Is it possible to "over decrimp" with a Weldon bit?

scatter

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I've been loading 223 over the last couple of weeks--my first attempt at this. A lot of my brass is crimped. I'm using a Weldon bit on a hand-held drill to decrimp. Lots of hand cramps but I'm getting through the stash reasonably well.

I've seen some videos of people using this bit and they just seem to touch the casing to it for a second or two. In my experience, I need to shove the cartridge hard against the bit for a couple of seconds or else I get a lot of casings that won't prime. My method puts a very obvious bevel on the primer pocket and at the end of the day my bench is covered with brass shavings.

I was assuming the Weldon bit would bottom out on the primer pocket and prevent "over decrimping" but now I'm starting to wonder. Any thoughts on this please? Am I "over decrimping" and if so what are the ramifications?
 
Have the weldon and attempted to do the touch thing with results similar to yours. Lots of cases that wouldnt accept a primer. Ended up beveling the crap out of the primer pockets before they would all prime reliably and wasnt so crazy about that. Switched to the RCBS swager, which Im not so crazy about either, but the idea of pushing brass aside instead of removing it makes better sense to me. Seems lots of people use the Weldon with no issues but that wasnt my experience.
 
$107...ouch. Im too much of a cheap bastard. Ill have to keep suffering with my swager for a while.
 
So I've got maybe another 1000 rounds to load on this go-round. Probably 1K-2K per year afterwards on average. I'm retired and my time is free, so I'm trying to avoid buying stuff just to make things easier, as long as what I'm doing is safe.

I'm just wondering if you can "over decrimp" and what the ramifications of that would be. Seems like I'm taking a lot of material off the base just to get the Weldon bit to bottom out and the primers to seat. I drill every casing because it's just not obvious to me what is crimped and what is not. So once I'm done decrimping, everything I load has this very obvious 45 degree bevel on the primer pocket, and lots of brass shavings on my bench.

So can the Weldon bit overdrill a primer pocket and if so, what are the consequences?
 
Loose primer pockets in an AR can dislodge a primer and fall into the lower, possibly causing issues. Unsure about pressures or misfires. Good luck
 
I've never encountered any loose primer pockets so far. I prime with an RCBS hand primer. If they go in firmly I keep them. If they don't go in, or go in too hard, I disassemble the hand primer and toss the case and the primer. I'm very careful. I take 4 or 5 rounds out of every batch and shoot them to make sure they work in my rifles. I just want to know if it's possible to take too much out of the pocket with the Weldon.
 
I'm just wondering if you can "over decrimp"

No. You would have to really really work at it.

I hate the swagers (especially for mixed brass) and always use the Weldon bit. I've used it for over 50K cases. It takes less than a second with a drill press, but the drill press gives you some mass to press against. I've never done it with a hand drill.

The swagers are fine unless you over swage the cases (like by not adjusting when you change headstamps, or with different lots of the same headstamp). Then you end up compressing the primer pockets so that the primers won't fully seat.

 
If you think your over doing it take a look into the cut you made .....does it look like you have cut deep enough to see any of the bearing surface of the primer . If so maybe you have gone to deep. I use the Lyman inside chamfer bit and it appears to the eye it's "deep" but I can't see any noticeable sides of the primer once installed. I also use the Lyman primer pocket uniformer which seems to clean and cut just a tad out of the corners of the primer pocket. Adds a tiny bit of depth to the pocket.
 
its would be hard to over do it with the weldon bit. It would be very EASY to over do it with a chamfer tool as the steeper the angle allows you to cut into the primer pocket too deep. I haven't done as many as eddiecoyle but i have done a ton with the weldon and other than the occasional case that should've been tossed due to loose primer pocket, ive never had a primer fall out because of the weldon bit. (PS- trigger jam in an AR using reloads is usually because a primer is under the trigger play area, let my buddy struggle for a few trying to figure this out as a teaching moment).
 
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