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Do you always remove military primer crimps?

KYpatriot

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Minuteman
Mar 31, 2009
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I have noticed on some mil brass I have little to no trouble ignoring the crimp and seating a primer to the correct depth. I have seen this with win and lc brass. Primer is seating fully like it is supposed to. Anyone else just ignore the crimp? I see no reason to mess with it if the primer seats normally.
 
If the primers seat properly I wouldn't mess with it. I don't use much crimped brass but when I come across it I swage the primer pockets. I load 223 and 308 on a Dillon and have had issues priming with crimped brass that wasn't swaged.
 
I have noticed on some mil brass I have little to no trouble ignoring the crimp and seating a primer to the correct depth. I have seen this with win and lc brass. Primer is seating fully like it is supposed to. Anyone else just ignore the crimp? I see no reason to mess with it if the primer seats normally.

Just like you say. .308 I always have to, but on .223 - not so much. Slightly crooked primer insertion now and again, but beats deswaging :)
 
I absolutely check every piece that appears to have a crimp. Some are more pronounced and require a lot of effort even after swaging, some LC just needs a chamfer with a deburring tool. Even after all the prep, I still have a few out of every hundred that the primers are borderline deformed to the point that I pitch them.
 
I've always swaged mine. The few times I mistakenly picked up crimped brass and did not know it, it screwed up the primer. If your not having issues though, I see no reason not stick with what your doing.
 
I can get away with leaving the crimp sometimes if I am doing single stage but for my Dillon 650 I swage the crimp out on all of them before putting them in the hopper. On the 650 I can count on getting jacked up without a good swage.
 
I always remove the crimps, in the beginning via reaming with Hornady bits and now with the Dillon SS-600 swager.

Chris
 
For the 223 I found that sometimes the brand of primer made the difference, much easier with winchester than cci
 
The last few batches of once-fired 5.56 barss that I've bought didn't need the primer pocket crimps swaged. It might be worth checking if that's what you are working on.

I've never found any .308 brass with the primers crimped that I didn't have to remove the crimp before reloading though.
 
223 -no dont seem to make a difference
308 -yes
also found you break less center pins when depriming crimped brass with a lee deprime die
it has a thicker pin than other brands- regular fl dies
i broke several pins before buying the lee deprime die
after 2 years - its still on pin it came with
 
my Dillon 1050 does it automatically. Good thing too cause i would hate to have to do it any other way.
 
Yes, I always remove crimps if they are there. I have personally never been able to, nor have I seen or know anyone else that has been able to seat a primer in a crimped primer pocket with the crimp itself still there. That said, guys see bigfoots and black panthers all the time.....no doubt there are claims that removing military primer crimps are a "waste of time."
 
Gunny hathcock said of shooting skills
I guess some people just get lucky
but I notice the same people that get lucky the most
shoot a lot more than those who dont get lucky as often
maybe the same applies to reloading............
several besides myself have posted they were able to get a primer to seat
with the crimp "still in there"
based on my own exsperience - I have no reason to doublt them
maybe you just got some stubborn crimps
or maybe their just " lucky"