first major reloading booboo...broken decapping stem

[LynnJr]

Brian
You must be very young. I say that because half of my dies have bent broken or missing pins and stems. I buy them 3 at a time from the various manufacturers and rarely have any spares.
I have also torn 3 shellholder tops off and have wore out a dozen cheap hand priming tools.
I usually bend the stems when driving out a stuck case.

[bsumoba]

How do you like the Whidden dies?

They look like Forsters but I could be wrong

I believe they are very similar to the Forester dies. I like them a lot. They also have a lot of options on the website from decapper assemblies to expander ball kits to bushings, etc. Their customer service is also superb.

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...

But the decapper did not bend.

I thought it was me and that maybe I was being a wimp that morning.

Brian
You must be very young. I say that because half of my dies have bent broken or missing pins and stems. I buy them 3 at a time from the various manufacturers and rarely have any spares.
I have also torn 3 shellholder tops off and have wore out a dozen cheap hand priming tools.
I usually bend the stems when driving out a stuck case.

Yes, I am relatively young. Been reloading for about 4 years now. Reloading for precision stuff for about 2 of them. F-Class for less than a year.

I am on the verge of wearing out my cheapo lee hand priming tool and am considering this table mounted one by on bullets.com

http://www.bullets.com/products/Precision-Priming-Press/BE1151

I could also use the one of the Forster Co-Ax press.

I have learned a lot from this forum as well as others and have been able to learn from other's past experiences. It has saved me a lot of money.

[MrElectric03]

As long as you consider a bent decap rod a major reloading boo boo you are doing just fine.

[FLIGHT762]

I am on the verge of wearing out my cheapo lee hand priming tool and am considering this table mounted one by on bullets.com

http://www.bullets.com/products/Precision-Priming-Press/BE1151

You could upgrade to this one : http://www.primalrights.com/equipment/base-cps

[jeff1776]

As long as you consider a bent decap rod a major reloading boo boo you are doing just fine.

Haha, I second that! I broke quite a few when I first started. I finally just bought six of each from RCBS and a bag of the decapping pins. I'm glad I'm not the only one!

[BillyGoatCrawler]

I leave the collet that holds the decapping pin loose enough so that if anything weird happens, like a berdan case getting into my pile, it will just give out and pop up.

I usually bend the stems when driving out a stuck case.

That's how I break mine too. The decapping pin is actually a really good method to drive out a stuck case, but they can break. Still cheaper and easier than sending a die off to the manufacturer to have them fix it.

[C.G.]

I've broken a lot of them till I got the Lee universal decapping die.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/136543/lee-universal-depriming-and-decapping-die

Generally I don't think much of Lee dies, but this one is an exception.

[stilly]

I've broken a lot of them till I got the Lee universal decapping die.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/136543/lee-universal-depriming-and-decapping-die

Generally I don't think much of Lee dies, but this one is an exception.

No doubt. Been there done that. THAT is a BUY ONCE, CRY NEVER piece of art right there...

[jdmacl]

It happens!

I bent several in my early reloading days when I tried decapping a batch of military 30-06. One learns about Berdan primers pretty quickly...

I learned also to buy multiple replacement pins. You can never have too many spares around.

[RogueSniper]

I ran into a similar problem but I stopped when something felt wrong. A smaller brass case fell inside the larger case during the tumbling process. I was basically trying to deprime two cases at once. Now I tumble only brass that don't fit inside each other. And the majority of my dies are Lee.

That reminds me, who makes replacement stems for Pacific Dies? I have a bent 8mm Mauser. Is it Hornady that bought them out?