Swaged primer pockets and the Blue Kool-Aid...

[Seismic Sam]

This subject has come up before, but I thought I'd add my $.02 to the board. Being a veteran brass scrounger for many years, I have a few thousand .223 cases, and some of them (Federal, Lake City) have primer pocket crimps and some (Winchester, R-P) don't. Previously, I had bought the cheap RCBS primer pocket swager, which is a die holding the rod in the press, and then a shell holder head that fits on the ram that has a small or large primer swager. Two big problems with this setup, with the first being it's a PITA to get the case mouth around the rod because you can't see it. Second problem is that after you have swaged the primet pocker, you have a .223 case firmly stuck to the swaging button and you have to pull it off using a rotary motion and quite a bit of force.

So off I went to the Gunstop to get a Dillon Model 600 primer pocket swager, and it was right around $100, which is only 80 more than the cheap RCBS setup. The thing a respectable chunk of steel, and you don't want to drop it on your foot!

It has a tilting case shaft that flops down into the swaging position, so getting a case on it is very easy. The sawging rod can (and should ) be set so that it's swaging the crimp just enough to seat a small rifle primer securely, and you actually do this to set it. After that, you just keep pulling the lever and swaging the pockets. The ram has a huge amount of compound leverage built into it, so no matter how much the pocket was crimped, it will get pushed back to allow primer seating. This setup is FAST and EASY, and I was swaging primer pockets at a rate of about 15 a minute, which is one every 4 seconds! That's 450 in half an hour, or 900 in a hour. Just eliminating the hassle factor of the cheap RCBS setup makes this worth the price alone, much less the speed you get. While I don't have a problem (hell, I actually enjoy it!) hand priming cases and reloading with a turret press, but swaging primer pockets is about as fun as trimming brass to length, and it's a job you want over as soon as possible.

[mzdadoc]

Very cool!! Do a search on utube and there's a video using it even faster and more efficiently.

[EJSG19]

Good deal, had one sitting in the box for three weeks now. Been dreading starting in on the crimped brass prep!

[bulletproof]

Very cool!! Do a search on utube and there's a video using it even faster and more efficiently.

I did a search and first stumbled across this:



It looks like you can modify it to eject the swagged brass after it's done. I also found a video of this modification:



It looks like the RCBS is faster if you have it setup correctly with the right modifications.

[yuppiejr]

I recall the RCBS setup being very particular in terms of press compatibility, in order to pop the brass off on the downstroke the press ram had to be the right dimension to properly engage the "cup" that lets you pop the brass back off of the swage pin reliably. Looks like someone figured out that the Lee Champion single stage has the right guts... the trick is by the time you factor in the cost of the press, RCBS swage die set and hardware for the mods you're at the same cost as the Dillon solution which takes up a lot less bench space.

I can see both being good solutions, the Dillon seems like a good compact out of box solution for the production speed most of us would require while the Lee probably has a higher top speed but a larger and more permanent installation requirement suitable for people who do a LOT of crimped range brass and/or are into reselling prepped brass, etc...

[bulletproof]

I can see both being good solutions, the Dillon seems like a good compact out of box solution for the production speed most of us would require while the Lee probably has a higher top speed but a larger and more permanent installation requirement suitable for people who do a LOT of crimped range brass and/or are into reselling prepped brass, etc...

I agree. You can also get a Super 1050 with a case feeder and blow through brass like a demon. ^_^

[SleepingJake]

I ended up getting a Dillion 600 from the get go. Once I adjusted it properly I plowed through brass. Originally the price tag made me think about going with a different set up but it was well worth the price.

[engnerdan]

RCBS just came out with a knock off of the Dillon



Gunstop had a couple and I think they are priced at about $70.


I bought the super swage 600, but as Sam mentioned this part of the reloading process is about as much fun as pulling your own teeth. After processing about 1500 rounds I gave up and sent my brass over to retread1911 and had him do everything for a small fee. Now I just pour it in the case feeder and pull the handle and done 223 pops out.

[UnaStamus]

I've been using the Dillon for a long time on LC 5.56 brass. It works great and it's built like a rock. Can't go wrong with the Blue.