too much swage?

[eddiegunks]

hey all,

before i go and swage a few thousand i might as well ask if i got this thing adjusted correctly.

i was having issues with crushed primers, so i added some more swage.

how do i tell if it is too much? how does this affect the rounds and shooting them?

thanks

eddie

[SAFuchs]

Describe the pictures. Just to be clear what we're looking at.

Thanks

[anm2_man]

There has only been a couple ways that I could tell if I over swaged the brass is by the feel of inserting the primer. If there is no feeling either by hand or with a press, you probably over swaged the brass. There should be some resistance and you should feel it when inserting a primer. In fact I bought a hand primer for just this purpose (got tired of reseting the press). I also test the cartridge if the primer went in very easily, I crank up my compressor up to 125psi, then with a rubber tipped blow gun, try to blow the primer out. If its been over swaged, the primer will come flying out. Note for safety sake, wrap the cartidge in a red rag before blowing.

[pmclaine]

I'm guessing the two pictures are the same brass at different picture settings.

The top brass looks good. You have a nice swage/chamfer heading into the pocket and you still have that complete wall below to grip the primer cup. More or less could be problematic. The one to the right of the viewer looks about max and the two to the left are what goes through my machine.

There will be variance in the swage just as there is variance in the crimp. This is exacerbated by the fact you have different headstamps on your cartridges. I know the NATO stamp WCC is crimped but not sure about PMC (cant read the third). Only set the swage to work on brass that actually is crimped. It should not affect civilian primer pockets.

Send one piece of brass through and when it is at the prime station feel for slight resistance as the primer is pushed into the pocket.

Disclaimer - I have only about 400 rounds of mil 30-06 loading experience. If a more experienced reloader comes on scene I defer to their experience and look forward to an education.

Edited August 22, 2012 by pmclaine

[eddiegunks]

thanks all,

i can not push the primers in by hand. they are not easily removed. they go in fairly easily. non have fallen out.....

off to go back to my trimming duties.....that rechargeable battery should be about full now....