Product Information

kevin m of ceres, ca

Date Posted: 12/25/2007

Works great, it remover the primer crimp so you can reuse the brass. I have used it on .223 and 30-06, it is well worth the money.

Hank Bayles of Lakeside, Ca

Date Posted: 3/5/2007

Great Product, I had the unit up and working within 5 minutes. Very good quality and price.

Aaron Johnson of Wilson, NY

Date Posted: 2/11/2007

The tool works as advertised with no problems whatsoever. I swaged well over 4000 cases so far without any issues at all. It seems well built and should last a lifetime using it on a RCBS aluminum frame single stage press

Ed Delgado of Pembroke Pines, FL

Date Posted: 12/22/2003

This thing works really well. The setup is a bit confusing at first; however, once you get going it is a breeze. I had 500 rounds of LC 308 brass to swage and once I was up to speed you can easily swage several hundred per hour. Align interior rod properly and check occasionally to ensure that it is tight and you can just crank away. Get a good swing going to pop the shell off the mandrel at the bottom of your stroke and make sure you are using a sturdy O type press.

Jerry McMains of Williamsburg, OH

Date Posted: 6/19/2003

I have swaged over 5000 primer pockets and the tool is still working great!

William Brown of Peterstown, WV

Date Posted: 6/19/2003

I liked the product just fine It works well on military brass.

Ed Barrett of St. Joseph, MO

Date Posted: 6/19/2003

Works great for taking the primer crimp out of Military brass very quickly.

Brian Dunn of Las Vegas, nv

Date Posted: 6/19/2003

Very unique tool works excelently and a great price.

Paul Volovski of Jim Thorpe, PA

Date Posted: 6/19/2003

Easy to use and doesn't remove material from pocket. Well constructed and will last a lifetime.

Dennis Thompson of Troy, IL

Date Posted: 6/19/2003

It works, it easy to use, and that's all I ask of it. I just sorry I sold my original set.

N AC of Central , TX

Date Posted: 4/10/2008

Typical RCBS quality. May not be the fastest system but it works and you only have to do it once to the case! When all else fails read directions. I'm using it on a 30 yr old Rock chucker and it works fine. Keep the rod aligned and as high in the die body as possible, use whole die body to adjust to proper swag depth, as per direction. Thanks RCBS for a cost effective way to solve this problem!

Raymond Lauffer of Oklahoma city, OK

Date Posted: 1/24/2008

I like this. It's easy to use, except for the upstroke to remove the case. I have a Lee Classic Cast Press and I called RCBS about the larger ram on it. They sent me a new popper off thing to fit the LEE press, NO CHARGE, and everything works great !!!

Gregory Gauvin of Branford, CT

Date Posted: 10/1/2007

Upon receiving this item, I noted that I was shipped a bent (possible used? swager rod (.223 rem). I was upset at first, having such great service with Midway. I contacted the customer service and within 2 minutes recieved an email showing that not only did Midway place another order for me at no cost, not even shipping, but sent me an entirely new combo set - not just the swager rod. Thumbs up to Midway! The combo set worked flawlessly for me swaging several .30-06 cases. The set-up directions are not highly detailed. I use this die with the cheapo lee press, and have had no trouble. The cast press does not take nearly a beating with this die as reforming 30-06 to 7.7 Jap, and has not shown any indications of breakage. I have not yet primed any .223 cases to see if it correctly sizes the primer pockets. Be sure to set up the die correctly!!! I have personally witnessed a friend bend his swager rod - and it can be done easily. Otherwise, great product and SUPERB customer service.

T Anderson of Douglas, AZ

Date Posted: 9/30/2007

This single stage tool works well. It's not very complicated in set up, and is easy to use. The extractor cap is one size only and is made to have a "loose" fit on the ram. Removing primer crimp is a one time only need for Military/LEO brass cases. Giving the price and ease of use this tool is a better choice. Shop around for it.

Chad G of LP, AZ

Date Posted: 5/4/2007

It works but it is slow, took me well over 6 hours to 1500 .223 cases. You have to stick the case on the rod prior to raising the ram, the rod is not centered perfectly and does slow down progress quite a bit. Once you have the swager set for the particular caliber the task will role well. Be sure you have a sturdy bench/mounting point, in order to strip the case off the head you have to slam the handle forward, the larger the case the more force is required, maybe attaching the bench to the wall can solve the problem. It was a good buy and the out of pocket cost is low, when compared to other methods that are more complicated.

