So, after a long hiatus I am back into reloading. I got some once-fired brass that is a mixed batch. I've noticed after decapping that one brand of brass which has a red ring around the primer pocket does NOT like to be re-primed. Very tight, mashed the primers, gets stuck, etc. There appears to be almost like a very thin inner ring of metal on the inner diameter of the primer pocket that obviously is making it too tight to get a new primer in. But I had no problem getting the old primer out when I decapped it.

Any solution to this, other than just not using this brass at all?

Thanks!

Sounds like you have some brass with military primer crimp. What brand and caliber? If you really want to use this military brass you will need to swage the primer pockets first.

quote:

Originally posted by steve4102:
Sounds like you have some brass with military primer crimp. What brand and caliber? If you really want to use this military brass you will need to swage the primer pockets first.

What is odd is that the milsurp Greek .30-06 I have is just fine with getting the new primers in. But this stuff with the red dye around the primer pocket is very tough to reseat a primer. I guess I'll just use different brass and pitch this stuff.

John...

Let me jump in here by saying that if it were me? Trashing the brass would depend on how much of the military brass you have, the caliber [since .223 is a pain....LOL!] and in what condition.

I bet RCBS still makes an inexpensive primer pocket swager for both large and small primer pockets. It works pretty good. Its what I use. For a little more Dillon makes a separate unit to swage primer pockets. And IIRC some of the reloading equipment manufacturers make some sort of cutting/reaming tool that will ream the pockets. All for inexpensive compared to the costs of brass these days.

John,
I have tried all kinds of trimmers to remove the military crimp from .223 cartridges with out a consistent result. I was really frustrated fighting this. I just received a Dillon Super Swage 600 and swaged the primer pockets on 500 pieces of .223 mil brass. I loaded the cases yesterday without one primer mishap. IMO it was worth the $93.44 since I have 1500 more pieces of mil brass to swage.

Dillon Super Swage 600 (DL20095)
Sub-Total: $86.95
Residential Shipping: $6.49
Total: $93.44

Purchased from eguns.com -- Pengar Enterprises, Inc.


Good Luck,
Pat