I must say, I'm very green when it comes to reloading, but, I have a bunch of once fired AE .223 brass that I would like to reload but none of them will accept a primer? All of the Winchester and Federal (none AE) reloaded just great but with all my AE brass, not one will accept a primer. I have tried Winchester and Federal match primers and neither work.
American Eagle brass no good?
- Thread starter Budweiser360
- Start date
Some AE lots have been known to be current military surplus. Federal just puts them in different labeled boxes for civilians.
LC brass is good. You might notice, however, that case capacity is somewhat diminished compared to commercial Winchester, Remington brass, etc... The Dillon Super Swag works great and well worth the price if you will be reloading lots of military brass.
and some are just regular AE stuff then? cool, good to know!
rnbra-shooter
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Brunswick
Just a pedantic note, you don't want to ream the primer pockets (i.e. you don't want to make them a larger diameter).
What you want to do is to remove the small bits of the crimp that overhang the primer pocket's mouth, which makes it difficult/impossible to get a primer started to seat without damaging it. This can be done by cutting a chamfer (a number of different inexpensive cutting tools do this), or it can be done by pushing (swaging) this matal aside to form a nicely radiused opening to the primer pocket.
The Dillon Super Swage is picky and tricky to set up correctly, but it does a good job, and it is easy to use for many (i.e. thousands) of cartridges.
If you have fewer cartridges to do (at most a thousand or two sorta thing), you'd probably be better off using one of the much cheaper cutters. If you have any more than a few dozen to do, a cordless drill, or electric screwdriver, or very slow turning drill press, can really be your friend and save your wrists.
What you want to do is to remove the small bits of the crimp that overhang the primer pocket's mouth, which makes it difficult/impossible to get a primer started to seat without damaging it. This can be done by cutting a chamfer (a number of different inexpensive cutting tools do this), or it can be done by pushing (swaging) this matal aside to form a nicely radiused opening to the primer pocket.
The Dillon Super Swage is picky and tricky to set up correctly, but it does a good job, and it is easy to use for many (i.e. thousands) of cartridges.
If you have fewer cartridges to do (at most a thousand or two sorta thing), you'd probably be better off using one of the much cheaper cutters. If you have any more than a few dozen to do, a cordless drill, or electric screwdriver, or very slow turning drill press, can really be your friend and save your wrists.
I have a Hornady reamer but haven't really gotten into it yet, (only tried it out on a couple. Do you let the tip of the tool bottom out in the primer cup or do you go by feel to just remove enough ??
rnbra-shooter
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Brunswick
HKMark23, I don't have the Hornady primer crimp remover tool, so until somehow who does gives you specifics, here are the generalities.
You should get a number (5-10) pieces of deprimed brass, and work with them until you figure how much metal you need to remove in order to completely remove the crimp. You do not want to remove any more metal than necessary, but you do want to fully and completely remove the crimp that is there. Seating a primer should be as easy and as using a commercial case with a nice rounded primer pocket mouth.
You should get a number (5-10) pieces of deprimed brass, and work with them until you figure how much metal you need to remove in order to completely remove the crimp. You do not want to remove any more metal than necessary, but you do want to fully and completely remove the crimp that is there. Seating a primer should be as easy and as using a commercial case with a nice rounded primer pocket mouth.
