How to Ream Military Primer Pocket Crimps with Wilson Tool
Many shooters, particular those who shoot vintage military rifle matches, reload once-fired military cartridge brass. This brass may be high-quality and stout, but you may encounter a primer crimp* that interferes with the seating of a new primer. There are a variety of dedicated, military-crimp tools on the market, such as Dillon’s excellent Super Swage 600 tool that “rolls the crimp away”. But the Dillon tool costs $114.99 and takes quite a bit of room on your reloading bench. If you don’t want to drop a C-note and give up valuable bench space — here’s another (much cheaper) solution.
If you already have a Wilson case trimmer set-up, you can ream away those military crimps using an affordable Wilson accessory — the Primer Pocket Reamer (large #PPR210, small #PPR175). This $32.65 accessory is used in conjunction with a Wilson case trimmer and case-holder as shown above.
In the respected Riflemans Journal website, the Editor, “GS Arizona”, showed how to use the Wilson primer pocket reamer to remove military crimps on Lake City .30-06 cartridge brass. He explains: “The case goes into the Wilson case-holder, the same one used for case trimming, and the reamer replaces the trimmer head in the tool base. The threaded rod on the left side, which is normally used to regulate trim length has no use for this operation and it is simply backed out. Hold the case-holder as you turn the reamer into the primer pocket, it cuts easily and quickly. The reamer will stop cutting when the proper depth is reached.”
Do you really need to do this operation with military-crimped brass? Yes, and here’s why: “Any attempt to prime the case without removing the crimp will simply result in a mangled primer that cannot be expected to fire and certainly won’t fire reliably.”
Vintage Military Rifle shooters often utilize surplus military brass with primer pocket crimps.
*Why does military brass has a primer crimp? GS Arizona answers: “The crimp is nothing more than an intentional deformation of the case around the primer pocket, the purpose of which is to retain the primer in the case despite high pressure situations in machine guns and other automatic weapons where a loose primer may cause a malfunction. As reloaders, our task is to get rid of the remnants of the crimp in order to allow re-priming the case.”
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Tags: L.E. Wilson, Lake City Brass, Military Crimp, Military pocket, Primer Pocket Remover, Primer Reamer, Vintage Military
I’ve been making poor mans match brass out of once fired military ammo like Lake City or IVI.
I like military brass because it’s good heavy cases… much like Lapua, but over the lot.. not as consistent and Lapua, but 1/10 the price.
I start with 2,000 to 3,000 rounds.
So I resize, anneal and remove crimp then with a sharpie I weigh every case and write the weight on it.
Later I sort them into lots of 100 according to closes weight.
Out of 3000 rounds I get about 8 lots of 100 that are within 1/10 of a grain and about 10 more that are within 2/10s of a grain.
The rest degrade from there.
Anyway, it takes some time but it’s a nice way to save money and end up with very consistent cases.
Since lose primer pockets spell the end of my otherwise-useful brass, one vote here that the military once again got it right on small arms. May actually need to hunt for a crimp inserter, lol.
Wilson tools work great, but the ones without a crank are made by a sadist who delights in the physical agony of shooters. Using one of these tools on any reasonable number of cartridges will make you feel like you burned your fingertips on molten metal.