Laughing at myself

B

BobCat45

New member
Being of a more or less 'conservative' nature, I tend to hang onto things I 'might need someday' and that can be a good thing, or not so good. Anyway here is a funny story.

Years ago I squirreled away 1,000 once-fired LC (crimped, mixed years) cases and held on to them for 'someday'. Many are headstamped LC 85 and LC 88, so it is sort of vintage brass.

At this point my XC match brass is now all 8x fired and being retired to 'practice' status.

So I tumbled the old once-fired LC stash and started to resize/deprime, preparatory to cutting the crimps out, trimming, and neck expanding.

Problem is, some of them are so well crimped, and the old primers have been in place so long, that the decpping pin (Lee) is pushing the cap off the cup, leaving the cylindrical 'body' of the primer stuck in the primer pocket.

So far it is only a few and I'm fairly sure I can figure out how to get the stuck parts out, but if it turns out that more than maybe 10% are like that, it will be a kind of uh... female dog.

Anyway everybody needs a good laugh once in a while, along with the thought "glad its him, not me" so here is your amusing tale for the day.
 
1. I use a Lee Universal decapping die. It never has broken.
2. I have Viet Nam era brass (1968-1973 LC) that is fine, however mine was deprimed and primer pocket swaged before I got it. The 7.62 were MG fired and a pain to resize.Want some? Make me an offer for 1000.
3. I consider spent primers to be toxic waste and remove them promptly and wet tumble the brass (in Blue Fart Juice). That NASTY black water :eek:goes down my toilet.
 
Thanks!
I did not break the Lee decapper, it is fine/intact. It tore the end off the primer cup leaving the wall stuck in the pocket.

Thanks on the 7.62 brass, but no thanks. Only .30 cal I have is my Garand and I have LC and HXP brass from when I bought CMP ammo for the Garand matches. And if I were smart I'd learn from this experience and go ahead and deprime them sooner rather than even later.

You are right, spent primers are toxic waste, but I can not flush the black wastewater because we are on a septic system and I do not think chemical toxins would be wise to add to the biological toxins already present.
 
Re: Waste water. The FA blue juice contains citric acid and chelated the lead so it is bound, stable, and relatively non-toxic. Sewage systems are OK with it. I would not put it in a septic system, either.
 
I have had that happen to me sometimes. The de-capping pin just punches through the primer. Seems I was able to soak one with Kroil and pry the piece of the primer out. Most of the time I just scrap the case.
 
Known as "ringers" because of the ring shaped wall of the primer left behind, corrosion welded into the pocket. High speed commercial reloading machines have "ringer detectors" to reject a case with one before it jams up the repriming stage.

I have read of home remedies like easy outs, screws, taps, etc. but unless you are loading the .492 Bronto Blaster at $20 a pop, I would (Do) just scrap the surplus stuff.
 
You can set the cases upright and put a few drops of penetrating oil in them and try again after they've sat a few days. See if that weakens the corrosion enough to let you push them out.
 
Jim Watson said:
Known as "ringers" because of the ring shaped wall of the primer left behind, corrosion welded into the pocket. High speed commercial reloading machines have "ringer detectors" to reject a case with one before it jams up the repriming stage.

I have read of home remedies like easy outs, screws, taps, etc. but unless you are loading the .492 Bronto Blaster at $20 a pop, I would (Do) just scrap the surplus stuff.
Click to expand...
This only began happening to me this year....never in the past. It has been a uniquely 38 Spl problem for me...and it doesn't take long. I recovered some cases that were exposed to rain after being fired 2-3 weeks before I picked them up. Estimating about 15% "ringers" from the collection. I'm not sure why 38 Spl is so susceptible to this condition. I've tried multiple ways to recover...now I just crush the mouth with pliers and drop them in the scrap jar.
 
Maybe you could put something on the end of the decapping pin to give it more surface area to push out the primer.
 
You might also consider decapping the cases by hand. Not with a press.

The Lee decapper and base punch set (intended for crimped in primers) is a tool I've been using for decades, and it works pretty well.

Using a small hammer and tapping out the primers might allow them to be driven out without the decapper pin punching through and leaving those "ringers".

I've never had any issues with removing primers that way. Plus, it keeps most of the ash away from my press, and I get the satisfaction of being able to hit something, and do a needed job! :D

the Lee set is cheap, virtually indestructible (and if you do manage to break it, Lee will replace it, free, and even if it doesn't work on the "ringers" you're no worse off, really.
 
I still have a good supply of LC43 brass for my 30-06. When I first got it, around 1957 or so, I pulled all the bullets and salvaged the powder. Most was 4895, probably by DuPont and the rest a ball powder, type unknown. I weighed every tenth rounds and totaled that to get an average weight. The buy was 600+ rounds. I was careful to use gentle pressure removing the crimped primers and nary a one went bang.

ON removing crimped primers from fired brass,, I took a piece of 2x4 and cut two pieces of equal length about 3.5" Then I added a piece about 5" in length using the two shorter pieces as legs, like a bridge. I wanted just enough space to have a small tin can that would fit under the "bridge". I drilled a quarter inch hole in the center of the top piece, then a space bit of the proper size to make a shallow well for a Lee shell holder to fit. Place a shell in the holder, insert the universal pit and give it a tap with a hammer and out comes the crimped primer. Mine was originally set up to do milsurp .223s and the regular pins in the sizing die kept breaking or bending at times. BTW, it's not quite as slow as it sounds, depriming that way. The can catches the primers and you can dispose of them however your method.
Paul B.
 
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