I recently decided to start loading .223 Rem. I already had primers, and I found powder and bullets pretty cheap. I also have a bucket of brass from years past, mostly Federal, that I decided to start with. What nobody ever told me was that Federal .223 has crimped primers just like 5.56mm. So, I had a bucket of brass I couldn’t reload. I then had to order a primer pocket swager so I could put primers in these things. Anybody know of other brands of .223 brass that has crimped primers?
Yeah, the old primers came out easy enough, but I couldn’t get new primers in. I was able to make a few test loads by taking an old Phillips screwdriver and reaming the pockets a little, but it didn’t really do a good job.
Same is true either way if you go slow you can actually reprime them without swagger the holes. I've done it. Its slow but it works.
Depends on how well staked they were in the first place. Easier to take the extra step, for me. Having the right tools on the bench helps too. I still keep a chamfer tool with the pocket tool on it next to the press, even though I do bulk decapping and pocket reaming on .223 before I tumble.
You can also take a drill bit and remove the stake if you go slow and pay attention but it is slow wouldnt want to do alot but will get you out of a jam
I have a Lyman case prep tool. https://www.amazon.com/Lyman-7777800-Case-Prep-Multi/dp/B07ZJMYX86 I take the reamer bit, and put it in a drill/driver, and hit every dad burned 223 or 5.56 case that I haven’t reloaded myself prior to this use. Just saves a lot of aggravation.
I just assume that everything .223 or 5.56 is crimped until I've processed it myself. A screwdriver? That's terrible. I feel your pain. When I first started .223/5.56 I used both a pocket knife and a utility knife to scrape the crimp. It was also terrible. I ended up getting a reamer. It's cheap and I can use it with my drill or screw gun. But that gets old if you do more than a hundred or so; starts to hurt my girly-man fingers trying to grip the brass to keep it from spinning over-and-over-and-over. So I got a "damaged box" RCBS primer pocket swager. It's faster and easier on my fingers, but it really needs to be properly mounted. I've got it on a lap-sized plank of wood and it's really not enough. But it did let me swage a ton while potatoing on the couch. You know what I found out? The reamed pocket seats primers easier than the swaged pocket. The reamed pocket makes kind of a short "funnel" to guide the primer. Not so the swaged pocket. It's not really a big deal but I can definitely feel the difference when I prime. I'm cheap so I tried it ages ago. It didn't work well at all. The hand method with a pocket knife or utility knife worked better. I never tried a Countersink Bit but I think that would have worked better. I even tried chucking the primer pocket cleaner head in my drill gun because I read some people do that. It didn't work at all. Of all the methods I've tried, the primer pocket swager is the quickest and easiest but the most expensive. The cheap Lee primer pocket reamer gave the results I liked best but I had to be particularly careful if I wanted to make sure that it reamed 100% consistently (not an issue unless you're doing long range competitions). The cheapest (free) method that actually worked was hand scraping the crimp with a knife of some sort; which works but is agonizingly slow and shouldn't be done for more than a 20-round box if you value your sanity, time, sanity, sense of calm, or sanity. Everything else just flat didn't work. And I tried all of them except the Countersink. ...cuz I'm cheap. Peace favor your sword, Kirk
Huh. Work smarter, not harder. Just use some pliers. I padded the jaws on a set of channel locks, grab the rim, and chuck the reamer bit into the Ryobi drill/driver. Easy Peasy.
I tried that too. By the time I swapped out with pliers, it actually took more time than the swager. I didn't like the marring on the brass from the pliers either so I tried using a rubber sheet. Which took even longer because I didn't glue it into the jaws of the pliers. Using the swager IS working smarter, or at least less hard. I probably would have stuck with the reamer anyway if I hadn't had a bucket of .223/5.56 to do. I think that I do like the end result of the reamer a little better. But there's no denying that the swager is faster. Less messy too because it doesn't create brass shavings that I have to catch. Don't want that stuff getting on the couch. Peace favor your sword, Kirk
Good gravy you're a pair of panty waists! I chuck the reamer in my old variable speed craftsman drill, pop it in the block vise, throw on a pair of Mechanix, then go to town on brass to the beat of whatever metal band(s) I've decided to fixate on. Lately it's been The Amity Affliction or Avatar.
Lets get one freaking thing straight here. I'm not a panty waist, I'm just cheap, and lazy. I put masking tape on the plier jaws and replace as needed; while my vice is outside, and the swager costs money. Sheesh.
You use pliers to hold your brass. I'm sure those sausages are strong enough to hold more than HS championship rings. Maybe not though...
Mr. Flintstone, I'll try to get us back on subject, , I have found some Frontier cases that are crimped too. As for the secondary discussion, I have a RCBS primer pocket swaging system and it works great. Don't recall what I gave for it but it wasn't very high. Looks like the neighborhood is about $35 these days. Makes quick work of crimped primer pockets.
I've not noticed any commercial .223 brass being crimped. But, some could be. I did a coffee can full the other day with a RCBS deburring tool. There's definitely a sanity thing there you have to watch for.
