Knowing How Much Swage?

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I'm in the process of preparing my brass for reloading and am now going through the swaging step with my Dillon Swager and was wondering how do you know how much is enough? I've done about 10 cases so far with each case having a little less swage and the last couple of cases I could tell that it was getting close to being too tight(primer was starting to get hard to get into the case. To test how good the primers were in, I took the first case I did with the most swage and decapped it with a Single stage Lee press and a universal decapper and it was pretty easy to decap but there was some resistance. I then took a case that had the least amount of swage and decapped it and it seemed to be just a bit more to decap it but not much. Is there any other way of testing other than actually loading up a few rounds and actually firing them? I'd hate to blow a primer out.

 

[stool]

how are you going to blow out a primer ???
there is a bolt and a case and a chamber ?? do you have that much extra chamber clearance ??

swaging does not remove material, it moves it back where it was to begin with.

is this all one lot of brass ??

it will be more of a concern that some cases do not get enough swage...

its very hard with a swage tool to over swage..it only does the very top of the pocket, you have all the rest of the pocket to hold in the primer.

 

[amlevin]

There's a nice tool made by Ballistic Tools. A primer pocket gauge that lets you measure whether you have enough "swage" to easily insert a primer with a "NO-GO" end to tell you if you've overdone it. Also works to weed out oversized primer pockets before wasting a primer.

http://ballistictools.com/store/exclusive

This guy also makes a nice "neck tension gauge" which is stepped with increasing diameters.

 

[bigedp51]

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I was a cheap bastard and didn't buy the Dillon swager but pictured below is what I use to remover the primer crimp. The primer pocket reamer in the front of the photo is used as a gauge only, if it enters the primer pocket without resistance the primer pocket is the correct diameter.

Below the RCBS reamer, it only removes the crimp and does not touch the primer pocket side walls and rounds the primer pocket mouth. (like a normal factory rolled primer pocket)

A second method would be to use pin gauges to gauge the the diameter.

I use a Lee depriming tool to check the primer pockets, if I can push the newly seated primer out with just finger pressure the case goes in the scrap bucket.

The RCBS reamer at the top of the photo above will make the primer pocket look like the "rolled"pocket below.

 

[bigedp51]

There's a nice tool made by Ballistic Tools. A primer pocket gauge that lets you measure whether you have enough "swage" to easily insert a primer with a "NO-GO" end to tell you if you've overdone it. Also works to weed out oversized primer pockets before wasting a primer.

http://ballistictools.com/store/exclusive

This guy also makes a nice "neck tension gauge" which is stepped with increasing diameters.

I'm sorry amlevin but I bought the Ballistic guage you mentioned below and it was worthless, the NO-GO end is too big and the GO end is too small to tell you anything. That is why I bought pin gauges that come in .0005 increment sizes to tell me the sizes between the GO and NO-GO gauge ends.

 

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The brass I am working with now is all Lake City XM193 and it is all the same lot. When I get finished with those I also have 1000 of the Aquila brass from the same lot.

I noticed that the primers I have put in are just a little bit recessed into the pocket but they are in there good which I have to use a press to push them out again.

As far as measurements go I can take a few and see what they are but I'll need to get to that in the afternoon and then let you know. I'll also see if I can take some pics with before and after of the pocket holes plus a pic of the primer installed. I think I'm good to go but want to make sure.

 

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Here are a couple pics of two Lake City cases but obviously are crimped differently. The one on the left looks like a smooth crimp and the right one looks as if it was crimped in 4 places. Both of these cases came from the same shipment I got from Federal and have the same lot number so I have no clue why they are different. Neither one would accept a primer until I ran them through the Dillon swage.


Before swage


After Swage

 

[amlevin]

I'm sorry amlevin but I bought the Ballistic guage you mentioned below and it was worthless, the NO-GO end is too big and the GO end is too small to tell you anything.

I found the tool to be very useful. The small end tells me if I can seat a primer without damaging it and the large end tells me if the primer pocket is getting too loose.

I guess I'm not all that interested and anything "in-between". Not sure I see how measuring all primer pockets to the closest .0005" would benefit what shows up on the target. I prefer to spend more time measuring the internal capacity of cases than primer pocket dimensions.

 

[amlevin]

Both of these cases came from the same shipment I got from Federal and have the same lot number so I have no clue why they are different.

The case on the left is the traditional "crimp" and the one on the right is merely "staked". I noticed this type of crimp showing up several years ago on "Foreign" ammo and it appears that the LC plant is starting to use it too. I'd guess that there is either a manufacturing or performance (lack of primer damage or such) advantage.