I just bought a couple thousand once fired 9mm brass on ebay and the seller stated that it was 99.9% commercial brass and there MIGHT be a few military crimped in the mix. After I made my paypal payment, it dawned on me... I'm not sure i've ever seen a crimped in primer. I was hoping some of you could tell me the difference or better than that, maybe post a pic showing what to look for. Thanks, John

i'm not sure it would show up in a picture (I can't figure out coompooters enuf to do it anyway) but the crimp on a primer pocket isn't always visable after knocking out the primer anyway. Best way I know of is to take a look at some military 223, 308,3006 etc and then at a commercial case I think you'll see the diff.

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Originally posted by butchloc:
Best way I know of is to take a look at some military 223, 308,3006 etc and then at a commercial case I think you'll see the diff.

A friend of mine said that Remingtons UMC brass may be crimped??? I have a few rounds and it does in fact look KINDOF different. Does anyone know if its crimped??

Looking at 223 blanks and 7.62 (308win), the area around the primer will have what looks like a circle, the head of the metal will be pushed in just like a stamping.Some 45acp brass is much easyer to see as it is larger. You may need a special tool to knock out the primers. Sometimes your normal decapping pin is bent when decapping GI brass, not always. When the primer is out, before you can install a new primer, you will need to remove the crimp by reaming or swage reforming the primer pocket. You can buy the tools for this also. Make sure its not a Berdan primer (2 flash holes)

If your seller is telling you the truth and your purchased brass is 99.9% commercial, then just throw the one military headstamp out and don't worry about it. If he hasn't been entirely truthful and there is more than a handful of military brass (and you want to use them) simply take your inside neck chamfering tool and clean up the primer pocket with a bevel just like your were cleaning up the inside of a case neck. There are special tools sold for this purpose, but your neck chamfering tool works as well as any for small batches.

Punch out the primers, and than look at the corner of the primer pocket, if it has a slight chamfer it's good to go, if it has a square/sharp corner than you need to swedge or ream a bevel on the corner.
If you don't, the primers are dificult to get started into the pocket.

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Punch out the primers

That may in fact be a problem... I have had occasions where crimped in primers actually broke decapping pins on my RCBS dies...

After knocking the old primer out you can use your deburring tool to ream out the primer for the occassional case. If you are finding a lot of crimped primers I would suggest the RCBS Primer Pocket Swaging tool.

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Originally posted by Doubless:

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Punch out the primers

That may in fact be a problem... I have had occasions where crimped in primers actually broke decapping pins on my RCBS dies...

Install a new de-prime pin and carry on!

Well, DUH!!! What I was trying to say is that not all of us happen to have extra decapping pins with us, and sometimes it is pretty frustrating to have to stop and "re-build" a die...

Well DUH also. I have broken a few pins, but never on crimpt primers. Those screw in pins are a pain, and that's why us non DUH reloaders have bought a packet of them.

I also broke an unbreakable pin a while ago, and that wasn't on crimpt primers either.
Not every one can do THAT.

When using a deburring tool to remove the primer crimp you may still find that the primer will not seat correctly. Some pockets below the crimp are out of round or to small. This is way you need a reamer or swager. The average guy will take more metal out using the deburring tool. This leaves an unsupported primer cup. In a high pressure round, like the 30-06, the primer cup may rupture on the edge where its not supported. The pin hole will act like a cutting torch on your bolt face, leaving a small hole. Winchester primes work best with crimped brass, as i feel they have a slight taper on the leading edge of there prime cups. A deburring tool is fine for a few cases, just dont over do it.

I load Lake City brass and after numerous busted decapping pins I bought a Lee Universal Depriming Die and haven't had any problems since.