Starting my venture in to 223/5.56 and of course time to deal with those crimped pockets. I have the Hornady reamer I've used to help bevel some stubborn pockets in pistol brass (s&b) and tried it on the 223 last night. To me it looks like it removes too much material. But I'm here to ask the experts their opinion.

I might just pony up and get the Dillon super swage 600 as even using a drill this could be a LOT of work using the reamer!

Opinions? Is this brass safe?

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Jim

That is a little too much material removed, I'd rather swage because you are putting the brass back rather than removing it. You could still use those cases, but if you use a softer primer, they will flow and fill that void. It will appear that you are over charging the cases, but it will give you a false indication.

Not an expert, but I have been reloading military brass of all flavors since the 70's, and I swage the primer pockets. Use to use A RCBS swager on my rock chucker then went with the Dillon swager. Like all of their gear, it works well.

I use the CH4D swager. considerably cheaper than the Dillon and works well on 556 or Federal 45 acp with small primer pockets. (inside joke)
Environment Test

I have an old RCBS swager set, works fine for me. Don't know if RCBS still makes it or not. Most of the time I just use a Lyman reamer.

I bought a RCBS swager in 1984 and did a batch of 20,000 223's. I still have and use it. It disappeared during our change of residence, so I bought another for around $39.00 at Cabela's, so they're still being made and not too expensive. I now have it set up in a Lock-N-Load bushing, and leave the small stem in place and just change the "shell plate" depending on primer size. I have done hundreds of 308 and 30-06 cases, a few thousand 45's and probably 15 to 20 thousand 9mm's. I find that the practical next step up would a Dillon 1050 (My F-I-L has 2! one for small primers and one for large primers) then I could Karma my RCBS.

Ivan

ETA it is as many as 10 times faster then reaming pockets!

So in everyone's opinion these are too much but still safe? I usually only load plinking rounds with everything and these will be no different. However I'm still going to look for other methods. Swaging seems like the way to go for me.

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Jim

Yes they are a little too much but still safe. The softer primers will fill up that gap/space/reamed out area. If someone didn't know what the unprimed case looked like they would say you have an over charge after you fired them.After I swage, I will use my lee chamfer and deburring tool tool and gently take one turn off the primer pockets to aid in the primer seating process. It cleans them up really nice, and you only have to do that process once. Also I keep the primer pocket swaged cases separated from the once fired un-swaged ones. I put a black sharpie line across the back (primer side) of the case.

Thanks and good advice with the marker.

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Jim

Those federal's hahaha!

How does that ch4d work for you? Looks interesting but wondering if it deforms the rim since the brass looks unsupported from the inside.

The rcbs one looks nice too but my single stage is a cheap challenger I got in a trade. I've never swaged but it looks like it takes a lot of force. The lee feels so fragile I'd be afraid to break it! Of course it could be unfounded. Only other option would be to put it on the classic cast but it has that plastic piece used for the auto rotation. Not sure if it would work with that or if it would work by removing it either because I don't know if the ram retracts low enough in the base to kick the case?

So many choices to go through!

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Jim

Swaging with the CH4D doesn't take a lot of force. I use my RCBS Partner press to swage.. Takes a little bit of "feel" to get set up, but then it goes quite fast and, no I don't have a problem with deformed rims.

A primer pocket swage moves brass, it does not put it back.

I have loaded over a hundred cases where the primer pocket was over-reamed like that. They were fired with near-max loads of IMR-3031 under a 55 grain bullet as per the Hornady Manual (4th Edition). There was no "flowing" of the primer into the undercut area.

I used to use the RCBS swager, but just use a cutter now. Mine look like that pic and I have never had any weird primer flows due to it.

One thing, priming is sure easier with cut primer pockets vs swaged pockets.

Moves it back where it came from.

The RCBS swager die will work on the LCT, just have to remove the plastic bracket that holds the indexer rod and get the taller case stripper from RCBS. Here is a picture of the two. The short one is what came with the die set.
RCBS Primer Pocket Swager w/ LCT | The High Road

I would not use the shells you depicted. The primer will expand to fill that space when fired and the primer might split and allow gases in the direction of the shooter.

A number of dedicated primer pocket reamers are available for both large and small rifle primers. You may follow this up with a Sinclair primer-pocket uniformer. Both products insure a uniform primer pocket without removing too much material.

I used a dedicated primer pocket reamer. The Hornady one. I inserted a primer into one of these and into a Remington case (they have a very funneled pocket opening. The Remington's seemed to actually have LESS support than the reamed ones. Of course this was unscientific and I looked at them both under a magnifying glass and didn't take any measurements. I don't mind tossing the brass of course in the name of safety. Just curious as to how they could be too deep using the Hornady tool.

Oh one more thing about the Remington's, I attempted to ream a few and NO material was removed. This leads me to believe stock r-p brass is at least the same as these reamed cases.

2001redrider, thanks for the info on the rcbs and the classic cast. Appreciated.

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Jim

So far I've resisted the Blue Koolade but I will say the Super Swager is dah schizzle if you're decrimping a lot of brass. I'm still kicking myself for passing up a used one awhile back. Thankfully I have a buddy that owns one and the process only needs to be done once.

I've seen some reamed pockets in my range pickups that look like they may have been done by Stevie Wonder. The "bevel" takes out half the headstamp!

Over the last 38+ years, I've used an L.E. Wilson deburring tool, the Hornady reamer you have, a Carbide countersink and a 5/16 inch drill bit in a drill press as if it was a countersink to remove the crimps from primer pockets on military 5.56 mm cases. I have loaded and fired thousands of rounds of ex-military brass with the primer pockets removed using one of these tools with ZERO problems associated with the primer pocket or case head.

A primer should be seated just below the geometric plane created by the case head. When the primer is crimped or staked, brass from the margins of the primer pocket is pushed around the edges of the primer. The material moved by the crimping operation is also carried below the geometric plane of the case head and so does not carry appreciable force to the chamber walls or the bolt. Removal of this brass has no material impact on the strength of the case.

Reamers or other mechanical means should be used only to remove the brass that blocks the opening of the primer pocket. Only a tiny amount of brass - often much less than would appear necessary - needs to be removed. In this case, more brass was removed than was necessary. Belling the opening of the primer pocket should be avoided, but as I have said in a previous post, I have loaded and fired hundreds of cases that looked like that without any problems; no unusual primer movement, no "flowing" of the primer into the belled area (even with near-max loads), nothing but normal function.

I believe you can safely load and shoot the cases in the picture using published load data, but it is not good practice to get in the habit of mangling brass. Develop a light touch with the Hornady tool you have and you should be fine. To get the feel for how little is necessary, try reaming a case and then immediately attempting to set a primer. Youl will quickly develop a feel for how much brass to remove as well as what a properly reamed primer pocket looks like. If you need to automate the operation, try chucking the Hornady reamer into a drill press.