supposed to be here Monday.

Has anyone tried the Lee Ram Swage here?

https://leeprecision.com/ram-swage.html

It's what I use and it's easy peasy.