[Critch]

Ooooh, this makes me so angry!!

I was decapping a bunch of 308 brass with my brand new RCBS Universal Decapping die and the damn thing broke..Ooooooh!

It wasn't even a Berdan primed round,,,,

 

[Iowegan]

Been there ... done that, a couple times. When you replace the punch, loosen the lock ring and center the punch perfectly. I found out that's why mine broke. The punch wasn't centered so it would hit the base instead of the primer. 99% of the time, it would "find" it's way to the primer and work fine. Once in a while, it would hang up and if I put a little extra pressure on the handle ... snap.

 

[gunman42782]

I have used Lee dies for over 20 years and never had a decapping stem break.

 

[Tweek]

This reminded me of a question I had ... I bought a case of Winchester 5.56 for the AR-15 last summer, and have been saving the brass. The primers appear to have a military crimp. Does decapping crimped in primers cause any problems? Is there a type of die that's better than others for this? I don't have the RL550B set up for any rifle cartridges yet.

 

[gunman42782]

Tweek, the military brass has crimped in primers. You will probably have to buy a special tool, such as this one: http://www.dillonprecision.com/#/content/p/9/pid/25263/catid/8/Super_Swage_600
It would probably be cheaper to just buy either regular .223 or once fired brass from Midway. They remove the crimped primers from fired military brass.

 

[Violator22]

Get a Lee depriming Die, they are impossible to break. They are only about 10.00 each. Les

 

[Chunky Monkey]

+1 on the Lee decapping die. When I bought mine I got 2 xtra pins just in case. Well they are still collecting dust.

 

[J Miller]

Call RCBS service dept. They'll replace your busted decapping pin without charge. Then do as Iowegan says.

Joe

 

[jimbo1096]

For years I've punched crimped primers out of military 45 and 38 cases with the RCBS dies no problem. Make sure the pin is centered and is extended just enough to do the job without being too long, and with properly adjusted dies it works just fine. You need to open up the primer pocket with a crimp remover tool before re-priming and the primer pocket is usually pretty dirty so it needs a good cleaning.

 

[Critch]

Thanks for the info folks.

 

[Critch]

I just called RCBS and they are sending me a new pin by mail. Very nice folks to deal with.