The Gun Counter

I have been re-loading for years but I recently came across a sandbag full of once fired military .233 for free. Don't ask. My question is, among all the different tools out there used to remove that crimp, what are the favorites and why? Thanks from Colorado Springs

RCBS has a primer pocket swager that fits into a press and removes the crimp with a little less force than a typical depriming stroke. I don't have time to find the link to it right now, but it works very well for LC .30-06, and comes with units for both large and small primers.

I think a large run would justify the Dillon primer pocket swager. I have the RCBS unit and it gets tiresome after a short while.

I wish there was a way to make a swager that would operate in the little primer ram of a LNL-AP. Then I could decap, size and swage at the same time prior to cleaning and trimming cases.

For now I do the same as I've done since 1976 when I scrounged my first Denver '42 brass to start the reloading adventure -- couple twists of an RCBS hand case reamer.

I'd spend on a digital scale first but, boy that Dillon swaging set up looks sweet. The RCBS crimp die ain't bad either. It'd run fine in RCBS JR...

I use the RCBS primer pocket swager (link here) but am now eyeing the Dillon swage set up. Also eyeing the Dillon case trimmer set up.

Thanks for the replies - you've been very helpful. I was curious about the different advantages of swaging vs reaming.

The September edition of the American Rifleman has a good brief article on military brass and the primer.. They recommend the Dillon for bulk jobs.. The article also goes into differences of brass thickness between milspec and commercial.. I'm not a reloader yet, but the article seemed good.. and short..

Gave me a good basic understanding.. Will certainly read more before I begin.

yes you're right - I just got my September issue. I do believe I will go with the Dillon swager. thanks again to all......

It would be nifty if somebody made a swager that fit into the on-press priming mechanism on the Lee Challenger press, which would give me the aforementioned ability to deprime, resize, and swage in one move.

I use a Hornady Primer Pocket Reamer hand tool. I suspect it'd get tiresome doing a sandbag's worth, but it's fine for the volume that I do.