150 pieces of over OAL brass with live primers.. what to do?

[H Wally]

Hiyo - so I managed to pull apart all my spare brass yesterday. That in itself turns out to have been a good decision, as almost all of the brass was over length, and more than a few of them had split necks, were just about to separate, and almost all of them were over their OAL.

I've got a problem now though. To trim them down I'm using a Lee trimmer. This means they can't have a primer in them, and all of them are primed.

How would you deprime them?

A) drop of oil in each case to deactivate the primer? (I don't really want to do this, as I'd have to go buy oil, get everything covered in oil, and then go through depriming after)

B) Shoot the primers out... they're relatively quiet and non corrosive.. I suppose I could just cycle them all through my gun and fire the primers, then deprime and resize/trim?

C) Just run them through the press and slowly deprime. With a slow pressure and the space for the primer to drop out, this seems the most strait forward and simple process. Because there's no powder or bullet, I don't see how it'd be a problem.


P.S. - I don't plan on re-using the primers. They're probably the cheapest part of the whole deal, and I'd rather know what primers I'm using and not have the chance of a hang or misfire.

 

[Farlsincharge]

Just deprime them slowly, and wear safety glasses just in case. I have done lots this way as I am just getting into reloading and have made some mistakes along the way. I haven't had any problems depriming this way.

 

[Cerdan]

I've safely popped out live primers -- and re-used them successfully -- dozens of time.

 

[sarge]

Just take the gauge out and use the cutter, check it with your calipers frquently. If you don't care about the primers, pop them out

 

[Winnipeg Toymaker]

Many times I have popped out live primers. Not a problem with even one....and reused them all without a failure.

 

[Johnny G1]

If I read this rite they are OAL just put them in your trimmer and size to length, has nothing to do with the primers, or is there somthing wrong with these cases that we don't know about, you are just triming the ends or did you not full length rezize???

 

[Jarlath]

If I read this rite they are OAL just put them in your trimmer and size to length, has nothing to do with the primers, or is there somthing wrong with these cases that we don't know about, you are just triming the ends or did you not full length rezize???

He is using the Lee quick trimmers which have a pilot that sits through the flash hole for alignment.

Sounded like he forgot to trim ahead of time....

 

[daBear]

If I read this rite they are OAL just put them in your trimmer and size to length, has nothing to do with the primers, or is there somthing wrong with these cases that we don't know about, you are just triming the ends or did you not full length rezize???

He's using a Lee trimmer and the pilot uses the primer hole as a depth guage for the cutter head...Pilot wont seat if the flash hole is covered with a primer.
dB

 

[x-Hare]

Pop'em out and use em again- done hundreds
No Failures,no Worries but wear your safety gear.
Oh and Hey SH*T Happens - LOL

 

[JohnC]

push them out slow.

Don't use oil - some of it will stay and will contaminate the new pirmers

 

[blacksmithden]

+1 for just depriming them like they were already shot off. I've never had one go off, but wear your safety glasses anyway.

 

[sunray]

"...they're relatively quiet..." No they aren't. As mentioned, run 'em through the decapper, slowly. Pitch the cases with the cracks.
"...don't plan on re-using the primers..." You most assuredly can use them.

 

[H Wally]

double tap

 

[H Wally]

He is using the Lee quick trimmers which have a pilot that sits through the flash hole for alignment.

Sounded like he forgot to trim ahead of time....

Heh - so far I've been lucky in that respect. I've been slowly amassing a quite good selection of reloaded ammo from various deals, so I figured I would redo all of them at once, as I'd rather spend the time doing it all myself than trust several hundred rds of other ppl's handloads... not that I don't trust you guys

"...they're relatively quiet..." No they aren't. As mentioned, run 'em through the decapper, slowly. Pitch the cases with the cracks.
"...don't plan on re-using the primers..." You most assuredly can use them.

Any reason why they'd be louder in the press? For kicks I set a few off with a hammer on a concrete floor a year back and they weren't bad at all...

My theory behind not reusing the primers was that they come from goodness knows how many different people, and I don't know anything about them. Could be magnum primers, could have come in contact with oil, etc etc etc. Some of these cases clearly had split necks and yet were still reloaded, so I'm erring on the side of caution.


P.S. - thanks for all the good advice. It's good to have some backup on things you aren't sure about.

 

[acrashb]

C) Just run them through the press and slowly deprime.

That's what I'd do.

 

[CyaN1de]

C) Just run them through the press and slowly deprime. With a slow pressure and the space for the primer to drop out, this seems the most strait forward and simple process. Because there's no powder or bullet, I don't see how it'd be a problem.


P.S. - I don't plan on re-using the primers. They're probably the cheapest part of the whole deal, and I'd rather know what primers I'm using and not have the chance of a hang or misfire.

Why not use them? Kind of a waste to throw them out isn't it?

I have re and re'd primers from match loads with no issues.