What makes a swager worth it for you to do it?

[teddy12b]

In years past when I've needed/wanted brass I got on gunbroker and would get 1000 pieces of polished once fired brass in 223 for around $80 - $100 shipped to my door. Everything is relative to scarcity in 2020 and I've stopped using my factory ammo for training and I'm trying to load up all the leftovers I've collected over almost 20 years of trying different bullets for different guns for different purposes. I've always stayed away from swaging the LC military brass just because I saw it as an extra cost in equipment, and a time taking step that wasn't needed with other options in abundant supply. 2020 has all kindsd of buying pressure and in my quest to use up my reloading supplies to cycle them out I've found I didn't have as much brass laying around as I thought I did. Looking for my once bountiful supply of brass is pretty much dried up, so it's got me looking at the military surplus brass and I have no doubt that lake city brass is awesome and can be cleaned up nice. I just don't know if I want to go through the effort of buying equipment, and using it on a lot of two of military brass to get me by knowing full well that when this round of panic buying is over and I'm back to buying cheap factory ammo at good old day prices that there's no way I'm going to spend my time doing this anymore.

That's what leads me to the question, what makes a swager worth it for you to do it? If there was a quick & dirty way to do it, I'd probably be in, but otherwise even as bad as prices are today I'll pass on it. Talk into or out of it.
Thanks

 

[patience0830]

You can use a countersink bit in a drill press to cut the crimp out. Cheaper, faster, but a little less precise.

 

[Robert Richardson]

I gave up on the whole swaging thing. I bought a Frankford Arsenal prep machine, trim, deburr, and cut the primer pocket in about 15 seconds a case.

 

[rem788]

I recently purchased some bulk 223 cases, many of which had crimped primers. Found a used RCBS swaging tool and proceeded to swage all the brass. Didn't take long, didn't take much effort. I don't mind the extra time, I enjoy the entire reloading process. With swaging, it is pretty much one and done, you should not have to repeat it once completed so those cases go into inventory. It is certainly up to you if you don't want to take the time or effort to swage. I personally don't mind. Good luck.

 

[Thor]

Life, every damn day...oh wait...you're not talking about a walk...never mind.

 

[76Too]

Get a Weldon DB14 bit for $12 and call it a day. I used that method until I bought my Dillon Super Swager, but i'm admittedly kind of a gear queer. It works really well, but I opted for the Dillon so I wasn't actually removing material from the brass...not that there isn't an excess of material at that point in the case anyway, but my purchase made sense at the time.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Can of brass, Lee hand trimmer, and something to do at boring family events when the women all have their knitting out. Doing the LC .50bmg brass is a lot more work so when I pick up the 5.56 it seems so easy.

 

[traderjoe]

There are a few U Tube videos on how to up production using a Dillon Super Swager. I usually process my brass in the winter when I am house bound because it's too cold to go to the range. It's better than watching TV

 

[Sniper 79]

I scrap all crimped brass. I'm with you not needing to add anything else to my bench. It's already time burglarizing and a rabbit hole for cash.

I guess if you got a bunch of free brass I would opt for drilling it out. One time deal shoot them and scrap them.

 

[ndbbm]

An old RCBS (Wilson) de-burring tool works for me.

 

[Robert Richardson]

I scrap all crimped brass. I'm with you not needing to add anything else to my bench. It's already time burglarizing and a rabbit hole for cash.

I guess if you got a bunch of free brass I would opt for drilling it out. One time deal shoot them and scrap them.

You can throw that scrap brass my way.