Where Am I Going Wrong - RCBS HD DeCapping Die

[SDJim]

I finally decided to get everything set up and start case prep so that when my friend comes over this weekend, he can start schooling me on reloading .45.
As most of the brass I'll be reloading is milspec, based on several people's recommendation, I got the RCBS HD Decapping Die (P/N 87585) and set it up in the press according to the supplied directions. First piece of brass goes in and at the top end of the stroke, I start to feel contact. I applied more pressure on the handle and instead of the satisfying sound of a primer popping out, I got the dreaded "snap" sound of the pin breaking.

I called my buddy who talked me through the set up again. I got the main die body adjusted, then lowered the pin incrementally till it made contact then screwed in down another few half turns.

Right around where my buddy said it should be good, I got the snapping sound again.

The helpful Customer Service person at RCBS who said they would ship me a couple of extra pins said I was doing everything correctly.

So where am I goofing up??

Update - The friendly folks at RCBS sent me a new HD Decapping "rod" and 3 additional pins. Per the recomendation of yet another friend, I removed the spring that goes inside the threaded head above the pin. He said that it (the spring)can cause the pin to become off center under load.

Right now I've got about 150 .45 cases in the cleaner, about 100 rounds of .308 ready for the cleaner and about 50 rounds of Greek 30.06 (very heavily crimped) de-primed and ready to go. All without a problem.

News flash (to me at least) . . . the RCBS unit won't do .223

I might have to go and get the Lee die anyway.

[Fjold]

Is the shell holder seated all the way into the ram? On some presses they have to snap into place and many new people don't seat them all the way.

[ocabj]

Milspec brass? Check if crimped primer pockets. If it is, then that's probably what's causing the broken pins.

For a long time I used the RCBS Universal Decapping die. Then when I bought a case of the LC M2 30-06 from the CMP and started reloading that brass, I encountered brass that would break the decapping pins. I even broke the decapping/expander stem on a .30-06 resizing die when decapping the crimped primers on LC M2 30-06 cases.

I ended up getting the Lee Universal Decapping Die. It's one of the few Lee products that is actually better than it's competitors' version. The design of the Lee decapping die makes for a stiffer decapping pin and stem design. I highly suggest buying it.

[EdinKali]

My buddy also broke his RCBS HD decapping die pin(it was fairly new). Poor design I think. I have a Lee univ. decapping die that last lasted through thousands of decaps. My buddy also bought one to replace the RCBS and hasn't had a problem since.