Reloading Military Ball 30-06 Cases

[psteinmayer]

I am going to reload a couple hundred M2 Ball (30-06) cases, and I'm looking for a good way to remove the primer crimp. I tried to prime a case today, and damaged three primers before I figured out the lip left by the primer crimp was the problem. Want is the best way to remove that so I can prime my cases?

Thanks in advance!
Paul

[Litt'le Lee]

you have your choice of a swageer or a trimmer-I use a Hornady primer pocket trimmer
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p4634.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0&_nkw=hornady+primer+pocket+trimmer&_sacat=382&_from=R40

[Hefights]

I use this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdkA7vDeaes

[Parashooter]

If those 200 are the only GI cases you're ever going to de-crimp, a common case deburring tool will do the job slowly but effectively once you learn how much brass to remove. If you're going to continue collecting GI brass, a pocket swaging die set like the RCBS product will prove cost-effective.

[PKelly]

I use a tool similar to the Hornady, I believe it's made by Lyman. $7 or $8 at Cabellas if I remember correctly.

[m1ashooter]

Drill bit works.

[joem]

I reload ALOT of military brass. I bought the Dillon Super swedge. Expensive but does a great job if you have thousands of cases.

[psteinmayer]

Well, I don't have thousands... but since I intend on only shooting Ball ammo in my Garand, I expect to only be using military brass from here on out. When I reload, it will be with FMJ bullets, and most likely 4064. All in all, I have around 250 rounds of military brass (mostly US Ball). Also, I have around 300 rounds of Ball ammo waiting for the zombies to appear (of the next National Match, which ever comes first). I like the idea of the RBCS swage, which looks easy to use and effective! I thought about using my case de-burr reamer, but I just don't have the hand strength to hold 200 some odd cases and turn the tool any more.

Thanks for your help everyone! Much obliged!
Paul

[NuJudge]

The RCBS Swage has done the best job for me, but it's slow. I finally bought a Dillon, which every once in a while doesn't get all the crimp out of the way, and I have to use a chamfer tool.

[da gimp]

Drill bit works.

saw a reloaded US 5.56 case that someone had removed the crimp with a drill, let go at the primer pocket once, (fired thru a Colt AR 15.........) pieces of primer came back & hit the white portion of the shooters R eye..... and into his R hand. The magazine was destroyed.........Mike was a USN pilot stationed on the Big E & had to have extensive testing before he was returned to flight status.

Quit being cheap & stupid buy using a drill or a knife.... buy a Dillon primer pocket swager, they give you both small primer pocket & large primer pocket swaging rods with it..... It is very simple to use & you can quickly swage the pockets of a 1000 , 5.56 cases once you get into it. It'll outlast you, your kids & their great grandkids........ & fairly cheap too.

I've never used the Hornady or the RCBS swagers, so I cannot comment on em.

[PhillipM]

I happened across a Herter's swage and neck sizer for $20 at a gunshow a couple years ago, the little button with the swage that goes in the shellholder kept sticking in the case and when I'd remove the case, the button would come out with it. Grrrr! Then I gazed upon the Dillon 550B and put the button in #3 position and let er rip, just don't turn the shell plate out of habit!

[Jim in Salt Lake]

I use the RCBS swager, it works pretty well. I had a batch of Lake City cases, '68 headstamp, that I had an absolute b**tch getting de-primed. Those suckers were in there tight, on every other case, the pin would pierce the primer. I ended up taking the sizing die off and using a punch and hammer. I used a punch slightly smaller than the flash hole and got them out.

[togor]

I use the RCBS universal decapper, with the spring removed and something stuffed in there to keep the pin base against the stem, and have never had a problem or busted a pin when decapping LC brass, or even the crimped KA stuff that is really hard. I also use the RCBS swager, but to be honest, I end up going over it with a deburring tool anyways. With hard brass like KA, the RCBS swager ends up cutting the crimp off sometimes, and it ends up as a loose "ring" of brass in the primer pocket. On small rifle primer pockets, the RCBS swager seems to have better luck, at least in my case.

[psteinmayer]

I've been using a Lee decapper for years and never had a problem with it! As for the swager, I think I'm going to look for the RCBS. It looks easy enough to use, and the price seems to be right too!

[madsenshooter]

The RCBS works for me. When I first started reloading for my Garand, a fellow gave me a couple hundred twice fired LC brass, as he wished to use commercial brass. He'd removed the crimp with a deburring tool, but didn't go deep enough, I was still ruining primers. A knife took care of that. When reloading them Paul, remember that GI cases have less capacity than the cases used to develop most load data you'll find. (Though they are close to Remington cases). That was my buddie's problem, he wanted max velocity, so started with max loads shown in his reloading manual, which were developed in Winchester cases, without working up. All the cases he gave me had some pretty flat primers, and he didn't do very good despite having a Roland Beaver worked on Garand that would shoot very, very good with lighter loads. It isn't how quick the bullet gets there that matters, it's where it hits.

