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Posted: 1/31/2013 6:19:43 AM EDT
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Ok, I'm spending a lot of time trimming and removing primer crimps from .223 brass. After I shoot them, it seems to me that the primer pocket will still look like it has a crimp. How do I I identify the ones that have already gone thru my "process"? I pick up brass at the local range when I'm done shooting. Some of it is mine, but some isn't.
Or should I just wait and see what they look like after I shoot them? Even now, I have problems telling what has a primer crimp and what doesn't. cap |
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Keep your brass separate. If you cannot do that, you probably have to treat it all as new to you pick-ups.
If you just cannot keep track of yours, you can use a nail set to put a small dimple on the base of each of your cases (before loading but after cleaning/sizing). I also see many people use a Sharpie to mark all their loads so they know what brass is theirs at the range. You are still taking a chance that no one else is doing the same thing so buyer beware. |
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Good question. There are three ways I've tried, one expressed in the post above, is to ream in place of or in addition to swaging. Another visual means is to lacquer your bases, which will dye the recessed engravings a color that's yours. Too messy for me. The 3rd way is what Dryflash3 uses, and it works great, but it requires hand sorting....and that is to use the button from an rcbs swager. Insert in pocket....if it goes in easily, its swaged.
I've tried all three, and I've decided I like the idea of swaging on my RCBS bench swager, then continuing case prepping with the case in hand over to my Trim Mate doing to each piece of brass what additional case prep I desire....which includes using a Military Crimp Reamer. Since its already swaged, it only requires a quick touch to the reamer to make the slightest bevel which makes it "look" swaged, and only takes a second per piece. The slight bevel has the added plus of providing a slightly sloped entrance for the new primers into the pockets. That makes priming on my progressive a breeze. The picture below illustrates a case fully reamed on the left and only swaged on the right. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of a swaged but "slightly" reamed case.....just visuallize a start of the chamfer you see, just taking the edge off the swaged rim .... making it look "different"! (and easy to start a primer) 
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Quoted:
What is an FCD? cap Factory Crimp Die http://www.midwayusa.com/product/456506/lee-factory-crimp-die-223-remington |
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I hand prime my rifle brass. If it doesn't go in without forcing, then it gets tossed into the "needs swaging can". Works for me, because all my rifle stuff is done in batches... cleaned, lubed/de-primed/sized, de-lubed, trimmed/etc., primed, charged & seated. I have brass sorted in buckets at the various stages. Works for me. |
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