Problem: 9,000 fired .223--Depriming issue

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sublimaze41

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I have gradually accumulated over 9,000 rounds of .223 brass. Some are match, some are military, some are LEO training, etc. All of it polishes up just great and now I have a dillema and need some suggestions on how to handle it.

Some of this is NATO Lake City with crimped primers, some have just Lake City with a crimp, and many different others. Would I be better off just getting a Dillon swagger and doing every piece, or should I try and separate them. To be honest I can't tell some of them are crimp primed by looking at them.

Outside of sending them out to be swagged I would love to hear some suggestions. Appreciate it
 
Well.....time wise, it will take you longer to go through each round and seperate them into crimped, non-crimped.....then remove the crimp on the ones that need to be done...........

As opposed to just doing everyone, whether they need it or not.

While I haven't done 9,000 rounds, I've done about 2,000.......I just went ahead and de-crimped them all using an RCBS swagger.
 
Run them all through the swager...

That's faster than trying to segregate them and, even if you do try to segregate them, you'll still miss a few and have to get the swager out again to finish up...

Forrest
 
As for depriming. . .
You do have a lot of cases, but, save yourself some (possible) grief.

Get the Lee Deprimer. It is a punch and a shell holder.
Put it on a sturdy table and deprime the cases using this.

Depriming while resizing CAN result in a broken depriming pin or pins. (Ask me how I know!)
:)

Then swage ALL of the cases on the Dillon primer pocket swager.

TOP NOTCH machine.
 
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I use my RCBS Primer Pocket Swager for the range brass. Sometimes you run across Lake City etc. that has already been swagged. With the RCBS swagger it's easy to tell and no waste your time pulling the press handle. Since the way the RCBS tool works is to place the case primer pocket on a gradually expanding mandrel, it's easy to see if the primer pocket is already the correct size. If a round slips all the way on it's already good to go, if it does not, pull the handle and it's fixed. The tool is cheap too ~$25 from Midway. You install it on your single stage press and away you go.
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=447022&t=11082005
 
that's exactly why i bought the dillon 1050 instead of the 650. the 1050 has a swager built in, so it's not a separate step. i have 3000 LC and 10,000 RP headstamped cases and I do my best to keep them separate, but inevitably, I'll get a couple LC in my RP batch.
 
Thanks for the help everybody! I have a progressive press so the RCBS is ruled out. I am thinking that the Dillon would be my best bet based on what I read. I hate shelling out $90 for a one tool, one job item.

After looking a bit closer it appears as though about 50% of the brass is Lake City. Apart from being dirty it is in great shape.
 
Question: Does the brass have to be deprimed before it can be run through a Dillon swager?? And if so, how do you deprime it without breaking a pin?
 
heh, yeah. you must deprime it.

use a good decapping die. for instance, i love forrester seating dies, but their decapping dies suck the big one. better have an extra 10 pins for every 100 LC cases you deprime.

otoh, much as i hate Lee sizing/seating dies, their Universal Decapping die is the best on the market. I've never broken their pin. and it's not caliber specific (thus the "universal" name)
 
Had the same problem - went out, bought the Dillon and never looked back. Do em' all on the Dillon, just be careful as to how deep you set the swaging pin. I used a Remington case, agjusted the pin so it bottomed out in the primer pocket, then backed it out a turn or two. Ran everything else through it and have had zero problems. What you really need to worry about is a trimmer! I used the Lee tool and put it in a drill press, but even doing that I could only do a couple hundred cases a night before my fingers starting telling me they wanted a break! Then there's the dechamphering.... Gonna be a Gracy in your future too - remember, there's no such thing as free brass!
 
For a few bucks (< $10) more than the Dillon super swage, you can buy a Lee classic cast press and a ch4d primer pocket swager die. Then you'd have a single stage press than can always be used for other things. The LCC handle can be adjusted for a very short throw for such an operation.

Oh, yeah, swage 'em all.

Andy
 
I've de-capped thousands of "crimped primer" Lake City .223 cases by simply running them into an ordinary RCBS sizing die with an ordinary expander-ball/decapping rod in place. I've never damaged a decapping pin from encountering a crimped .223 primer.

There is no need whatsoever to go through a seperate decapping operation.

Before you go through the hassle of running thousands of cases through a primer pocket swager, I recommend that you try to seat some primers without swaging. Often, they go in just fine, and without having to take a needless extra step. Occasionally, I'll dare say "rarely," you will encounter a batch of brass that absolutely requires swaging in order to seat primers reliably, and without mashing them.

Maybe there is more need for the swaging step if you are using a progressive loader. I've always used a single stage press in conjunction with the Lee hand-held priming tool.
 
Thanks everybody for the help! A friend just gave me another 2,000 Lake City from the prison guard qualification. Obviously I can't use a single stage to reload all of these.

I will get a Dillon and swag them all. I have tried seating primers after sizing the case and the results were disasterous. Anyways, I have begun to tumble them.

Just got my 550b back from a tuneup and Christened it by loading 900 rounds of .40 cal. I am slow and can only manage 250-300 rounds per hour. With all that .223 I suspect my fall will be a busy one.

Interesting note. We were shooting about 200 rounds of .223 through the AR at bolling pins. The gentleman next to us said, "Yep, thankfully .223 is still cheap to shoot." I didn't pursue the matter but I wanted to ask where all the cheap .223 is. It's long gone Im afraid.
 
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