Lee Precision Ram Swage

Crimped-in primers are generally found in military ammunition. The crimp is added to help secure the primers during extreme conditions, transportation and firing, particularly when automatic weapons are involved. When it comes to reloading brass with crimped-in primers, it takes more effort to de-prime them and you also need to remove the crimp before you can re-prime and reload them. The additional work does put people off using cases with crimped primers but the tool on test from Lee Precision makes things a lot easier. Attempting to re-prime these types of cases without first removing the crimp can be dangerous and should not be attempted.

Get them out

The Lee Ram Swage can be used in any single-stage press that has a 7/8-14 TPi thread and accepts universal press shell holders. Instead of a shell holder, you install a ‘swage holder’ on the top of the ram and two are supplied so that you can work on brass with large or small primer pockets.

With a case installed in the appropriate swage holder, you raise the ram to the top and then, with the case sticking up through the press, you install the guided push swage die. When you install the die you have to push it down, against the spring resistance, until it engages with the thread on the press, then screw it down until it stops. You then lower the ram and screw the die in a ¼ turn. To check you have fully removed the crimp, try to introduce a new primer to the pocket and it should sit level and evenly. If it doesn’t, you can screw the die in an extra ¼ turn at a time until the primer pocket is sufficiently swaged and a new primer sits flat on it.

To the naked eye, the swaged pocket does not look much different, but under magnification, you can see the rim has been swaged and the projections from the crimp are gone. Once you have the tool set up then cases are very quickly and easily processed.

The particularly clever thing about this tool is that in order to overcome the potential problem of cases becoming stuck on the punch that swages the primer pocket, the holder contains 5x 400 lb force springs to extract the punch automatically, each and every time.

Conclusion

This is a great gadget to have around if you intend to reload military type ammunition with crimpedin primers. With brass being so expensive, you can very quickly turn what was previously useless once-fired ‘scrap’ into reloadable brass, all with a tool that costs less than 100 new cases. It makes good economical sense to invest in one and bring some brass back into use. If you have any other brass that is hard to prime, even though it has not had crimped-in primers previously, you can also use this tool to swage out the tight primer pockets. It will also allow you to ‘regularise’ all of your cases and banish problematic primer pockets from your bench.