first major reloading booboo...broken decapping stem

[bsumoba]

resizing some brass for my f-class rifle using my whidden dies in a forster co-ax press.

about 70% on the downstroke, I hit a "wall" I wonder what the hell is happening. I pull the die out and look inside with a flashlight and I see nothing. I put it back on and still, same thing. I check the height of the die (which was never touched) and height is okay. I check in the brass, nothing. The brass also had plenty of lube.

So, I decided, what the hell, I'll fight through the "wall" and use some man strength. The last 20% is then resized. On the upstroke, I look at my die and the depriming pin is sticking out farther than normal and is majorly crooked

I realized that the plastic piece that replaces my expander ball was the thing stopping on the base of the inside of the brass and my brute force with the co-ax literally bent the hell out of the decapping stem. im glad the stem bent the way it did and did not ruin the rest of my die.

Luckily, whidden makes a separate decapping pin. $25ish dollar mistake could have been worse i guess.

moral of the story, if it doesn't feel right, stop and don't brute force something.

[Lead Waster]

I use Lee dies mostly, and picked up a handful of decapping pins. They make good filler items if you're trying to reach some target price on Midway (like if you save $10 off a $100 purchase, and you're at $94, then toss in some decapping pins). They are like consumable. They aren't badly made, but every once in a while you'll fit a crimped primer while decapping at full speed and it might just bend.

[roc_my_tims]

Hornady sent me one when i bent one. Im pretty sure it was my fault but they still sent one out. Rcbs has been just as helpful with there warrenty.

[Fjold]

The hardest thing to learn sometimes is when to stop.

[23 Blast]

Bought my first .45acp Lee die set from another Calgunner, and upon getting it home, noticed that the decapping pin was bent. I CAREFULLY straightened it (as much as possible) with an adjustable wrench, and so far it's held up.

[pacrat]

Depriming pin/stems are the weak link in a die set.

That's why I started using a designated universal depriming die many years ago.

Yes, die making companies will usually send you a free replacement. But until it arrives. You just sit and look at the 1/2 completed batch of ammo you could already be shooting.

JM2c

[Full Clip]

Spare pins are essential for just such mistakes (and the occasional piece of Berdan brass that ends up in your pile).

[Terabyte]

I agree with Full Clip, somehow a berdan .308 case made its way into my pile. I didn't even feel the decapping pin snap, but I sure noticed when nothing happened with the next case!

Picked up spare pins for all my Lee dies off Midway, haven't had an issue since...but at least I've got the spares on hand if something goes sideways.

[J-cat]

I'm an advocate of case sorting by headstamp. It avoids these problems and makes better ammo.

[JMP]

I don't like that rod as it's meant for the expander ball, which I don't use to hold it into place. However, since you still have your pin, just bend it back into place since it's only job is to push out a primer, which is easy as long as it is correctly lined up with a uniform flash hold. Sadly, even some custom die makers use that particular rod.

The trick is to not go too fast and use Imperial Case Lube. If you feel pressure, STOP. Your press has a lot of leverage so you shouldn't be forcing anything.

[stand125]

I broke a decapper a long ago on a 223 die set. I just used the LEE decapper from my LEE Classic loader in 223 till I finally got a replacement. I was helping a buddy reload once and he broke his decapper on a berdan case while I was'nt really paying attention. we took a piece of wood, drilled a small hole, set the cases over the hole and used a small phillips head screw driver and mallet to deprime. It actually working really good and was pretty darn fast. I would deprime and then hand the case to him and he would size/neck expand on his press.

[bsumoba]

in my case, the plastic piece in place of my expander ball to hold the decapper pin walked out and that was enough to bottom out on my brass. then i went hulk on it

I just bought one from whidden. It will be here mid-week.

I also have a backup universal decapping die, so finishing out my rounds was no problem. I just did a separate decapping process and removed the stem from my bushing die.

[drdarrin@sbcglobal.net]

The hardest thing to learn sometimes is when to stop.

Amen!

[OpenSightsOnly]

in my case, the plastic piece in place of my expander ball to hold the decapper pin walked out and that was enough to bottom out on my brass. then i went hulk on it

I just bought one from whidden. It will be here mid-week.

I also have a backup universal decapping die, so finishing out my rounds was no problem. I just did a separate decapping process and removed the stem from my bushing die.

How do you like the Whidden dies?

They look like Forsters but I could be wrong

[stilly]

resizing some brass for my f-class rifle using my whidden dies in a forster co-ax press.

about 70% on the downstroke, I hit a "wall" I wonder what the hell is happening. I pull the die out and look inside with a flashlight and I see nothing. I put it back on and still, same thing. I check the height of the die (which was never touched) and height is okay. I check in the brass, nothing. The brass also had plenty of lube.

So, I decided, what the hell, I'll fight through the "wall" and use some man strength. The last 20% is then resized. On the upstroke, I look at my die and the depriming pin is sticking out farther than normal and is majorly crooked

I realized that the plastic piece that replaces my expander ball was the thing stopping on the base of the inside of the brass and my brute force with the co-ax literally bent the hell out of the decapping stem. im glad the stem bent the way it did and did not ruin the rest of my die.

Luckily, whidden makes a separate decapping pin. $25ish dollar mistake could have been worse i guess.

moral of the story, if it doesn't feel right, stop and don't brute force something.

Once when I was decapping with the Lee Hand Press I decapped one shell that was a little harder than the others. It finally punched through and the shell was decapped. I thought- damn crimped cases...

Then it was a little tougher to decap the rest of the cases that I had. I was struggling to go fast and my speed was about 75% of what it is usually. I looked inside the decapping die and it looked normal since I had never looked in the inside before, it had a round flat golden surface with a black pin sticking out of the middle. So I kept decapping and finally I decided that the .223 were just NOT lining up like they were before and it was really hard. Then I looked inside the decapper again. Turns out I had pierced a .22lr and it was stuck on the decapper and had gotten rounded off around the corners, but it was still hanging on and causing issues...

But the decapper did not bend.