The age-old question of crimped primers - need some opinions.

[RainDodger]

Ok, I've been loading a long time, and yes I've loaded a boatload of prior-military brass and I've dealt with the crimped primer pockets in a number of ways. Generally these days, I ream them because it's easy and fast to do for me.

I've never bothered much about the crimps in pistol cases. In the past, I've just punched the primers and seated new ones without messing with whatever crimp is left behind. Generally the primers go in fine, and occasionally one shears a bit of the old crimp off, but they all go in okay.

I recently came into a decent sized supply of military 9mm cases... like roughly 15,000. I've started to process them... cleaning them up, then I'll start sizing and punching the primers.

Question for you guys that do a lot of military pistol cases... do you remove the crimps, or do you just load them? I don't care about the method... I can swage or ream, it doesn't matter. What I'd like to know is, do you remove that crimp or have you historically just seated a primer in there and gone to the range?

I'm just deciding on how I want to handle all this brass and whether I want to take the time to ream them.

So... you experience guys - tell me what you do.

Thanks a ton.

 

[witchhunter]

For that amount, I would swage them. That way you know they are all in spec.

 

[kcofohio]

I would be tempted to use something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Magafor-Single-End-Countersink-Uncoated-Degrees/dp/B003EIKP9G/ref=pd_sbs_indust_33?ie=UTF8&refRID=0H5YMPZJYGZW0GNBHN56

in a drill press. Just a quick zip, enough to remove the crimp.

 

[rcmodel]

You have to remove the crimp using whatever method you prefer, to make safe reliable reloads.

Smashing in primers shearing off part of the cup results in an incomplete gas seal, which 'can' result in breach-face damage to the gun from leaking high-pressure gas.

It also results in cracked or crumbled primer compound with 'can' result in miss-fires, or even worse and more dangerous slam-fires.

Either do it right, or don't do it at all!!

rc

 

[mstreddy]

For 9MM with crimped primer pockets, WCC, WMA and a couple of others. I load them in my LNL AP, it deprimes fine and it primes fine. A little effort, but it works OK. That's what works for me. Might not work for all.

 

[RainDodger]

Thanks for the opinions, rc and mstreddy. I tend to want to do things right, so I'm going to remove the crimps. Like I said, I'm not looking for the "how"... I just wanted to know what you guys think about whether it really has to be done or not. I do know how to remove crimps... I've been taking them out of 5.56 brass for years and years. Somehow though, I would have really liked everyone to give me the perfect reason for not ce-crimping 15,000 cases. I do know that I'll likely never load them all, but I'm kind of weird about being prepared and able to load whatever brass I have on hand.

Thanks.

Roger

 

[moxie]

I've never needed to remove the crimp on 9mm military cases. I just prime them using a Lee Autoprime. They go right in without any trouble. Never any shearing or crushing. They always go bang.

Added:

Why not test a small lot of this big group and see whether you can prime them properly without removing the crimp...or not.

 

[mstreddy]

A good reason for not decrimping the 9MM brass -- for me -- is that on the LNL they prime without issues, no crushing, no shearing, no issues.
Of course, that is not the case for 5.56.
But in 9MM it has worked for me.

I like Moxie's idea of test a batch and see how it goes for you.

 

[FMJBT]

Depends on the primers you're using. I have about 8 thousand military 9mm that are from 1993.

When using tula primers, I had to ream/swage the pockets or else they would not go in correctly. Using CCI and winchester primers, I never bothered unless I had a really stubborn case, Normally the ones that had red sealant, In which case I separated those into another pile to ream out.

 

[Toprudder]

15,000? Wow.

Normally I ream the 9mm crimped casings whenever I run across them, but this is only occasionally, and not in large numbers. I use the RCBS bit in my RCBS Trim Mate case prep center. I like that bit because it stops cutting when the head bottoms out - it won't let you over do it.

But, if I had 15,000 to do (and I decided it was necessary) then I would probably get a Dillon swager.

Take several and test them to see how hard it is to seat new primers.

 

[RainDodger]

Not that I want to get in a discussion of HOW to remove the crimps.. I don't have a problem with that. I shelved my Dillon swager years ago. It's far too slow. I use a reamer on a Hornady case prep machine. It's very fast when I just hold a bowl of cases in one hand and ream with the other. I can do a few hundred at a time before the fingers get tired.

The method aside... I am going to take the time to remove the crimps. It's not like I'll have to sort them out either - they ALL have crimps, as they're US gov't contract cartridges from a military range. There are no civilian cases mixed in at all. It's a mixed blessing... I love getting the brass, but do NOT look forward to processing them!

Thanks, guys.

 

[carbine85]

I've never tried to prime military brass without 1st cleaning up the pocket. I do a quick ream and then swag my brass.

 

[Potatohead]

I hit 1000 of those crimped rascals over a 2 or 3 day period once, with a drill and drill bit. (cant remember the size of the bit) It worked pretty good to be honest.

Now I chuck the chamfer doo hickey from my hornady multi tool into the drill and away I go..

 

[MI2600]

I bought this from Harbor Freight for $5. It also chucks in the drill.

http://www.harborfreight.com/3-in-1-hex-bit-countersink-tool-68535.html

Plan B: You can buy the same tool on Ebay for $13!

 

[Rule3]

I have a lot of mixed brass some of it is WCC. When I hit those it's like SB brass it takes a little more force. But as mentioned depends on the primers. Winchester and CCI go right in. Wolf I can feel the difference,

So you have 15,000. How many do you really need to be able to reload what you want now? Certainly not all of them do you??

So prep say 1000. Use them until you crack them or lose them.

No need to do all at one time.