Three Bent Decapping Expanding Rods

S

SirNine

Inactive
Hello again,

Today I pulled out my resizing/decapping dies and noticed they all have some bend to their decapping expanding rod.

Starting off my lyman 300 blackout is the worse of the bunch https://imgur.com/Rfwue9n. After doing some research I found my american eagle 300 blackout brass has was seems to be a crimped primer pocket https://imgur.com/DcyIpGf. Would a crimped primer pocket do that much damage to the rod?

Moving on to my RCBS small base 308 die https://imgur.com/WCxN7iB. This Die has not seen a primer yet just unprimed brass. All the flash holes seem clear and centered.

No with my RCBS small base 223 die there is a slight wobble (not enough to get on camera) when I unscrew the decapping expanding rod. This die has seen about 100 rounds of primed brass with no crimp and around 200 unprimed brass. Again flash holes look good and centered.

I have not had a stuck case in any of these dies. just smooth resistance going in and resistance when the neck hits the expander on the way out. I have looked at the ram rod on my RCBS rock chucker and it seems to be centered.

What on earth could case 3 rods to bend like this?
As always any help or ideas would be great and much appreciated.
 
Lots of flash holes are off center these days. When setting or re-setting the depriming stem, I run a case(with a visually centered flashhole)into the die to align the punch with center. A grain of sand, polishing media, or other foreign material can bend the pin but it usually takes noticeable force to bend the stem.
 
I don't lock down the stem , I put a O-Ring between the top of the die an the lock nut , tightened just enough to let the pin & expander ball to self center . As others stated , make sure your die setup is correct .
 
I really hate to comment on this. I have bent exactly 1 decapping stem in about 50 years of reloading and I don't remember how I did it, it was prolly 45 years ago. I may have let it get loose. If set too deep it could bend it. I can't think of anything else that might cause it other than being loose so it could hit bottom instead of going thru the hole. In recent years thousands of pistol rounds loaded and never a problem. After installing a new stem, turn the die and if there is any runout correct it. May take a new die. I think you will see some runout when screwing the stem in or out. The important thing is that the pin is exactly centered after the pin is locked down. I suppose it's possible that a flash hole could be off center enough to cause the pin to miss the flash hole, if so, it may bend the rod. If this is happening, you need to cull the bad cases.
I've not had a problem with crimped primers, I can't tell the difference til I try to prime them. From the looks of your stems they are hitting bottom.
Now that I've put my 2 cents worth in, I'll prolly bend the stem in all my dies next time I load................................
 
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The guys are right. Cases vary some in head thickness. The chuck of the decapping pin is hitting the bottom of at least some cases. Little else could do that. A pin missing an off-center flash hole simply breaks and you replace it.

I'm going to guess the crimped primers were hard enough to push out that you kept adjusting the decapper down until it seemed to get them all, but that meant it was hitting some case heads on the inside. I've had crimped primer cups bend outward until they were conical and still not pop out, so it's easy to see how it could happen. In those instances you actually need a longer decapping pin than standard. My solution was to ether decap with a Lee manual decapping set and mallet or use their universal decapping die as a separate press operation before cleaning cases for swaging out the crimps and then resizing. This lets you get some of the crud out of the primer pocket, too, before removing the crimp and then resizing.
 
I go with Unclenick,, separate is better but I am not setup for it.

Wiped out a Forster decapper assembly on a couple of HXP that snuck into the loads.

I have removed all the expander plugs and use an M die to expand.

Playing with doing without and seeing how that goes as well.
 
Y'all haven't even mentioned the real bugaboo: Berdan primed cases. I use the Lee universal decapper, and it will not suffer damage if adjusted per the manual. The core will slip upwards upon encountering an immovable object (like a Berdan case).
 
Try raising the press ram without a case and see what the decapper is hitting?

Other wise you have some alignment problem that may be more apparent with the case removed. Is the shell holder snapped all the way into the ram?
 
I agree with others on the lee universal decapper.

RC when you say your not set up for doing it separate, is it because your bench is overcrowded? I picked up a cheap lee press and de capper(maybe 35$) and I really like doing it this way. It's nice to not run grimy brass through your good dies and clean after decap.
 
I use the Lee decapper in a hand press and can watch TV at the same time. I have to dump the primers when removing LR, every 25 or so. Never had any problem. The Lee is well designed with a collet nut holding the pin. It will slip back a bit, rather than bending. Easily adjustable again. Once dialed in, I haven't needed to. Never touches the brass.
Another bonus is that deprimed cases wash and DRAIN well.
Looking at the picture on Midway I just identified the mystery rod I have rolling around. It is a spare for the Lee decapper, never used, long forgotten.
https://www.midsouthshooterssupply.com/item/0000690292/universal-decapping-die
Universal Decapping Die
By: Lee Item # 006-90292
Price: $10.96
 
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