Jump to content
Brian Enos's Forums... Maku mozo!

Use crimped brass?


Recommended Posts

THis may be a silly noob question. I am fairly new to reloading and have a 550 set up for 9mm and 45ACP.

There's a guy in our club that shoots 45ACP. His brass is always left behind. He's using military ammo with crimped primer pockets.

What does it take to remove the crimp and be able to use it for reloading? Is it worthwhile to use this stuff?

Thanks for your information and thoughts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Military brass is good, stout brass generally and worth the time and trouble to reload. You do have to get the crimp out though. If you have smaller lots of it I just use the hornady crimp remover chucked up in a drill. Basically a cutter that spins the crimp right out effortlessly. Takes awhile to do hundreds though. If you get a shit ton of it for free then work out a deal with somebody who has a 1050 and send it to them to swage the pockets for you. That's what I did when I got handed 5000 pieces of 9mm. For a portion of the brass a guy on the forums swaged it and cleaned it and shipped the balance back to me ready to load.

Like PK said, there are many ways to skin this cat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also check around your area to see if someone has a Dillon 600 Swage they will loan you. I had so much military brass at one time I bought a Dillon swager and have not regretted it one bit.

There are also less expensive types you can use on a press such as that sold by RCBS.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love crimped brass. :::grin::: but then again I load on a 1050 and swage everything every time.

The super Swage 600 will do you very well.

If you do not want the hassle and there is lots of this crimped brass left behind get 1000 or so together and I will process it 2 for 1 for you. All you need to do is separate the brass into 2 equal bags and send it to me. I will process one of the bags and send it back. Each of us paying shipping on our side. That leaves me with 1/2 the brass for my trouble and you get half of it ready to load for yours. PM if interested.

Retread

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think my rates on the 600 are similar to PKT1106's, but I'm starting to think that going back to using the case neck chamfer tool (chucked in a cordless drill) isn't better because it is faster and leaves the chamfer so it is instantly clear that the primer pocket has been dealt with and thus helps ID my processed pickup brass from other range brass. The swagger does it but you have to closely examine each case to verify it has been swaged. The chamfer also seems to make primers insert more smoothly on the 650. ::: shrug:::

Edited by RaiderHawk
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally I think .05 for .40 brass is high, especially for mil brass. Usually I can pick up lots of this at the range. I'll bet you can get it on some of the gun forums for .02 - .03 tops, commercial brass that doesn't need to have the crimp removed.

As for swaging rates. I do mostly rifle brass, and I guess I do about 1200-1500/hour although I've never really timed myself. I know I can do it for about 1-1/2 hours before I neeed to take a break, and that's usually a full large flat-rate box of 5.56, or 2,000 pieces. I recently did a bunch of .45 brass, and it seemed like it took longer to do that box for some reason.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

From those that have been running the Super Swage - about how many cases per hour can you swage?

There's at least one video on the web showing a slick setup with rubber bands

fashioned on a 600 that make the backup rod move up and back as the lever is

operated. Looks like an increase of about fivefold on swaging brass with that

little trick.

Look up: Automatic Dillon Super Swage 600 Modification

As for me....I just picked up a sealed in box Dillon refurbished RL1050.

Finally...got...one..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...