Swage vs ream 223/556

[Eric1234]

For those of you who load 223/556 in volume and have to constantly buy brass. Do you prefer swaged or reamed cases? That's if the reaming was done on a professional platform.

[Divernhunter]

I have done both. It is really a toss up but I favor swaged myself

[xfer42]

I prefer to swage brass. I prefer to load reamed brass.

[bohoki]

ive always done all the work and since i am cheap i ream and chamfer

[Eric1234]

I buy and sell a ton of brass and get rid of all of it but the 223 and its stacking up. It doesn't sell unprocessed very well and I've got a friend with a scharch range master which reams along with air checking all cases. Discarding the stuff that doesn't pass. The down side is that it costs me to run it thru his machine. But qualifies for SAMMI specifications. Or I could do all the prep on a 1050 but does not ream. I'm just trying to find an outlet for almost 25,000 pieces per month.

[mjmagee67]

Yea but the 1050 swages, I think the end result is more important than how you get there.

[FromTheGrave]

Most of the crimped brass I reload only needs minimal swaging to seat the primer. I've been using WSR and CCI.

I prefer the swaging to reaming, as it's faster (for me) and keeps the primer pocket nice and tight.

[Eric1234]

That's a good heads up. I'll probably try on the 1050 and see if I get any negative feed back then I could offer reaming at a increase.

[highpower790]

Swage!If primer pocket is reamed material is being removed that is needed to hold primer.As brass goes through multiple reloads the primer pocket will lose its hold on primers sooner if reamed.

[Eric1234]

Being one who barley reloads and only being in the supply end of it. I like my friends machine which air pressure checks each case before decapping and reaming. The ream is so minute you can hardly tell its there but it does make sense that after time it would not hold as tightly to the primer. He goes thru it and never considers it returning to him.