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Question on primer pockets

Any reason I can't use a military crimp remover on non-military brass? I use the RCBS APS strip primer system and have found out that I can wizz right through priming military brass I cut the crimps out of but on regular brass I have to slow way down because sometimes the primers can "snag" on the edges of the primer pockets and bind a little. I tried the crimp remover on some Winchester 308 brass and it put a real nice chamfer on the primer pocket edge.
 
I have those and they don't cut the lead-in chamfer, they cut the proper depth and square the edges at the bottom of the hole.[/QUO

First remove the crimp then unify. RCBS makes the job easy. I don't shoot ARs much anymore but I have tons of range brass that I dis this too. I have found that the pockets of military brass needs to be unified as they seem not to accept commercial primers all the time.

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https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012921650/rcbs-trim-mate-case-prep-center-
straight-cone-military-crimp-remover-small
 
I reload a lot of Lake City brass with crimped primers and swage the primer pockets and bevel the mouth of the primer pocket.

I use a RCBS crimp remover below after swaging and lightly round the mouth of the primer pocket.

The tool below is made for the RCBS case prep station but can be chucked in a drill. It will remove the crimp and round the mouth of the primer pocket. "AND" never touch the side walls of the primer pocket.
f0svt25.jpg


When done with the RCBS crimp reamer the cases will look like the Remington case on the right. I just give the case a quick push to slightly round the mouth of the primer pocket and easy seating.

50PhmCR.jpg


Some swagers do not give you a "normal rolled pocket" like below and only push the crimp outward but do not round the mouth of the primer pocket.

8JxGi6l.jpg


I just bought the Hornady swager below, you can't see it in the photo but it has a carbide swager that also rolls the mouth of the primer pocket. It is not rolled as much as the Remington case above but it gives you trouble free primer seating.

It is also the best and fastest press mounted swager I have ever used, but may not be as fast as the Dillon Super Swage 600. You just place the case on the ram and put the ram in the shell holder. And no fumbling around like with the RCBS press mounted swager trying "find" the upside down and out of view ram.

Hornady 041227 Lock-N-Load Swage Single Stage Primer Pocket Tool (.223/556 Only)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N0JFLOO/?tag=accuratescom-20

41n-IbabKaL.jpg
 
Below is the swage from my new press mounted Hornady die with the carbide swage. On some swagers the rough steel swage will actually push some of the brass deeper into the primer pocket. And the Hornady carbide swage leaves the area smooth and shiny where it contacts.

On the left is a Winchester 5.56 case that had a crimped primer, and on the right is a uncrimped Remington .223 case. You can see the shiny marks left by the carbide swage and the rounded opening on the Winchester 5.56 primer pocket. And the shiny ring in the Remington case is where the swage contacted the non-crimped Remington primer pocket.

YlMXkG0.jpg
 
May not be what you want but I got the Lyman case prep station a few years ago to uniform Pocket and remove crimps etc and I would never do it by hand again...
 
Ok, I need to clarify a few things because this thread has spun out of control on different tools. My question was "Can I cut a chamfer on standard (non-military) brass with the military crimp remover and not hurt the brass?" Here is a picture of what I did, the case on the left is a "standard" case and the right is one I cut with the crimp remover. Would there be a problem doing this? They prime perfectly in my APS tool after cutting the chamfer like this and I only tried 20 of them.

KIMG0770.JPG
 
I may get some unwanted flaming here but I just simply put a 1/2 or so drill bit in my cheap ass bench top drill.press , turn it on and just hold a case up to it. Out in the barn just me Pandora radio a full bin of brass on the left and an empty on the right. One gets empty and one fills up.
 
Ok, I need to clarify a few things because this thread has spun out of control on different tools. My question was "Can I cut a chamfer on standard (non-military) brass with the military crimp remover and not hurt the brass?" Here is a picture of what I did, the case on the left is a "standard" case and the right is one I cut with the crimp remover. Would there be a problem doing this? They prime perfectly in my APS tool after cutting the chamfer like this and I only tried 20 of them.

Yes you can use a simple crimp reamer like the Hornady crimp remover pictured below.

But if it is not held straight it will remove brass from the sides of the primer pocket, and can make the primer pocket larger in diameter. And this can be made worse if the reamer is chucked in a drill. "BUT" it leaves a bevel edge to the primer pocket and not rounded.

MhTkiT2.png


And the RCBS crimp reamer below will not touch the side walls of the primer pocket, and can be safely chucked in a drill. And it will leave a "rounded" opening to the primer pocket and the face of the reamer is the stop. Look closely at the photo at the rounded section of the reamer at its base.

f0svt25.jpg


And the above RCBS reamer will remove very little brass if the case has a rounded mouth on the primer pocket.

And any type hand reamer where you hold the case will end up giving you sore hands and fingers when doing large batches. So its sore fingers holding cases or a swager and not holding the cases.

Bottom line, I have "NEVER" had a reason to ream the primer pocket on any case that does not have a crimped primer. And if you are having problems seating primers I would blame the tool you are using.
 
OK, before there was all this technology, we used a pocket knife to remove the mil. crimp and proceeded to reload thousands of rounds without any problems.

On some cases, the pocket knife had to be applied twice, but it didn't take long to develop the "feel" so it only needed to be used once.
 

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