I recently bought one of these. After reading all the horror stories of people beating them into oblivion with no "saved cases" it prompted me to call RW Hart and ask some questions prior to using mine.
What they told me was that brass being a soft material should not need excessive force to swage back into a usable shape to hold the primer. He told me that a leather or rubber mallet with about 5-10# of striking force is all that should be required to bring the pocket back to a usable shape and if more is required then the brass is likely too hard and should be junked.
So here is what I did, I used the swage in the manner recommended. If it worked as recommended fine, if not I went out to the shop and found a roll pin punch that matches the diameter of the swage so a little more persuasion could be applied to the brass. The only differance is the roll pin punch doesnt have the alignment pin that goes down the mandrel so you have to be careful to keep the punch square to the brass.
So far i have been able to save several pcs. of brass between the two methods described. If my brass that I bought this tool for wasnt running around 4.00 ea before i monkey with it I would be more apt to throw it away. But as costs go up it makes it more worth the while to try and save as many as possible.
Hope this information is useful. Regards, Brian.
