Uneven crimp in primer pocket?

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merdenoms
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Uneven crimp in primer pocket?

Post by merdenoms »

I recently purchased the RCBS Pocket Swager tool to remove military crimps from brass. The tool seems to work well.

But I noticed the crimp in my brass looks kind of funny.

The top 3 pieces are brass that I swaged and reprimed.
The bottom 2 are pieces that have been swaged.

The crimp on the edge of the primer pocket looks uneven. Do you think this is okay to shoot? It looked like this before I even used the Swager tool.

I've never seen brass like this before. The primers seated okay. They weren't too tight or too loose.
I'm just afraid that one side of the primer pocket may let pressure escape since the sides are uneven looking.

Image
rlandry6
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Re: Uneven crimp in primer pocket?

Post by rlandry6 »

The cases are not being held centered in the swage so the ram is going into the primer pocket off center. This is a common issue with .223 and .308.
Inline Fabrication makes inserts for those two calibers that will solve that problem.
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merdenoms
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Re: Uneven crimp in primer pocket?

Post by merdenoms »

Thanks, I'll check that out. Do you think any problems could occur from the 3 I primed?
rlandry6
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Re: Uneven crimp in primer pocket?

Post by rlandry6 »

If you only did three, personally, I would reclaim the bullets and powder and start over.
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Re: Uneven crimp in primer pocket?

Post by Sig220 »

You guys must be really anal or have time to burn worrying instead of at the range!

The primers pockets are fine. Been shooting and reloading for 45 years and when you use brass that has primers "crimped" in you can swage or chamfer the pockets enough to get a primer to seat and your good to go. Would I do that if I were shooting in a whizbang match, ( I would probably be using virgin brass) maybe not but for all other uses it will be fine. Those primer pockets are where the factory "sat" them, if they don't have a problem with them, why would you? :roll:

Happy Thanksgiving!
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