Crimped primers?

[wilderness medic]

I'm looking at buying 2-4,000 brass for each .308 and 5.56. Right now Everglades ammo has 2,000 5.56 for $150 (good deal right?) but the primers are crimped.


I see I can buy a tool and swage the pockets. How much extra time/effort would it take to do this? Is it worth the saving or should I just look for ones that aren't crimped? Pocket hand swager or bench top one?


Also looks like the brass can be mixed manufactures. This ammo wont be for more than 300m plinking. Will that effect it much?

https://www.evergladesammo.com/brass/rifle-brass/5-56-military-brass.html

[hermosabeach]

it's a pain to remove the crimp and size the primer pocket...

maybe not a paint but tedious...

For inside of 300 shooting, the brass will be perfect...

[hermosabeach]

If the 308 was fired from a machine gun, use a lot of lube when you initially resize the brass

[jimmykan]

Reloading brass with crimped primers will add about 10 seconds per round to your reloading time. You have to ream or swage it out.

Once you have crimped primers mixed into your pool of fired brass, you will either have to ream/swage ALL of them or inspect each one to see if the primer pocket is crimped. Some are obvious, and others don't look crimped until you try to seat a primer and it won't go in. So unless you want to interrupt your priming process each time you encounter a crimped primer, then you might as well ream/swage all of your brass.

Yeah, so count on adding 5-10 seconds of additional time per round when you deal with crimped primers. So over 1,000 rounds, that's an additional 1-2 hours of time spent.

And you have to buy the tool. Unless you get a Dillon 1050 progressive press, there is a station that swages the primer pockets.

[wilderness medic]

Damn. Glad I checked, thats a significant addition of time. I guess I'll just bite the bullet and buy either new brass or once fired that isn't crimped.


Not all 5.56 is crimped right?

[cavemanlrrp]

If a few seconds time to swag a crimped primer pocket is a deal breaker, we wont even go into deburring flash holes and uniforming primer pockets.

Best
caveman

[waawaaweenie]

if you are buying bulk "once fired" 5.56 or .308 most likely it is crimped and be glad it is still crimped because that garooontees it is actually once fired. You can get the decrimper that fits in a press and use it in a single stage press or if you have a Dillon 1050, it has a decrimper built it. You could run through a bunch of cases in no time just on a single stage and then run them through your regular press to do the rest.

[edgerly779]

Better deals on calguns. Guy has 5 gallon buckets of 223 on here. Look up on reloading supplies.

[wilderness medic]

If a few seconds time to swag a crimped primer pocket is a deal breaker, we wont even go into deburring flash holes and uniforming primer pockets.

Best
caveman

Not for plinking ammo. I'll be doing all that when I start trying to make match grade ammo.

if you are buying bulk "once fired" 5.56 or .308 most likely it is crimped and be glad it is still crimped because that garooontees it is actually once fired. You can get the decrimper that fits in a press and use it in a single stage press or if you have a Dillon 1050, it has a decrimper built it. You could run through a bunch of cases in no time just on a single stage and then run them through your regular press to do the rest.

If I can throw it in my SS press that wouldn't be too bad



Looking at the Dillon 600 and this RCBS. Doesn't seem like it would be bad. Anything wrong with the RCBS? Its a bit cheaper

https://www.amazon.com/RCBS-Primer-Pocket-Swager-Tool/dp/B007ZZO4MI/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_200_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=1ACHRYJDZJF5KNVMRJ6P

[Christopher761]

Not all 5.56 is crimped.

More .223 is not. More 5.56 is.

It all really depends on your process. If you:
1. Deprime
2. Wet Clean/and dry
3. Overall size
4. Trim to length
5. Chamfer/deburr

(if you are dry cleaning, then switch 1 and 2)

And IF all of that happens before you put it on your press for loading, then the addition of swaging or reaming is not much.

You can hand prime while inspecting. And if any need to be swaged/reamed they can be dropped in a second bucket.

Another trick is to use the chamfer/Deburr tool to remove the crimp. In which case, it is already in your hand. And you are only adding a second or two.

Check out something like this:

https://shop.brownells.com/reloading/case-preparation/case-prep-units/small-primer-reamer-head-sku749012878-53967-91120.aspx?cm_mmc=PPC-_-Itwine-_-Google-_-749-012-878&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxv-qnofi4gIVhcBkCh0BwwBXEAQYBCABEgIYffD_BwE

[Christopher761]

Also, even if you buy new ammo with no crimps, you should expect to find some during your reloading. Somewhere along the way, you are going to pickup a stray piece of brass.

[cavemanlrrp]

[QUOTE
Looking at the Dillon 600 and this RCBS. Doesn't seem like it would be bad. Anything wrong with the RCBS? Its a bit cheaper
https://www.amazon.com/RCBS-Primer-P...JDZJF5KNVMRJ6P[/QUOTE]

Never used the RCBS, but the Dillon is solid and fast. You can even hook a rubber band to the case holder and launch the cases off the case holder into a container after swag, if more speed is needed.

I bolted it to a 2x4 and C clap it to the bench when needed.
I like LC brass and have swaged 1000s on the Super Swag 600.

Best
caveman

[JackEllis]

I use .223 Lake City range brass, which means it all has to be swaged. It's a bit of a pain but then I do my prep in batches.

The way I avoid having to swage everything every time is to keep unprocessed range brass separated from brass I shoot through my rifles. Since they're all bolt action it's not difficult to keep track of them.

[bohoki]

they exist you are going to have to deal with them

i use a debur tool (to help funnel the primers in) and primer pocket reamer to clean up the pocket walls yea it takes more time but its a hobby stop and smell the cordite every once and a while

[SoCal326]

If a few seconds time to swag a crimped primer pocket is a deal breaker, we wont even go into deburring flash holes and uniforming primer pockets.
caveman

Do you see a difference?

I was more meticulous when I started loading but now I don't bother. I've stopped cleaning, deburring and uniforming primer pockets. I haven't annealed in 5 loadings (bolt gun) and I'm still shooting half inch holes at 100 yards with no cracked necks and I only trim when they grow long enough that when I run my finger over my chamber gauge it feels like its a bit long (but still under max)

I suspect my neck tension has changed from the first to last and I I'll re-zero and confirm drop on a few targets at the start of each session.

Heck, I've even had loads where my OAL/ogive(I check both sometimes) ended up being pretty inconsistent (+- 0.010) and those loads still printed at half an inch @ 100. Never figured out why but I switched dies and its better (+- 0.005)

I'm also not a bench rest shooter and max out at 1000 yards on 1.5 MOA steel targets, but usually 2+. I also haven't gotten down to the single digit ES like a lot of people say. probably closer to the 20s which gives me at most a theoretical 7" spread @ 1000. I'd probably score more hits with a better ES but maybe I don't ask as much from my loads as some people and most of my shooting isn't beyond 750. I guess a cheater round like the high BC 6.5CMs helps too.

I find wind, a stable position and a good barrel makes a bigger difference than extreme brass prep in loading.

I'm also relatively new to the long range stuff and if I wanted to be more competitive I'd probably have to step up my game but I feel it all comes down personal expectations.

It can also be noted via this survey of the top 100 PRS shooters that a good amount of them don't Anneal, Turn Necks, Clean Primer Pockets, Uniform Primer Pockets or weight Sort Brass. About 50% of them are Annealing and turning necks.