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Posted: 5/4/2012 6:52:58 PM EDT
| I'm new to reloading and I'm having trouble setting small rifle primers with the hand primer. I have used it for large rifle primers and it has worked perfectly but I'm getting about 20% of my 5.56 brass set at a angle. I'm using the white small primer plastic insert with small rod and the correct shell plate. It has to be something simple. Thanks for input |
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Quoted: Name the headstamps, sounds like the primer crimp has not been removed. That's what I was going to say as well. I went to a friends house to check his progress with reloading, and he had a whole tray full of .223 with primers in crooked. He was going to call Hornady for help...instead I suggested he remove the crimps.
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| Avoid the "advice" some people will give about using your deburring tool to remove crimps. It will "work," but it is hard to control and it is easy to go too far and ruin a case. If you are going to process a lot of GI brass, you may find the Dillon Super Swage worth your while. Once it's set up, it goes faster than the RCBS tool, but it is a bit pricy. If you're going to process the occasional GI case, go with the Hornady Primer Pocket Reamer; it has a positive stop that keeps you from wrecking the primer pocket, and it only takes a twist to remove the crimp. |
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Quoted:
Avoid the "advice" some people will give about using your deburring tool to remove crimps. It will "work," but it is hard to control and it is easy to go too far and ruin a case. If you are going to process a lot of GI brass, you may find the Dillon Super Swage worth your while. Once it's set up, it goes faster than the RCBS tool, but it is a bit pricy. If you're going to process the occasional GI case, go with the Hornady Primer Pocket Reamer; it has a positive stop that keeps you from wrecking the primer pocket, and it only takes a twist to remove the crimp. Edit nevermind :) Also.. i use the hornady tool.. find it here note, good luck finding the single tool in stock, just buy the package, you will use it at some point anyway i chuck it in a drill and its good to go |
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I use the debuting tool method. People grossly overestimate how hard it is to gauge. Mine is a Lyman hand crank. On the first crank if feels smooth, there is no crimp-stop there. If there is, I turn the handle until the shavings are about glitter sized (<1/16"). Thats usually 2-3 more cranks. Thats all there is to it. I have the proper reamer. No mater how hard I try, I always seem to gouge the side of the pocket about half way in with it.
All of that said, I'm thinking the RCBS set above looks like an upcoming investment. |
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Sorry if I came off as judgmental as it seems about deburring tools, but it takes a light touch to use that tool for crimp removal, and I have a box full of range pick-up examples of where people were anything but "light" in using the deburring tool. A primer pocket should NOT look "countersunk," but if you find a case that looks like that, odds are that it was prepped by someone OVER-using a deburring tool.
If you can be very delicate with it, you CAN safely and easily remove a crimp with a deburring tool. It is (to me) easier to use a tool with a positive stop that doesn't require as much finesse, which is why I recommended the Hornady tool. No offense meant to the majority of users of this forum, who are here because they are interested in doing their loading tasks well and who pay attention to what they're doing. |
That didn't seem judgmental at all. Swaging is a better way IMHO anyway. I just haven't thrown money that way yet, lol. I was more thinking of other threads when I posted that. There are genuine belligerent anti-ream guys out there. I have had to pitch a couple of otherwise good once fired cases because I ream. If the primer pocket is slightly out of round, it's easy to cut one spot deep which makes scrap. It's easy to feel with the hand crank, but that might prove dangerous with an electric machine because it's hard to feel. A swager not only can't get carried away, but corrects the problem which could possibly cause a slight gas leak (I was told that, but that mn coud be some MSNBC reporting there ).
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