[psteinmayer]

I'm going to be loading 150 Gr FMJ with IMR 4064 (49 grains, I think). I think that will be ok as far as capacity goes. I don't really want to get into max velocities... so I'm going to stick to standard. I tried working one case with a small case reamer, but it's a lot of work and I'm not certain that the cup will properly support the primer at this point. I would much rather use the swager.

[psteinmayer]

Well, I ordered a RCBS Swager set, which should arrive tomorrow. I'll let everyone know how it turns out... I'm very excited to see how well it works out. Now, if I can find a couple pounds of IMR 4064, because I'm out! LOL

[NMC_EXP]

I'm going to be loading 150 Gr FMJ with IMR 4064 (49 grains, I think). I think that will be ok as far as capacity goes. I don't really want to get into max velocities... so I'm going to stick to standard. I tried working one case with a small case reamer, but it's a lot of work and I'm not certain that the cup will properly support the primer at this point. I would much rather use the swager.

Relative to bolt guns, the Garand & M14 have a fairly narrow powder burn rate window. You might want to verify that IMR 4064 is OK for the Garand. Way back when, most folks shooting the Garand in competition used IMR 4895.

If you have not reloaded for a gas gun before be sure to: (1) clean your primer pockets, (2) seat primers below flush, (3) full length resize brass back to zero on a cartridge headspace gage, (4) trim case length to at or below max, (5) clean the chamber.

Because of a heavy, floating firing pin failure to do these things can result in a slam fire. If it slam fires out of battery it will ruin your day.

Regards

Jim

[psteinmayer]

Thanks Jim. Appreciate the sage advice!

Yes, IMR-4064 is one of the recommended powders for Garand (the other being 4895). I also always clean the primer pockets and full length size when loading 30-06, as I think it's imperative (because of headspacing on the taper). I would switch to 4895, but I've been working with 4064 in both 30-06 and 30-40 for almost 30 years now... although I now load 4350 with my 220gr 30-40 competition loads.

Incidentally, I use a #405 nylon bristle tip in my Dremel to clean the primer pockets, which works amazingly well... much better than a small primer pocket cleaner... and no chance of damage to the primer pocket.

[Nick Marciano]

Hands down,the best tool I have is the Dillon swager. I found some 223 brass at the range which had the primer pockets ground out and I reloaded them. Upon firing one of the primers blew out and jamed up my AR by getting in the trigger mechanism. I've done countless thousands of 9,45,223,308 and 30/06 with the Dillon and it does a great job.

Nick10Ring

[joem]

In one of my older Lyman books they recommned reducing the max charge by 2 gr if you using military cases due to different case capacity.

[Former Cav]

one thing you might be overlooking if you are using a Dillon press.
Where you slide the brass into the 1st station (full length size, decap and prime) their is a little spring that looks sort of like a paper clip. Be sure that is adjusted to the base of the 30-06 brass . Otherwise, the brass is NOT centered over the primer cup.
I've forgotten about this when going from 45 ACP to 38 spcl and all of the sudden I was having troubles seating the primers in the 38 special.
Good luck.

[psteinmayer]

Well... I've received my RCBS Swager and I've now swaged 50 cases successfully. A couple needed to be swaged twice as there was still a little lip that was catching the primers and damaging them... but once I got the hang of it - no problems!

Thanks very much for everyone's help and advice!

[swede49]

The RCBS swager die works great--have done a couple of thousand 5.56 and 30-06 military cases. You'll get a consistent, quick removal of the crimp.

[mikld]

Good that you found something that works for you. As a lifelong machinist/mechanic/electrician when I first encountered crimped primer pockets, my first thought was a counter sink. For about 18 years I have been using a plain old, high speed steel 60 degree countersink (I had a half dozen in my tool box) to remove primer crimps, both round and staked. When I de-crimp by hand, a couple mebbe three twists is all that's needed (no more than a few thousandths, just enough to cut out the disrupted case metal)., and when I have a bunch to de-crimp, I can chuck the countersink in my drill and just a couple seconds with moderate pressure will do the job quite well. I've done a lot of 5.56, some 45 AC, some 9mm, and recently a few hundred 30-06. I think someone would have to try pretty hard to remove enough metal to make the case dangerous...

[hkp7fan]

I had a similar experience when I first started reloading. I had no concept of a crimped primer, and wondered why I had so much trouble seating primers in my once-fired military brass.

I used a Lyman hand tool for awhile, then got the Dillon Super Swage. It is a little tricky to get properly adjusted, but once you get it set properly it works really well, and is very fast.

[Hefights]

''Mike was a USN pilot stationed on the Big E & had to have extensive testing before he was returned to flight status."

Lucky, good lesson learned to relate that didnt have permanent consequences, but a very close call.