Broken Lee decapper pin

[rspar]

I'm very new to reloading, as of now I haven't reloaded anything yet but I'm getting the feel of it I guess you can say. I have an old Lyman S-T turret press I inherited, lee 30-06 die set, and a Lee Universal decapper and some other basic stuff including some manuals that I've been reading. Anyway to start I thought I'd try depriming some of the used brass I have. Everything went fine for about 30 rounds every once in a while one would seem to not be centered but backing off and retrying always worked till number 31 which had some sealer around the cap but no crimp that I could see but it didn't just pop out so of course I push a little harder and so much for the pin. I've ordered a couple more from Midway but is this a common thing? What happened to practically indestructible?

Thanks for the advice.

[coyotebait]

I don't know about Lee, I use RCBS. I just broke my decapping pin and bent the decapping rod as well. I e-mailed RCBS this morning to ask them how I could get the replacement parts. 11 minutes later they replied with "I've ordered those for you free of charge." This is the second time I've done that. You might want to try e-mailing Lee first...see what they have to say.

[EmmaGoldman]

How old are the Lee dies? I've only seen the ones with the collet holding the decapping rod. If you don't overtighten them, they should slide up rather than break the pin.

[sonnyt650]

The Lee decap pins in my dies are pretty hefty and I couldn't imagine breaking one of them before just throwing away the offending case. So is it snapped in two, bent out of shape, or no longer fixed to the die? If the last one you might want to check whether it just pushed out of the collet as indicated above ^ since you can reset it.

[bohoki]

i broke one once but it was my fault as a lose spent primer fell in to the brass i was sizing and i heard a crunch

it was cheap jsut $3 from midway to get a new one the rifle ones have the mouth ball so you probably need to get one of those from lee

[rspar]

It shattered, and now I know I need to loosen the collet because it didn't budge.

[bumpo628]

You might want to try this standalone decapper by Lee. It saves your press from the stress of decapping milsurp cases. They make them in 22 and 30 caliber for about $5 each. You give it a whack with a hammer.

30: http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct...tnumber=636747
22: http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct...tnumber=297408

[Bill Steele]

I broke my first Lee pin on a berdan primer case by mistake (didn't look close enough before starting the upstroke on the decap/size).

When I bought a few replacement pins ($2/ea at Midway), when I replaced the pin I realized I could tighten the collet just tight enough so the pin would push up when encountering an obstruction but hold it strong enough to decap when everything is jake.

I have the same pin in that die that I replaced (exactly once), but have run into quite a few Berdan cases along the way.

[EmmaGoldman]

I'm also a big fan of the hand decapper shown above. If You're just decapping pre-tumble, they're actually faster than a single stage press.

[rspar]

I haven't seen those I'll give them a try. It actually took very little pressure to break the pin amazing leverage. I'm using a sonic cleaner can't afford a decent tumbler yet but the sonic does a really good job in small batches which is all I really need. And the pockets are really clean. I'll probably have all 1000 or so rounds deprimed, sized and cleaned before I start actually reloading. Thanks for the help.

[Bill Steele]

On the sonic cleaner, one thing to keep in mind is to make sure the brass is totally dry before loading. I was trying an Ultra Sonic cleaner on some stubborn brass lately and had my first ever fail to ignite rounds.

I had taken what I thought was great care in making sure they were dry before loading, but in the rounds that I had problems, when I pulled the bullet, the powder was all discolored and caked up in a solid mass. I obviously had not gotten the brass totally dry on those rounds.

[elcordobes]

Had the same problem with .223 cases. Bought one of these: http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct...tNumber=136543

No more problem. If there is a problem, the rod pops up rather than bend. Handy if you get a stray berdan primed case by mistake.

[rspar]

Yeah that's the one I broke. It will still break unless your a real thinking man and make sure it's adjusted properly.

I have a board with multiple rows of nails I dry them on after the sonic cleaner and the last rinse.

Anyone in Kalifornia know if you can buy gunpowder at the Ontario gun show?

[sonnyt650]

It will still break unless your a real thinking man and make sure it's adjusted properly.

The difference in presses might be the reason I haven't broken mine where the Lee presses are designed with less leverage according to the Lee reloading manual. After writing that of course I'll probably be shopping for one soon.

[rspar]

I hate waiting for the mail to deliver something that's hanging me up. It always seems to take a day or two longer when I'm watching for something. Operator error always seems to get me I just need a new Operator and everything will be fine.