To answer some of your questuons, the Lee sizing/decaping die will work just fine. If I remember correctly, Lee sells a die kit with a size, and bullet seating die. You will need a trimming station to trim your brass and I would invest in a digital scale to measure your loads.
As far as cleaning goes, I have switched over to wet tumbler and I will never go back to the walnut/corn dry style but that is just me. Also use the SEARCH function of the website if its working again, therr is alot of good info on here.
I use the Lee universal decapping die. But I had to dremmel that thing so the pin holder had more taper to enter .22 caliber case necks. If you get an uneven rim it’ll snag and sometimes ding your neck. reshaping that thing made my decapping speed increase a lot.
I use the hornady pocket reamer bit in a drill to remove the crimp. It’s cheap and effective. I didn’t like the super swager, but some people love it.
You don’t have to stick to a single stage to load Match ammo. I can get 1/4 MOA on my Dillon with a nice seating die and good powder.
I ream my primer pockets also but I loose a lot of cases due to over sized primer pockets. I was told that by using the Dillon swager you are not removing any brass and end up with tighter primer pockets because the brass displaced and not removed.
I used the Hornady unit below on my .223/5.56 crimped cases and three five gallon buckets of once fired brass. Needless to say this will make your fingers sore and I was having a 50% failure rate on primer pockets with Federal cases. This make me wonder if Dillon unit would make the primer pockets tighter.
The top reamer below is the RCBS reamer made for their case prep station and only removes the crimp and tapers the mouth of the primer pocket. You can see it is tapered and does not touch the walls of the primer pocket, I used the front reamer as a NO GO gauge. Meaning if the reamer entered the primer pocket without touching anything the reaming process was done.
Below I bought a primer pocket gauge and pin gauges to measure primer pockets, rather than seat primers and find out I had oversize loose primer pockets.
I would very much like to know what you didn’t like about the Dillon unit because I’m thinking about buying one.
Without having tried the thing… I can guess that the guage is a monumental addition of time in the brass prep process… I almost NEVER have to back a primer out for being too loose… maybe 2-3 per every 10 thousand pieces. Almost always, the pocket is good enought to fire at least once more. So I’ll mark the weak brass for final firing, then scrap.
I’ve got the Super Swager, but I’m starting to think I don’t like it since it doesn’t take out the crimp evenly around the entire circumference of the primer pocket mouth (if that makes sense)…not to mention you can ream/swage it too much and ruin the pocket…do you feel the Hornady Pocket Reamer is the best option out there? Also, is it possible to ream it too much? I’ve read that you can bottom out and still be good…
Federal is famous for soft brass and loose primer pockets and my problem was I didn’t know this until AFTER cleaning and prepping a five gallon bucket full of FC 05 cases. When I started seating primers half the cases had loose primer pockets, rather than seat a primer and have to push a live primer back out, I used the gauge “to save time”. Any “monumental addition of time” was removing the good primer from bad brass that had been prepped and resized.
I’m using a .1745 pin gauge as minimum primer pocket diameter, anything larger and a Lee depriming tool will push the primer out with just finger pressure.
This is NOT wasting time gauging primer pockets, BEFORE wet tumble the cases with stainless steel media and full length resizing these cases only to find out the primer pockets are too loose when seating a new primer. You remove the primer and ream the primer pocket crimp and gauge the diameter of the primer pocket. THEN trash the bad cases and then work on the GOOD cases.
With all due respect, Biged…your are OBSESSED with primer pockets! Like Markm and many others, if the case holds a primer I load it. If it was somewhat loose, I’ll also mark it and scrap after firing. I’ve loaded and fired thousands of rounds without problems. Carry on.
A over gasses AR15 can have the bolt moving to the rear while there is still pressure in the barrel and cause a loose primer to pop out and jam the action or the trigger group. Loose primers can also leak and etch and score the bolt face as pictured below. The person who posted this picture below said he didn’t care if the primer pockets were loose and when the bolt got bad enough he would buy a new one. Sorry I don’t belong to the Bubba dumb shit reloading club thank you very much.
Airhasz, I would NEVER shoot your reloads, the purpose of reloading is to make ammunition equal to and preferably “BETTER” than factory ammunition. Therefore again I would never shoot any of your “substandard” ammunition you reload. And I’m not OBSESSED with your reloading ability.
The military crimps their primer pockets for a reason and you seem to have forgotten why.
And by the way, just Google soft brass and loose primer pockets on Federal brass and quit telling me what I should or shouldn’t reload in YOUR opinion. The last thing anyone needs is a primer cup or anvil jamming up their rifle.
Now “carry on” somewhere else, and stop making dumb comments about ammunition YOU are NOT reloading.
Below is a 0.175 pin gauge and it is the same diameter as a new small rifle primer, as you can see the pin gauge entered the primer pocket. I can insert a primer into this case with my finger and the primer pocket is stretched and over sized after its first firing.
I have a second pin gauge that is 0.1745 or .0005 (1/2 thousandths smaller) and I use it as my reject gauge. Meaning if the pin gauge doesn’t fit the primer pocket is OK to reload. By using these pin gauges right after removing the primer crimp if the case fails it goes in the scrap bucket. This way I do not have do any further case prep and resizing only to find out the primer pocket is too loose when a new primer is seated.
The moderator at ar15.com reloading forum has made many posting about loose primer pockets and thin flash hole webs on Federal brass and how to check them. It appears there are a few people that are behind the times about soft Federal brass and reloading.
I have three five gallon buckets of once fired .223/5.56 brass that I got after our local Police and SWAT teams practiced with their AR15 rifles. And the most troublesome brass is Federal and most of these are stamped FC 05 and have stretched primer pockets. It is not a obsession with primer pockets, it is a work and time saver that helps in loading quality ammunition and not have primers falling out and jamming or damaging my AR15 rifles.
I’ve got 11,700 rounds through my Colt M4A1 in the last year and a half with at least 9,500 of them my reloads. I’ve not had one primer fall out period let alone jam my FCG. The Colt boltface looks very good and is not pitted like the above picture. The bolt in the pic is probably not a hardened mil spec grade bolt would be my guess as to why it is pitted so bad. I only use BCM and Colt bolts in my ARs and have had excellent results. Just because others have not experienced your boltface pitting and primer pocket problems is not a reason to call people knuckle draggers and behind the times or other degrading names. As for not wanting to shoot my reloads, you should be aware of rule #1 of ammo reloading…only shoot your own reloads.
None of my AR15 bolt faces are pitted because I inspect my primer pockets, if your unaware of the Federal soft brass and loose primer pockets issue that’s not my problem. And no one called you a knuckle dragger in this posting but you might be OBSESSED with MY primer pockets.
The strange part of this is your sitting looking at your computer screen hundreds if not thousands of miles from my reloading bench and telling me what is a acceptable primer pocket for me to reload. On top of this you “THINK” you can look at a bolt face photo and decide if its milspec or not. Your comments are simply amazing, I have been reload for over 46 years and can’t believe your audacity making comments on cases you have never seen.
For the record anyone viewing this thread can see I have only made comments on my experience. You are taking this too seriously. You seem to get upset when one has a different opinion than yours. No one persons opinion is the gold standard no matter how many years reloading they keep reminding us they have.
Take it to PM’s please.
It’s gotten really old, really quick.
On the opposite side of the coin, I have a bunch of LC brass with a strange crimp.
There are 4 crimps around the primer.
I swag the pockets out with a RCBS bench mounted swagger, but the pockets still won’t take a new primer without damaging the primer.
I bought a couple of cases of PPU M193 back when they were less than $300, they have got very tight pockets too.
I have to separate these and ream the pockets by hand.
