Anyone else have trouble with LC69 primer pockets?
I have a fair amount of LC69 brass (30-06) that I want to reload for my M1. I'm having a lot of trouble with the primer pockets. I cannot get primers to seat without shaving brass off the cups, or just plain mashing or deforming the primers. I've run the brass over my RCBS primer pocket swager to remove the crimp, and that's not enough. I've run a little of it over that swager again, and it's still not enough. I even took my chamfer tool and cut JUST A LITTLE of a chamfer on the mouth of the primer pocket, to make SURE it's not a ridge of metal left over from the crimp. Didn't work.
Has anyone else had this kind of trouble with LC69 brass? What did you do to correct the issue?
P.S. I use Wolf primers, and have no trouble with them in my 308, Creedmoor, or other brass, either military or commercial. The only alternative I have on hand is some CCI 250s, and they're not significantly better at addressing this issue.
Thanks for any help.
Information
Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.
Maybe the Dillon primer crimp remover would work? Wish I could hand you mine to try, I don't have that problem with anything. If anything, you have to be careful not to open them up too much.
I've been reloading LC 69 brass for 30 years and haven't had any problems. It sounds like you either are not swaging the pocket enough, or the Wolf primers are a slightly larger diameter than domestic brands. Or possibly a little of both. Winchester Large Rifle primers are .211".
In either case, you should have a radius on the mouth of the pocket that looks like a commercial case.
Here's a comparison to give you an idea of what to look for.
L to R, unfired military, commercial, deprimed, unswaged military, swaged military. (By chance, an LC69 case)
Look closely at the first and third cases. What appears to be a ring circling the primer pocket is the crimp. When you swage the pocket, you are forcing the brass that was the crimp to form a radius as shown on the forth case.
+1 on the Dillon swager. I bought mine back in the 80's when they first came out. Look for a used one to save some $$ or go in half with a buddy.
I had the same problem with WCC 5.56mm military once fired brass. The crimp actually deformed the primer pocket. I processed a 5 gallon bucket of brass for our junior rifle team only to discover the RCBS primer pocket swager wouldn't open the pockets enough to keep from crushing the primers when seating. Just pushing back the crimp with the RCBS tool wouldn't do it. The Dillon tool solved the problem. It not only puts a nice radius on the primer pocket it makes the sides parallel and no more problem. Of course I had to do the entire 5 gallon bucket again. The Dillon tool will solve tight primer pocket problems with S&B brass as well as 60's era Remington .45ACP military brass. You'll also find military .38 Special crimped primer brass need to be swaged and some current made .40S&W and small primer .45ACP. To avoid "surprises" I simply run all brass, military and commercial, trhough the Dillon primer pocket swager.
YMMV
Thanks for the help & input, fellows. I will keep eyes open for a Dillon swager on local sites. Or, maybe I'll give RCBS a call and see what they might have to say...? They've been helpful for me in the past. For now, I'll just keep cycling the RA54 through. Or, maybe it's time to see how the HXP compares.
I have owned and used both the RCBS and CH brand primer pocket "de-crimping" tools.
Both ended up unserviceable.
The CH unit (well, my old one, anyway) drives the case by the rim. "Heavy" crimps thus tend to put quite a load on said rim, often distorting it.
The RCBS version uses a central pin that engages the web at the head of the cartridge. YOU REALLY have to sort your brass as ONE thick web can result in a bent pin.
Have watched the Dillon in operation on a couple of videos; now need to see one "in the flesh", as it were.
There IS another way (or two) to remove the remnant crimp.
There are several electrically-driven devices on the market. These CUT the crimp away rather than try to push it back from whence it came. The more adventurous can regrind / modify any of a number of drill bits, counter-sinkers etc. These can be mounted in the chuck of a power drill (held in a padded vise) and away you go: noisy, tiring, crude but effective.
If you have a LOT of brass with apparently "tight" pockets, seek out one of the "pocket uniforming" tools on the market.
DO NOT forget the other end of the case, either: MANY perfectly good rifles have been seriously damaged or destroyed by the insane overpressures that can occur when a cartridge with an over-long case is fired. I have been on the firing line when these events have occurred. What happens to very expensive rifles, (think; SIG AMT, ORIGINAL AR-10 etc.) can be disturbing to see!! (The potential for injury to the operator is the other big consideration.)
Just double-checking here:
For those who have been less-than-satisfied with the RCBS tool-- Were you using the press-mounted tool, or the one which looks identical (from afar) to the Dillon?
Maybe I should have been more thorough in sorting the cases; most 7.62 x 51 cases are late-nineties, Boxer-primed Oz MF / AFF, but occasionally a few Israeli "TZ" or US cases turn up in a batch.
The 5.56 x 45 are again, mostly OZ made with a few "foreigners" thrown in; the odd bit of Singaporean BERDAN-primed 5.56 really makes things interesting at the FLS stage. The old "Rockchucker" works up quite a bit of leverage at full stroke.
Has anyone got a "review" of the Lee dies with the decapping pin assembly retained in the die body by friction, not a thread? One issue is that I use RCBS Small Base dies to size /deprime 5.56 and 7.62 cases. Maybe I need to add another step before whacking them through these dies.
The RCBS primer pocket swage will work much better if you apply moderate pressure, let up, apply pressure through about 4 or 5 short cycles per case.
Each application of pressure moves the brass a little. Repeating the cycles several times moves the brass much more efficiently than one heavy stroke.
In addition the swage does not stick in the case so it is much easier retract.
. I'm having a lot of trouble with the primer pockets. I cannot get primers to seat without shaving brass off the cups, or just plain mashing or deforming the primers. I've run the brass over my RCBS primer pocket swager to remove the crimp, and that's not enough. I've run a little of it over that swager again, and it's still not enough. I even took my chamfer tool and cut JUST A LITTLE of a chamfer on the mouth of the primer pocket, to make SURE it's not a ridge of metal left over from the crimp. Didn't work.
PM
