.223/5.56 primer pocket tester?

[Mike in CT]

Well,

I thought I had things going smooth for my first time .223 reloading but hit another hurdle.

I have the sizing/trimming down thanks to the Dillon trimmer, but I am having troubles with primer pockets.

I used a Lyman primer pocket reamer as a test gauge and went through all my brass to see which 'fit' and which needed swaging. I have about 1,000 rounds of Lake City and only the 4 sided square crimped pockets seemed to need swaging. So I did those and then started to load. I found that I was really having to use a lot of force to get the non-swaged primers in. So I took out the calipers and measured some cases. There was usually only a couple thousandths difference between any of them but some would accept the primers others would not. Moved on to about 500 FC brass (non-military) and found the same thing. Some of the primers seated smoothly (just like a pistol round) others were tighter, others would not accept the primer at all. So I swaged (dillon swager) them and they loaded just fine.

So my question is, what does everyone use as a test gauge for the primer pockets? The Lyman reamer does not seem reliable or accurate enough.

Is there a measurement or other device/tool that I can test the pockets with to not have to swage every one of them?

Thanks

[carlosa]

i think must people just run all their 5.56 brass through the swager...

usually you know what headstamps need to be decrimped by looking for a circled star in the head stamp...

lake city is one that is crimped for sure... so if your stuff you picked up from the range, or once fired assume in needs to have the pocket decrimped..

I'm pretty new to 223 as well so don't quote me on this

[Coleman]

I run all my 223 brass thru the dillon swager the first time, then i dont have to worry about it. I save the range pickup brass in a box and wait for a good time to go thru it.

[pjb45]

After about 10,000 rounds, I can honestly say I hate loading .223.

I use a Dillon Swage on all the brass one time and Dillon Trimmer. I clean the primer hole. I uniform the primer pocket. I separate my brass by who made it.

I still have about 2% of the primer pockets not seat the primer correctly. I have to manually inspect each piece. It just irritates the ^#$&^!& out of me. This is true of LC brass also.

I just think this is the nature of beast. Loading pistol is so much easier.

[Aaron M]

If it is 5.56 brass I would do what everyone seems to be saying and swage every piece. Then test them after you swage a couple to make sure you are swaging enough.

I have popped a couple primers while priming because of tight primer pockets that were not swaged enough, and I have shaved a few primers as well. I can def tell you from personal experience popping a primer sucks and even a small rifle primer will ring your ears for a while.

[Mike in CT]

Thanks all,

I was hoping there was a way to test, but I will just swage all of them as that seems to make my progressive run smoother and will save me the frustration of a tight primer pocket later,

Mike