I have some mil 223 brass, and during reloading today a few primers fell out. I don't know if I just did not seat them well in my Dillon 650, or that I had passed them more than once through the Dillon de-swage tool before loading. Any ideas?

Gary

Gary - Is your military brass new, or has it been fired?

Brass fired in an over-generous chamber may sometimes expand primer pockets, even though firing oesn't remove the crimp. Whether that happens may depend on a number of different considerations, but it is not too uncommon with brass that has been through a machine gun.

I am not sure. I got then from Precision Brass. I assumed hat they were once fired. There did not seen to be an indication of over pressure on the case.

Short answer yes.
The crimp removal tools that swage the primer pocket do not compensate for different "hardness" of case heads.
For several years high power shooters won't have anything to do with Federal brass. Due to perceived "soft" brass at the case head.

muck

quote:

Originally posted by Gary Sewell:
I am not sure. I got then from Precision Brass. I assumed hat they were once fired. There did not seen to be an indication of over pressure on the case.

The problem I was referring to is not necessarily one of excess pressures, but of lack of support at the case head during firing, coming from chambers cut and/or headspaced loosely enough to ensure extraction during full auto fire.

quote:

Originally posted by Gary Sewell:
I have some mil 223 brass, and during reloading today a few primers fell out. I don't know if I just did not seat them well in my Dillon 650, or that I had passed them more than once through the Dillon de-swage tool before loading. Any ideas?

Gary

You PP swaging tool is a solid punch.
It cannot make the entire primer pocket over size. Sounds like you bought some bad cases.

I think you have bad cases as well. I am not familiar with the Dillon, but my RCBS can not possibly over swage (swage is squeezing metal, regardless of purpose; you are de-crimping), it will bend the rod first. That rod will bend if there is some tumbling media packed into the case. Experience can be a painful teacher at times!

It is not a rumour about Fed 223 cases. The webbing is so thin that you usually only get one reload out of a bonafide once fired case. The primer pockets expand easily on them.

Talked to the great tech support at Dillon today and was told that the best way to calibrate the Swage is to first find some not-military brass. Take a felt dry erasable mark pen and place a mark just on the inside edge around the primer hole. Next adjust the swage pin until the ink has been removed from just the inside edge and then tighten the nut.

I tried it with 6 mil cases and it works great!! I had my adjusted before that is was very hard to bring the lever to the complete down position. Now it is very easy and I still get a good primer seating.

Gary