[C5Mackie]

I used a Harvey Primer Decapper and then tumbled, swaged(Dillion), and primed, primarily LC, but with some FC brass sprinkled in. All primers were high.
I initially used a Lyman uniformer + battery drill and it took a light swipe on one side of the pocket. I seated some primers and they were still high.
I bought a RW Hart adjustable pocket reamer with a battery drill, and now I'm removing brass from any where 60% to 100% of the bottom of the primer pocket. Primers are now seating just below the surface the the case. I approached the final reamer depth by resetting the reamer in several steps.

This brass is once fired LC brass of mixed dates. I've reloaded 500+ 5.56 LC cases in the past 2 years, and have never had a high primer. I am using the No.41 primers as before, and also tried some Federal SR primers for sh!ts and & giggles, and all were high.

I have a couple of dozen cases reamed and will load and test fire, to satisfy myself that primer depth is not an issue.

I'm puzzled as to why I didn't run into high primers in the first 500.
Anybody have any comments on how much/what percentage of the bottom of the primer pocket should be cleaned up?

 

[ms6852]

I have the Dillon swager also, sometimes, depending on the crimp the swager may cut a tiny sliver of the brass and gets crushed on the floor of the primer , I just use the pocket reamer on my Lyman prep center.

 

[howlnmad]

And that is why I prefer to cut the crimp away.

 

[Krong of Belsnarf]

Using a Dillon that is not adjusted quite correctly can lead to high primers. Dressing up the bottom of the pocket will cure it. I generally just use a reamer with 5.56 crimped cases.

 

[jim brady]

And that is why I prefer to cut the crimp away.

I've seen a lot of discussion on removing the primer crimp on fired military cases. I've been doing it for a very long time. Not 'rocket science'. You don't need a lot of expensive or exotic equipment to do the job. Just cut the dang crimps from the edge of the primer pocket. The new primers will seat 'slicker than snott on a glass door handle'.

I'm just a simple kind of guy. I use a case chamfer tool. Just a twist or two (only need to do it once in a case's life) and that crimp is gone. You can spend all you like to do this job - it's YOUR money. For me - I'll just use my $6.00 RCBS chamfer tool. Of course I won't have the bragging rights - but that's not why I reloaded.

 

[Don Fischer]

I've used a lot of nec fired military case's and never ran into that problem. Someone mentioned a sliver cut off the side of the pocket, never heard of that before but don't doubt it could happen. With military case's I have used my RCBS deburr tool to remove the crimp for about 50 yrs and never a problem. We keep getting the latest and greatest in new tools but sometime's there's a glitch. Suddenly the old tools appeal to me even more! I'm sure that no one that makes a swedge tool has any intention of something like that happening!

 

[accident]

I've seen a lot of discussion on removing the primer crimp on fired military cases. I've been doing it for a very long time. Not 'rocket science'. You don't need a lot of expensive or exotic equipment to do the job. Just cut the dang crimps from the edge of the primer pocket. The new primers will seat 'slicker than snott on a glass door handle'.

I'm just a simple kind of guy. I use a case chamfer tool. Just a twist or two (only need to do it once in a case's life) and that crimp is gone. You can spend all you like to do this job - it's YOUR money. For me - I'll just use my $6.00 RCBS chamfer tool. Of course I won't have the bragging rights - but that's not why I reloaded.

The same here. I don't own a primer pocket swager. I did purchase a Lyman primer pocket reamer but I found out pretty quickly that my Lyman chamfering tool chucked in the drill works way better than the actual PP Reamer tool. So far (knock on wood), I haven't had any issues with primers sitting proud in the pocket yet like you are experiencing.

 

[Krong of Belsnarf]

I started removing the crimps from surplus 30/06 cases back in the 1960's with a Philips screw driver with the tip filed off a bit. It was ugly but it worked. I find the Dillon swager does a much better job on 30/06 and 308 cases.

 

[9026543]

The same here. I don't own a primer pocket swager. I did purchase a Lyman primer pocket reamer but I found out pretty quickly that my Lyman chamfering tool chucked in the drill works way better than the actual PP Reamer tool. So far (knock on wood), I haven't had any issues with primers sitting proud in the pocket yet like you are experiencing.

I found like you that my Lyman chamfering tool chucked up in my cordless drill worked perfectly. Have removed the crimp in a bucket full of military .223/5.56 brass with no issues with primer seating.

 

[howlnmad]

I found like you that my Lyman chamfering tool chucked up in my cordless drill worked perfectly. Have removed the crimp in a bucket full of military .223/5.56 brass with no issues with primer seating.

That's been my "go to" lately.