Whenever I have buddies coming over to reload some of their own ammo, I’ll often do all the case prep. Trim to length, clean the primer pocket, and debur the neck inside and out. They’d remark about how easy it was to reload and how fast you could make ammo, not knowing how much time it took to prep all those beautiful looking cases! I also used to just throw crimped 5.56×45 cases to the side, leaving the arduous crimp removal to another day. Those days are over!
My Video Review of the Lyman Case Prep XPress
Case Preparation
The idea with this station is that you:
- Clean the inside of the case neck using the appropriate brush.
- Powder the neck with mica. (unless you’re using a collet neck sizer or equivalent that doesn’t need neck lube)
- Resize the case. (on your press)
- Trim to length. (on your case trimmer)
- Chamfer inside neck.
- Chamfer ouside neck.
- Ream out the crimp. (if cases are crimped)
- Scrape carbon out with primer pocket cleaner.
- Uniform primer pocket (uniforms primer depth)
The result is a case that is easy to prime, and uniform to load, even with military crimped 5.56×45 cases. It’s way faster than swaging the crimp out using the press. It’s also fast enough that I now get my friends to prep their own damn brass!
Accessories
My Lyman Case Prep XPress came with:
- Primer pocket uniformer (small and large primer)
- Primer pocket reamer
- Primer pocket cleaner
- Inside chamfering die
- Outside chamfering die
- 4 different case neck brushes
- Mica case neck lube
- Paint brush to use for clean up
The case prep center itself has 2 spots for the mica to accommodate left or right handed folks, as well as 2 depressions towards the front that I’ve seen some people use to hold their brass. Personally, I’m using this thing to prep ice cream buckets of 5.56 brass, so I don’t have time for teeny tiny little holding pockets.
Conclusion
So, would I recommend the Lyman Case Prep Center? Only if you have buckets of brass to prep. For short run reloaders who are doing small batches (200 or less), I can’t recommend a bulky prep center like this. For those of you who are looking at an ice cream pail of brass and can already feel your hands cramping up and getting sore, this thing is going to be your best friend.
