Thread: 357 mag brass
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Old 08-19-2013, 07:32 AM
scooter123 scooter123 is offline
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I would NOT toss that brass, it's perfectly good for reloading and too valuable. All you need to do is purchase an RCBS Primer Pocket Swager and swage the primer pockets on that lot of brass. BTW, all you are doing with swaging is very slightly sizing the pocket in some and mainly adding a lead in radius in the area where the pocket was "necked down" by the crimp. Use a hand primer to test your setup and when you achieve a typical insertion force you are good to go for doing the rest of your cases.

On the RCBS swager setup is rather simple but there is ONE CRITICAL STEP you do not want to forget. That is to put the stripping collar over the swaging pin on the press column. Forget that and you'll need to use some large pliers to get enough leverage to wiggle that casing off the swaging pin. Guess how I learned that. BTW, the swaging pin goes on the press column in the slot where you normally put the shell holder. Then put that stripper (a cap like thingy with a hole in the center) over the swaging pin. Finally you adjust the die so that when you press the case onto the swaging pin it provides just enough radius to allow a fresh primer to be inserted with normal force. Start tight and turn the die down slowly until you get to this point. BTW, don't force any primers into your test cases, if they wont start with a normal force they generally wont stick in the pocket and you can test using the same primer and case till you get it right. Obviously when you get close to correct the primers will start to stick so those you can press in with a bit more force than normal to get the case free. However you'll want to continue to tune the die down a whisker until priming takes a normal pressure t o press in.

Finally, you aren't alone in finding crimped handgun cases. I've just been through a lot of 400 45 ACP cases and found that some brands are now being crimped. One such brand is Speer Lawman cases and the crimp is EXTREMELY subtle. Speer is using a cone/radiused shaped crimp tool that creates the crimp by dishing in the case head around the primer pocket. Unless you look close you won't notice this dishing but you WILL destroy any primers you try and force into these cases. Winchester is now crimping some cases using a crimp ring simlar to that seen here. PPU and other foreign brands are very typically crimped, some with a ring type and some with a notch type. Finally, Federal Large Primer 45 ACP cases have almost no lead in radius or chamfer around the primer pocket that will damage any primer that isn't perfectly on center when you press it in. I am now at the point where I sort my 45 ACP large primer cases by headstamp and pocket swage any brass that isn't Remington. Oddly enough the small primer cases everyone complains about are no fuss no need for crimping perfect easy to prime.
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