Bruce Layne of Lexington, KY

Date Posted: 2/23/2007

There was confusion about whether this RCBS Primer Pocket Swager would work with the popular Lee Classic Cast Press. It does, for the most part. The case stripper does not work with the Classic Cast press because the press ram diameter is too large and the ram doesn't travel far enough down into the press. It doesn't seem practical to modify the case stripper to work with the Classic Cast press, but it wouldn't be difficult to make a new case stripper that did work. It should be a little taller and a little larger in diameter. But so far, I'm not having any trouble using it without the case stripper. I roll the top of the .223 cases around to free them from the swaging head that's mounted on top of the press ram. It's a lot easier than using a primer pocket tool like the very nice version from Hornady that does chamfer the primer pocket, and it does a better and more uniform job too. In practice, I use the button on top of the swaging head as a gage to see if the pocket needs to be swaged. If it doesn't fit into the primer pocket, I lift the case up onto the case rod (mounted in the swager body on the top of the press) and raise the swaging head to swage the primer pocket and then lower swaging head with the case pressed onto it, and then roll the case off the swaging button. It's not that difficult. I didn't knock off a star because it doesn't work 100% with the Lee press. I deducted a star for the instructions. The large instruction sheet is a multi-purpose document used with several different priming tools and accessories, so less space could be devoted to the pocket swager. There were a few pictures that were decent, but the text managed to complicate a simple process. One decent line drawing or an exploded view of the assembly would have made everything immediately obvious. You'd do better looking at the parts and guessing how they work, or randomly trying to assemble the parts in different arrangements, rather than reading the misleading directions. But the device itself is well made and works well. Midway should state which presses are compatible with the RCBS Primer Pocket Swager so we don't need to guess.

Gary Distefano of Greece, NY

Date Posted: 3/8/2006

This die is made for RCBS presses. It's not necessarily compatible with other makes. The diameter of your ram must not be bigger than RCBS's, and the ram must retract into the frame as far as RCBS's. If not, the case remover will not fit or work properly. The case remover pops the swager pin out of the swaged pocket. If the remover is not used, it's very difficult to remove the case from the pin after swaging. This tool requires a very strong press. Progressive presses are not strong enough, and turret presses aren't, either, I found. I wouldn't try it with any aluminum press, either.

Earl M of Centreville, VA

Date Posted: 6/20/2003

The RCBS primer pocket swager works well but the die must must be precisely aligned to ensure that primer pockets are properly swaged without bending the ram rod within the swaging die. I bent a rod and RCBS promply replaced it at no charge.

Bruce Baloh of Alpharetta, GA

Date Posted: 6/19/2003

It was relatively simple to setup, but it took reading the instructions twice, they are not explicit in some steps, assumptions are made, once I got it was very easy to knock out my batch of mil brass and the true test was that the commercial primer was a correct fit.

Harley Hartl of crystal, mn

Date Posted: 12/27/2007

I used it on 223 military cases. After about 300 the rod would not fit in the case. When I took it out the rod was bent.

Bill Brown of Gainesville, GA

Date Posted: 6/19/2003

The swager works well but is a bit difficult to set up and once it is I wasn't sure that it was doing what it was supposed to until I loaded some rounds and felt how the primer seated. It was worth buying, as I had 1500 rounds of cases to swage. I could swage around 300 per hour, but caught my fingers between the swage and the press a couple times. You learn reall quick where to keep your fingers.

Steve W of Omaha, NE

Date Posted: 6/2/2008

Moderately efficient. Makes crimped cases prime-able again, however the metal shell stripper bottoms out on the threaded die holder on my RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme Press, making cam-over action impossible. This led to the bending of the small swage rod from all of the non-linear forces required to press the button into the primer pocket, I must say until I can machine the threaded die holder nut I'm not impressed.

Gene Petruska of Gaylord, Mi

Date Posted: 5/3/2007

The die doesn't open the primer pocket enough. I swaged 1,000 LC 05 once fired easily. The primers seated hard with deformities every 20-25 that had to be recapped. The primers that did seat were stressed with edge deformities. I used the RCBS strip primer system that has worked flawlessly otherwise with commercial brass.