Military primer pocket

[chrisa]

I just received the Lyman reamer and pocket cleaner for my Accutrim. It works fine for 223 Remington, but doesn't seem to work on 45 acp. Will the Dillon swage work on both? Thanks. Chris

[GentlemanJim]

The dillon swage has two swage rods...one for small one for large.

Jim

[chrisa]

The Lyman Reamer comes with both large and small reamers. The large does not seem to work with Winchester NT. Maybe these are not crimped primers. Any input on what to do with these primers, other than separate them and use small pistol primers?

[R/T Performance]

The Lyman Reamer comes with both large and small reamers. The large does not seem to work with Winchester NT. Maybe these are not crimped primers. Any input on what to do with these primers, other than separate them and use small pistol primers?

No they arent crimped the use regaular small pistol primers I use a bunch them they work great

[safarihunter]

Gotta watch range pick up of Win 45 brass. That NT stuff can make my Dillon croak

[CaseyJ]

If I am remembering correctly WIN NT 45 ACP brass is actually small primer not large. Might wanna look into it.

Dillon also offers a 45 ACP conversion for their super swage as well. i bought one but havent tried it yet.

Edited August 2, 2007 by CaseyJ

[oraysor]

RCBS has a die made for military type primers and its crimp. I believe it’s called “Primer pocket swager combo- ammomaster”. I’ve used one on my 9mm brass with great success. Yes it’s an extra step but you only have to swage the primer pocket once and you can reuse the brass as often as you can find it.

RCBS part number is 09495 Primer Pocket Swager Combo $33.95

Edited August 2, 2007 by oraysor

[amlevin]

RCBS has a die made for military type primers and its crimp. I believe it’s called “Primer pocket swager combo- ammomaster”. I’ve used one on my 9mm brass with great success. Yes it’s an extra step but you only have to swage the primer pocket once and you can reuse the brass as often as you can find it.

RCBS part number is 09495 Primer Pocket Swager Combo $33.95

+1 on the RCBS Swaging tool. I used to use a Lyman Primer Pocket reamer but found two issues. One, it created a large chamfer in the pocket that left too much of the primer unsupported. The primers would then give false High Pressure signs. Second, even after using the reamer the pockets were often too tight causing primers to hang up. I now use a swaging tool on all military crimped primer pockets.

[moredes]

Nothing works for manual swaging like the Dillon 600. Faced with 3000 Lake City .308 cases (same milsurp primer pocket as 45acp), I forked out the green for time's sake. It was only another $30-40 more than any slower tool.

I C-clamped it at an angle of 45 degrees from the edge of the table. Once the primer pocket depth is set, I can do 650-700 cases an hour. I set up a rectangular box with about a 15" x 9" opening, on it's side, with a shim (a small weighted box, anything) underneath it to prop it at an angle of about 30 degrees so the mouth of the box is tilted up and away, at the end of the swing of the rod that supports the fired case.

Feed the case onto the support rod with the left hand. Cycle the swager with the right. HIT the lever with the right thumb, launching the case into the box, (like 'field goaling' the brass case). Feed a new case with the left hand, cycle, etc.

My Dillon had a slight amount of slop between the cavity and the case support rod. This caused an inconsistent misalignment between the primer pocket and the swager. I took some 1/2" strips of duct tape and shimmed the cavity on both sides so the brass would line up with the swager when the brass support rod is slammed home with the feeding left hand.

[traxman]

Nothing works for manual swaging like the Dillon 600. Faced with 3000 Lake City .308 cases (same milsurp primer pocket as 45acp), I forked out the green for time's sake. It was only another $30-40 more than any slower tool.

I C-clamped it at an angle of 45 degrees from the edge of the table. Once the primer pocket depth is set, I can do 650-700 cases an hour. I set up a rectangular box with about a 15" x 9" opening, on it's side, with a shim (a small weighted box, anything) underneath it to prop it at an angle of about 30 degrees so the mouth of the box is tilted up and away, at the end of the swing of the rod that supports the fired case.

Feed the case onto the support rod with the left hand. Cycle the swager with the right. HIT the lever with the right thumb, launching the case into the box, (like 'field goaling' the brass case). Feed a new case with the left hand, cycle, etc.

My Dillon had a slight amount of slop between the cavity and the case support rod. This caused an inconsistent misalignment between the primer pocket and the swager. I took some 1/2" strips of duct tape and shimmed the cavity on both sides so the brass would line up with the swager when the brass support rod is slammed home with the feeding left hand.

Excellent description of a way to use the Dillon swager.

With the price of components going up, up, up, we'll need to do more of this brass processing. In my opinion there is a hole in the market right now for a quick/reasonably priced way to process military brass. You either do it with the really slow but cheap method (RCBS, Lyman dies), the moderately slow, reasonably priced way (Dillon swager), or the very easy but quite expensive way (Dillon Super1050).

If I could buy something with a casefeeder that swaged military primer pockets, I would buy it. (Say $150-250 range) The Super1050 is the only way to fly with high volume processing. But it's just so darned expensive.

I wish I could just invent something. If only I were a mechanical engineer...