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Posted: 3/9/2015 10:29:58 AM EDT
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Good Morning!
Is any one else having a problem seating new primers in once fired FC brass in 223? I have a bunch of it, and even after swaging out the crimp I am losing way too many cases to problems seating primers. It seems like the pockets are too tight for new primers to seat. I've tried CCI, Federal, and Winchester and none of them seem to want to work. As I said, I swaged out the crimp on my press, and beveled the pocket with the Lyman tool. It's really frustrating to have a bunch of brass I don't trust. Thanks! |
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Quoted:
Good Morning! Is any one else having a problem seating new primers in once fired FC brass in 223? I have a bunch of it, and even after swaging out the crimp I am losing way too many cases to problems seating primers. It seems like the pockets are too tight for new primers to seat. I've tried CCI, Federal, and Winchester and none of them seem to want to work. As I said, I swaged out the crimp on my press, and beveled the pocket with the Lyman tool. It's really frustrating to have a bunch of brass I don't trust. Thanks! Why do you have to do anything to the FC primer pockets? It's commercial brass. Anyway, I've never had to do anything to FC brass except uniform the pockets. |
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Yes, I have had problems seating the primers with a Dillon.
I went back and swaged the primer pockets again (I just did the ones that looked like they needed it the first time) with the RCBS press swager, and that seemed to fix it for me. I don't have a guess why that still isn't working for you. |
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Quoted: Good Morning! Is any one else having a problem seating new primers in once fired FC brass in 223? I have a bunch of it, and even after swaging out the crimp I am losing way too many cases to problems seating primers. It seems like the pockets are too tight for new primers to seat. I've tried CCI, Federal, and Winchester and none of them seem to want to work. As I said, I swaged out the crimp on my press, and beveled the pocket with the Lyman tool. It's really frustrating to have a bunch of brass I don't trust. Thanks! Your problem is you think you swaged the crimp away. The primers are telling you the crimp remains with the hard seating. Don't know what swager you are using, but it need to be adjusted for more swage. Adjust for a little more swage, swage a case. Try to prime that case. Hard to seat, adjust for more swaging. Repeat as needed. Don't over swage. Remember you have to adjust swager for each headstamp as the web is different between headstamps. The case web is what your swager refrences off of to swage. This is my preferred tool to remove primer crimp. It has a positive stop so you can't over ream. http://www.midwayusa.com/product/253550/hornady-primer-pocket-reamer-cutter-head |
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Yes, swaging that depends on web thickness can be hit or miss, especially with certain lots Federal brass. Back in 1999, I bought a bit of American Eagle brand .223 Rem 55 grain FMJBT. When I tried to reload it, the 4th round had a catastrophic head failure causing damage to rifle and magazine. I suspected an overload, remaining loads pulled down showed nothing abnormal or dangerous. I focused on brass, measuring web thickness, finding some cases with web thickness under 0.160". Some were as high as 0.174". LC brass is well over 0.170 average. Measuring case web thickness rapidly can be done with a steel rod about 0.222" in diameter and 2.000" long. A small concave in one end will accommodate any flash hole burr. Just insert the concave end into the case and measure from case head to end of rod. With dial type calipers, read the fraction after 2.000". With digital, zero out at 2.000" and now you have direct measurement of case web thickness. Measuring webs will save you a bolt or two. And it will also help in primer crimp swaging. |
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I've loaded a lot of .308 FC and a good bit of .223. I've had no issues. Those were all 1x fired when I loaded them. I will probably not go more than a 3rd shot.
edit: I use a RCBS tool to remove crimps. It has a positive stop and works great. A second or two does the trick. |
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Quoted:
Good Morning! Is any one else having a problem seating new primers in once fired FC brass in 223? I have a bunch of it, and even after swaging out the crimp I am losing way too many cases to problems seating primers. It seems like the pockets are too tight for new primers to seat. I've tried CCI, Federal, and Winchester and none of them seem to want to work. As I said, I swaged out the crimp on my press, and beveled the pocket with the Lyman tool. It's really frustrating to have a bunch of brass I don't trust. Thanks! Yes, i've had more problems with fc 223/5.56 with crimped primers than any other. My most recent outing at least 6 crushed or half inserted primers with fc and zero with LC. All were swaged with rcbs swage bench tool |
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Quoted:
This is my preferred tool to remove primer crimp. It has a positive stop so you can't over ream. http://www.midwayusa.com/product/253550/hornady-primer-pocket-reamer-cutter-head I chuck that in a drill and it works great. I can't imagine using that with the little handle and turning it by hand ... So given that it's going to be powered, I think it's worth mentioning that while you can't over ream cases, you can still ruin cases by overcutting one side / undercutting the opposite side if you don't stick it in straight. With a case in one hand and the drill in the other, it's not hard to mess it up if you're not careful. |
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Quoted:
Yep. If anything - Fed brass had a bad rep for being too soft and pockets lossening up too much. (Though I suspect some is now LC over runs, and made to the better LC spec) Quoted:
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No problem here. Vince Yep. If anything - Fed brass had a bad rep for being too soft and pockets lossening up too much. (Though I suspect some is now LC over runs, and made to the better LC spec) This. I have actually swaged a bit too much and primers would fall out. I would look closely at the final location of your shell plate. Loosen up the indexer and manually move the sheel plate until it goes in smoothly. Tighten the indexer. Mine can be very finicky. I also had a .38spl shell plate out of spec in one position. Use a piece of tape or light silver marker to mark the location and see if it comes to the same one every time. I use mainly Winchester primers, but use Wolf for .223. |
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Tried the RCBS press mounted swager, the RCBS bolt down swager (since I already had them) then a Lyman hand tool, on another 100 FC, and I'm still losing 2 or 3 out of every 10. Tried Win & CCI primers, no difference.
No problems with the LC cases I have, or with 06 cases, just the FC 223s. I think I'll try to swap them out for LC at the ASP if I can. It's just frustrating, since I have over 1K of the things! I've been loading my own ammo in assorted calibers since Nixon was President, and this is the most frustrating thing so far. |
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