Bone Head move on my part.

I pick up .223/5.56mm brass from the zero line on the range, several times a month. It all ends up at home, in a bucket. Periodically, for 200 pieces or more, I decap, stainless tumble, size, and trim.

I HAD been cutting out the primer pocket of the crimped military brass with a Redding hand held. Well, it's slow, so I recently purchased the RCBS swaging die kit, to do both small and large primer pockets. Well, today, I FL sized, and trimmed 100 pieces, then went to assemble the new die.

Of course, dumb**s, the swaging rod won't fit inside a properly sized neck! It fits is a fired sized neck. So here I am, back to the Redding hand cutting tool.

It happens

Dontcha just hate it when something like that happens? I made the mistake a while back of assuming my sizing die was still set for proper shoulder bump from the last time I loaded some .223 for an AR. Sooooo, after going through the entire process, including priming, charging and seating the bullets and wiping them down for storage I decided to chamber a few rounds for fit. Surprise, bolt wouldn't close. I checked everything about the chamber and BCG, good to go. I thought to myself, "surely not". Well, surely so, my sizing die lock ring had moved sometime, somehow and the shoulder had not been bumped back far enough for proper chambering. After telling myself how stupid I was and having been reloading for over 40 years, I knew better than to assume anything. So, pulled all the bullets, dumped the powder, pulled out the decapping pin and set the die for proper shoulder bump and started all over again. Amazing how well a properly sized cartridge case chambers. I'm just glad it was only 50 rounds.

Yessir, been there, done that.

That is one of many reasons I use Hornady lock rings on all my dies now. Once set, thet do not move.

my texts messed you up, sorry

This happened before them. I didn't know what I didn't know. Won't make that mistake again.

Experience the ability to recognize a mistake the next time you make it

Look on the bright side, it won't happen again. Like touching the hot wire.

+1

I've never swaged prime pockets before so bear with me while I ask a stupid question. I don't understand why the swagging rod would be setup up for unfired brass. Wouldn't you decap when you resize? Doesn't this require and extra step just to decap the brass?

That's exactly right.

The swaging rod is set up for FIRED brass. So the O.D. is such that it will fit in a fired .223 mouth, but not a resized one.

You would have to use a die that all it does is decap, which I do. If a guy does not have a die that decaps, only he would have to set up his sizing die to decap, but not resize the neck. That is, if he wanted to swage primer pockets, instead of cutting them.

Wouldn't it make more since for RCBS to make the swagging rod fit a sized case and save the additional decapping step? Is their a reason its setup for fired cases? Just trying to understand.

I believe my Dillon swager is the same way.

I'm only speculating here, they want a large surface area of the end of the rod, to handle the force. But I get what you're saying, would a few thousandths smaller be the end of the world? I doubt it.

I just did things in the wrong order, because I didn't know better. It won't happen again. But for the guy that does not have a decapping (only) die, this swager die can cause to set up time, on his sizer die, that maybe didn't need to be there.

Are you sure? I have a Dillon swagger but its on loan right now. Actually I have never used it personally. First time someone asked to borrow it, I said sure but you have to swag my brass also.

Then I found that e-xtreme bullets sold military brass sized and primed ready to load cheaper than it was worth my time to process my own brass.

Actually, I am not sure at all.

OK, now I'm confused. I've got the RCBS swagger die and I would have sworn that I've used it on resized cases - both neck and full length? It's probably been a year since I swagged any, so maybe I'm misremembering. Or maybe I'm finally getting those flashbacks they told me I'd get when I took those drugs back in the 70's...

At least it’s only 100. As much as you have access to it’s almost worth tossing them if doing by hand is that much trouble.

P.S. I don’t have a frickin clue what you’re talking about

Eh, I sat down and cut the primer pockets out while eating my lunch. Throwing away perfectly good brass is not in my DNA.

What I'm talking about is Military brass. On the mass production machine, once the primer is seated in the pocket, an additional step happens right afterward. The machine stakes, or crimps the primer pocket. What that means is, a rim, or tabs of brass of the case head, are forced over the primer, holding it securely in place. For full-auto fire, no primers will come out of brass, and lock up the rifle (machine gun).

So when that type brass is used to be reloaded, the press will force out the old primer, but much of the crimp remains, enough that the brass will still not accept a new primer. There's two ways to get rid of it, cutting, or swaging. The swager is a cone on the ram side of the press, that via force from the press forces the crimp away, there by allowing access to accept a new primer. On the die side of the press there is a rod that contacts the inside of the case head. Think hammer and anvil. It is a one time process.

You owe me a beer for this lesson.