removing military crimp ?

Marco Califo

New member
Harbor Freight 1/2 inch , 60 degree countersink, about $1.79...
I bought a 3 piece set plus handle at HFjunk. They forgot to put a cutting edge on the bits. I use a countersink in a cordless drill for any large number. I recently bought a Lyman tool (orange aluminum body that has reamer and chamfer ends and holds other bits inside (not Lyman) primer pocket cutters and pocket cleaner bits. Very convenient when I find one that needs touch up.
 
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Metal god

New member
I just got to thinking about something . For what ever reason I generally never have the brass that has the staked primer crimp . ( the ones with the 3 or 4 distinct cuts/stakes around the edge ) but rather the circled pressed type . The staked type don't do well at all with the drill method because the staked sections tend to grab the reamer and twist out of your/my hand , sometimes quite violently when I don't notice what type of staking it has . Something to consider and thought it could be helpful to know .
 

jpx2rk

New member
I tried a Mighty Armory de-capping/swage set up and like it alot. Once you set the die up, deprimes with ease, and then just swap out the depriming pin for the swage pin, install the swaging nub on the ram and slip the cap over the nub, go to town.

No adjustments on the die or set up other than that. No adjustment for different brands of crimped brass needed as I had read several comments about having to adjust the swaging die for different brands of brass. I do have a few that need a bit of attention with a Hornady crimp tool but I wait until I have trouble priming that/those cases.
 

jmorris

New member
This is the best method, I was talking about in #3, that I use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La83ZVKnBzw

100 cases swaged in under 3 min, with the side benefit of also loading 100 rounds at the same time.

No matter how slow you operate the machine you still cut the work in half because you are performing steps concurrently vs, consecutively.
 

mikld

New member
FWIW; have "de-crimped" about 900 HXP cases for my Garand (30-06 Greek surplus military ammo). Each one had 3 small stakes around the primer pocket. I normally use clean and not necessarily super sharp countersinks (often a carbide tool) and I've done them all just like NATO/LC brass and no problems/grabbing...

For me, removing primer crimps isn't part of a reloading session. Mainly it's "busy work". Since I have waaaay more time to reload than to shoot, I'll do some things around my shop to keep me busy "reloading", like processing brass; tumbling and sorting brass and removing primer crimps, so I have never been in a hurry and counting seconds or rounds per hour. I pick up a case, touch it to a countersink/chamfer tool and drop it in a container; 1 second? :rolleyes:
 
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hdwhit

New member
I've tried all manner of tools, but always gravitate back to a countersink as described by mikld in Post #10.
 

arlaunch

New member
I use the RCBS bench mounted swage tool. The more i use it the more i like it. I bought it back in 2014 or so.

The handle is comfortable. Once can remove about 11-13 crimps a minute when in the routine.

It seems expensive at first. Years later though... Not so much.
 
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