Hey all! Sorry to make my first post a question, but Ive been surfing this forum for a while just watching and decided its time to make an appearance.
Im relatively new to reloading, I load mostly 308precision loads on a Rock Chucker Single Stage. I moved to 556 to shake things up and diversify but I ran into a possible problem priming decrimped Lake City brass. I am encountering moderate difficulty seating cci #400 primers. They take twice the amount of force as my 308 brass does which worries me and after applying the force, they kind of slam into place. I noticed they all sit kind of high and only after extra pressuredo they recess a bit. After some inspection I noticed that the head of the primer is getting smashed a bit and I just wanted to ask if you all see any problem with them. I put a second picture of a factory loaded speer gold dot in as well for comparison. I was told by a local loader not to use magnum (#450) primers due to increased heat and pressure, but they seemed a bit easier to seat. Any comments? Thanks again everyone, and I hope in the future I can add to the forum myself!

I've reprimed a fair amount of 5.56x45 brass. I use a little primer pocket reamer and do them individually while staring at the television.

The pictures you posted don't look like the crimp has been removed. Not sure what a Dillon swager makes them look like but the cases I've done have a very obvious radius at the upper edge of the pocket.

I also use a LEE AUTO PRIME which allows me to feel each one. After I ream the crimp away they go right in.

JC, I am told you can use a de-burring tool to remove the crimp material on the edge of the primer pocket. That crimped in primer on that Lake City brass is what is causing the hard priming issue you have described.

thanks gents. I bought the brass and it was packaged as polished, once fired, crimp removed grade 1 brass. Guess they lied? Anyway thanks for the input. I ended up loading 20 of them Should they be safe to fire? they all look like the one in the photo.

Might still be a little crimp left in the pockets. Get you a swagger or primer pocket uniformer and see if you can knock the rest of it out.

The loads you already have loaded will not be a problem.

Yea, the crimp was never removed from that brass. A deburring tool will work but take forever. Easier just to buy the RCBS primer pocket crimp removing tool and run the brass through it.

The problem with most military NATO spec ammo is that the primer is Crimped into the primer pocket. When you deprime the sized case, a rim is left on the edges of the primer pocket. This "ledge" has to be moved out of the way or cut out.
The best way is to swage the primer pocket back to it original size. Dillion makes a bench tool to do just this. It will do large and small primer pockets. It also uniforms the shape and size of the pocket itself. #1 tool, bar none.
The other tool which is much cheaper is a "Cricket" tool. This hand tool cuts out and removes the crimp ring.
Either tool will allow you to seat the primer with much less force,chance of damaging the live primer or worse yet, setting it off.

Your crimp isn't all gone yet

I use the Dillon dedicated swag....it works it's charm effortlessly

Thanks for all the help! I was trying to take the easy cheap way out and just buy brass with crimps already removed to avoid having to buy a swager or primer pocket uniforming tool, but it looks like i'm going to be anyway. Just add it to the tab i guess hahaha.
-God bless

If you don't have gazillions to do this tool works just fine:
http://www.midwayusa.com/produ...cm_vc=ProductFinding

In the old days when GI brass was cheap we used
to remove the crimp with a pen knife. Stick the tip of the knife against the crimp and roll the case across a table. It works like a mini-lathe.

quote:

Originally posted by Snowwolfe:
If you don't have gazillions to do this tool works just fine:
http://www.midwayusa.com/produ...cm_vc=ProductFinding

I use that same tool for LC brass and can confirm it works well. It is a little slow with 556 because of the narrow case mouth but I use the LC brass mostly for .300 black out after it has been cut and reformed and it is much quicker. LC brass makes strong .300 blk cases.