M14 Forum

82nd ABN · February 1st, 2012, 07:19 PM

Well I finally started to work on my brass. It all has been vibrated clean while I was waiting on a shell holder. Shell holder came today and yup you guessed it decapping rod broke. I remember reading about it happening to someone else so i ordered a second one so production will continue. I was humming along and out of nowhere come a piece of brass mixed in with all the BH brass I was working on with a head stamp FNM92-11 L21A1, Yeah i don't have a clue what it is but I know the primer doesn't come out. I don't know how it got mixed in, I must have picked it up at the range and tossed it in my bad. Live and learn. I bet it won't be the last time it happens. Tomorrow I am going to order a couple more rods. I needed a break anyway, I think I decapped about 2500 rounds.

mustanggt · February 1st, 2012, 07:39 PM

I have had very good luck with the Lee universal decapping die. No crimped in primer has ever hurt it. As a matter of fact a couple of times the decapper went clean through the primer without it being popped out. It's about $10 or so. Give it a try. Just remember it does not size the case, just deprimes.

m14nm · February 1st, 2012, 07:44 PM

Probably a berdan primed case.

Bamban · February 1st, 2012, 07:47 PM

+1 on the Lee Universal Decapping Die. If you tighten the nut that holds the rod just about tight to push the primer out, but loose enough so if you run across a Berdan primed one, the rod will just push up and not break it the pin, The pins are pressed into the rod, but they are cheap from Lee.

25 hundred!!! You are getting serious. Good to hear there buddy.

82nd ABN · February 1st, 2012, 10:44 PM

Well I just banged out another 1000 or so. I still have three large freezer bags left of .308 and on large freezer bag of .223 with a few hundred 30-06 case left as well. I tell ya de capping can get fatiguing especially when you check each head stamp before putting the shell in the holder.
Next tools will be the dies. I am still tossed up between the redding NM dies and the RCBS comp dies with the little window. I am leaning towards the redding. After that the next tool will be that giraud case trimmer and I may even get that rcbs piece that the brushes spin on, I don't remember what its called. I have a primer pocket brush and a neck brush. I am not looking forward to cleaning a few thousand piece of brass using a hand tool. I can understand if I was only doing 100 pieces at a clip but once I get a load that I like I am going to town and making enough to shoot as many matches as I have ammo to shoot.

IC2(SS)19Z50C5 · February 1st, 2012, 10:55 PM

We have all been there done that.. Have spares...

Sleeper/missed military berdaned primed euro-trash brass will always get you everytime...

washington · February 1st, 2012, 11:52 PM

82nd ABN,
I'm at the same stage. Forgot to lube my brass. Frustrating. If you did 2500 decaps in one day, I am impressed.

Visigoth9 · February 2nd, 2012, 12:17 AM

Berdan cases will do that.....

with your level of practice Warren,,,

you will eventually acquire a sense or "feel" on when to back-off

to see what the problem is when re-sizing cases

have you been randomly checking your shoulder/headspace dimensions on the reworked brass?

nf1e@snet.net · February 2nd, 2012, 03:37 AM

Warren , you done jummped in wiff boff feets. Those Berdan primed case have a way of biting you. I have what we call the gut bucket on my range for odd brass that is considered trash. There is always someone who asks to take it home for reloading. You have learned one of the most improtant lessons. Now for the next 5000 important lessons. I have found that for the M1A , cartridge headspace has a way of creaping up.
After 45 years of loading for it , I finally picked up an RCBS Precision Mic in 308. No one ever told me about this gadget. Would have saved me a lot of confusion as to what was causing FTE with an occasional group of reloads. Nice tool for comparing your different guages and setting up your seating depth. 4998 new lessons will be learned from all the input and mistakes over the next few years. The most important is to enjoy what you are doing. Oh yea , remember to switch hands on the press, you know what they say about using the same one all the time.
Semper Fi

BLACKTAIL 8541 · February 2nd, 2012, 05:10 AM

Your just getting started!

Berdan brass gets everyone . Just need to keep spare decapping assemblies.
The rcbs tool you are referring to is the case mate prep center, It is a handy tool.
The redding match die is a better seating die. The rcbs is good if you want to save some coin by utilizeing the different inserts.

KYShooter · February 2nd, 2012, 05:21 AM

Yep, after a few years, you'll have little bins full of spare parts. As you get experience, you'll begin to know, by feel, when a problem is about to happen.

The Lee universal decapper is great but is a pain to have to run your brass through a second pass if you use a single stage press. If you have a progressive, like a Dillon, you can put the decapper in stage one and the sizing die in stage two. Leave the rod and expander ball in the sizing die but remove the decapping pin. Even if you destroy the Lee die (not likely), they're cheap.

mustanggt · February 2nd, 2012, 08:24 AM

Look into the rcbs X-die. It will save time in you won't have to trim all the time. Its stunts its growth so to speak.

tonyben · February 2nd, 2012, 08:40 AM

Another +1 for the Lee universal decapper. I broke one with some old foreign surplus 30-06 once. The pin went in the hole but the hole must have been undersized. It wouldn't punch all the way through. Then the primer would not fully decap and it stuck in the press as it wouldn't come out of the shell holder so I had to committ to decapping it. I tightened my decapper and it broke on the next attempt. I trashed the lot of 06 brass and learned from there.

What's good about the Lee is that it's hard to break. If you do, then you still have the decapping pins on your regular sizing die so you're not out of business. Lee sent me a free replacement.

I remove all the dacapping pins from my sizing dies unless my Lee breaks. Then it goes back in.

Tony.

82nd ABN · February 2nd, 2012, 11:40 AM

Well I am ordering a couple of spares for the redding decapper. I will be trying to knock out the rest of the brass tonight. I found at least three more of those case with the same markings. They now have a big dent in them from my hammer. They wont ever make it to the press again

Hamstrosity · February 2nd, 2012, 12:00 PM

Just like everybody else, I've tried decapping more than 1 berdan primed case. We're more careful about sorting brass now, but every once in a while, there's one that gets missed..

I have a package of decapping pins in with my decapping stuff - got tired of having to steal one out of another die until I could get a replacement pin..

That's an impressive amount of brass you're moving through!