Military brass

[Senior Citizen]

5.56 and 9mm

some or most is "LC" and some is white box stuff. Either way, they all have crimp primers. Is this stuff worth fooling with? I have bunches of both. I would hate to go through all the work of sizine/depriming the 5.56 stuff just to find out it isn't worth fooling with accuracy wize. the 9mm stuff would just be plinking stuff, but it too has to be worked on before repriming.

thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions.

SC

 

[jepp2]

Crimped primers are harder to deprime than normal primers, so I knock them out with a universal decapping die.

I have used an RCBS swage tool for over 25 years without any problems. It really helps to sort the brass by headstamp before you start. It is a one time operation and LC is great brass. It is well worth the effort to use.

 

[Dragon88]

For the 9mm, no. There are buckets full of once fired commercial 9mm brass at my range every week, no need to spend time processing crimped primers on those.

For the LC 5.56, yes it's worth it. LC is the best 5.56 brass you can get, and it only takes a couple seconds per case to run them through an RCBS primer pocket swager. After the initial FL sizing, they will need a lot of trimming. After that, they load just like normal brass and last a long time.

 

[Rule3]

With the amount of brass out there I do find that it is worth the time and effort. I do not shoot mass quantities of 5.56 and have buckets of commercial 9mm. I bought a case of loaded PMC 556 planing on using the brass. Did not know it was crimped. I took it to my local brass guy and traded it for hand picked commercial brass. I also have one of those RCBS primer pocket tools and just could not justify the time. I suppose if I was really into shooting semi auto 556 maybe, but then I would get the Dillon tool.

 

[Dragon88]

It literally takes about two seconds per case to swage out the crimp, and it only needs to be done once in the life of the case. LC cases easily last 6+ firings, so to me it is well worth the time. Much of the commercial brass, especially Federal, is soft and doesn't last long. And yes all of my 5.56 is shot through ARs.

 

[Culina]

LC is some of the best brass out there. Its not Lapua or Norma quality but close and at a fraction of the price.

 

[Paul5388]

The crimp can be easily removed with a chamfering/deburring tool chucked up in a drill. The point will bottom out long before you take too much metal out of the pocket. It isn't too big of a job to do it by hand, just a couple of twists of the tool will take the crimp out.

 

[Rich/WIS]

I screwed a drill chuck to my bench grinder arbor (both are 1/2in fine thread) and chucked a cheap countersink into it. I push the deprimed case onto it by hand and it will remove the crimp and leave a slight taper that helps align the primer into the pocket. Was leery at first for fear of removing too much brass but after a dozen or so cases got the feel for it and haven't had any problems.

Watch PMC brass also, have some with a crimp but it is a light crimp and hard to see, but the primer hangs up in seating.

IMO 9mm crimped is a PITA and would only do it if nothing else was available.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Like said above, the LC brass is high quality brass and is well worth the slight effort it takes to process it. Even the 9mm brass is worth the time and you are willing to process it. Remember, you only have to remove the crimp once...

 

[Paul5388]

Milspec brass is some of the best for longevity and I usually use what I can get. However, non-crimped 9mm brass is plentiful, so I would only use it if nothing else is available.

I'm still using some WWII .30-06 military brass that had corrosive primers.