Mods to RCBS Primer Pocket Swager for Lee Press
Posted: 21 Nov 2017 17:46
I can't claim this as my idea. I saw it years ago on the internet but figured sharing it was in order.
The RCBS primer pocket swager works well for those crimped pockets in military and other "Tactical" cases. It has one weakness however and it isn't readily usable on the Lee Breech Lock Challenger press. The weakness is the nut holding the swaging stem tends to loosen up allowing the stem either turn up which leads to poor or no swaging or down which can cause the stem to bend. Either result is a royal pain. The solution is simple, just add a lock nut. To get the swager to work with the press requires making a second thimble to fit over the ram. This allows the RCBS thimble to sit above the ridges around the used primer sink on the press when the ram is down so it can pop the cases off of the swaging head. I used a 3/4 inch copper pipe union that I had to lap down a bit to get the RCBS thimble to fit over it. With this setup I have swaged well over a thousand cases of 7.62 and 5.56 as well as a bunch of 9mm. No additional reaming of the primer pocket is required.
The RCBS primer pocket swager works well for those crimped pockets in military and other "Tactical" cases. It has one weakness however and it isn't readily usable on the Lee Breech Lock Challenger press. The weakness is the nut holding the swaging stem tends to loosen up allowing the stem either turn up which leads to poor or no swaging or down which can cause the stem to bend. Either result is a royal pain. The solution is simple, just add a lock nut. To get the swager to work with the press requires making a second thimble to fit over the ram. This allows the RCBS thimble to sit above the ridges around the used primer sink on the press when the ram is down so it can pop the cases off of the swaging head. I used a 3/4 inch copper pipe union that I had to lap down a bit to get the RCBS thimble to fit over it. With this setup I have swaged well over a thousand cases of 7.62 and 5.56 as well as a bunch of 9mm. No additional reaming of the primer pocket is required.