Depriming - Gotta Be Something Better Than By Hand...

Holy jumping efficiency, Batman!

Thanks to all of you, I decided to check my reloading dies I bought for .223 and lo and behold, decapping die included! Once I swapped out the shell holder and installed the die - my kids are all now itching to deprime stuff. It is like effortless! You don't even feel the primer being popped out except for the fact that it is falling all over the floor!

There is one in the 30.06 and .308 die set too!

Oh my gosh, I am in heaven, people!
 
The advantage of a dedicated decapping die is that you don't work the case at all. A sizing die can usually be adjusted so that it doesn't size the case much as well, but then you have to adjust it every time you change between sizing and decapping which is tedious.
 
olefrt63 said:
Just an FYI - not all brass has the same size flash hole. I had the same issue and broke a stem finding out the hard way.
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Good point!....:)

I have had some 22 Hornet brass that I had to drill out the flash hole as a standard RCBS 22 Hornet de-prime pin or RCBS de-capping die would not go through the smaller sized flash hole.

Now I have only seen this on S&B 22 Hornet brass, PRVI PPU 22 Hornet brass, and Hornady 22 Hornet brass. Yes I said Hornady, who would figured that Hornady doesn't know to put proper flash hole sizes in their Hornet brass? Right!.....:):ROFLMAO:

Hornady makes sweet Varmint Express 22 Hornet ammo with the 35 grain V-Max bullet. Accurate as heck, and blows up gophers and marmots. However the once-fired brass had real small flash-holes. Very strange indeed. And yet not all Hornady 22 Hornet ammo has these small flash holes. Only the older stock from years ago.

Can anyone tell me why this was so?:unsure:
 
thegazelle said:
Thanks...it looks like the Lee APP is quite well regarded...
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I LOVE mine. I decap everything from 9mm and 38 SPL up to 308 on it. It is SOOOOO fast and easy to setup and use. I'd NEVER go back.


homslice said:
I like the hand deprimer as I can spend time with the fam upstairs while I do it.
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You know the primer dust contains lead stypnate right? Probably best not to spread that dust around your family and living space. 🤷‍♂️


thegazelle said:
Oh my gosh, I am in heaven, people!
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You will quickly get tired of single stage decapping if you do enough of it. I once did about 800 cases of 308 Win and that pretty much did it for me. Shortly after that I found the APP and have never looked back.

Lee produces setups to swage primer pockets and size cast bullets and a few other manual operations for the APP.
 
Thunderhog said:
Good point!....:)

I have had some 22 Hornet brass that I had to drill out the flash hole as a standard RCBS 22 Hornet de-prime pin or RCBS de-capping die would not go through the smaller sized flash hole.

Now I have only seen this on S&B 22 Hornet brass, PRVI PPU 22 Hornet brass, and Hornady 22 Hornet brass. Yes I said Hornady, who would figured that Hornady doesn't know to put proper flash hole sizes in their Hornet brass? Right!.....:):ROFLMAO:

Hornady makes sweet Varmint Express 22 Hornet ammo with the 35 grain V-Max bullet. Accurate as heck, and blows up gophers and marmots. However the once-fired brass had real small flash-holes. Very strange indeed. And yet not all Hornady 22 Hornet ammo has these small flash holes. Only the older stock from years ago.

Can anyone tell me why this was so?:unsure:
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Yup, a lot of European brass has the small flash hole, about 1.5mm compared to all or most of the North American is approx 2mm. So if you got a mix of .223 brass good chance you'll have some small flash hole ones in the batch.

Apparently the Lee undersized decapping pin fits the FA hand decapper, but I can't confirm that.

Lee Precision 91893: Undersize Universal Decap
 
Suther said:
Some guys who clean with wet tumbling like to deprime before cleaning so the primer pockets get clean, and wet tumbling can mess up case mouths a bit so they usually want to size after cleaning because they're going to have to fix up those case mouths either way.
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Wet tumbling without depriming also runs the risk of holding water in the primer cup/flash hole and makes air drying harder.
 
I didn’t read all the replies, but you are new to reloading, do you have a few reloading books? If so read them from cover to cover, you will learn a lot of stuff! If you don’t have a few reloading books buy some not only one 2-3 is a minimum in my book (pun intended). The Lee precision is a great book, then I have a lyman and a nosler. I heard the spear #15 is really good! I know you have to start somewhere but the question you ask would have been covered in the books.
 
I Dont Care About You said:
I LOVE mine. I decap everything from 9mm and 38 SPL up to 308 on it. It is SOOOOO fast and easy to setup and use. I'd NEVER go back.



You know the primer dust contains lead stypnate right? Probably best not to spread that dust around your family and living space. 🤷‍♂️



You will quickly get tired of single stage decapping if you do enough of it. I once did about 800 cases of 308 Win and that pretty much did it for me. Shortly after that I found the APP and have never looked back.

Lee produces setups to swage primer pockets and size cast bullets and a few other manual operations for the APP.
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You got me convinced my friend...I am gonna order one...where I will put it on the bench, I don't know, but I am lazy and like a life of ease!
 
thegazelle said:
Holy jumping efficiency, Batman!

Thanks to all of you, I decided to check my reloading dies I bought for .223 and lo and behold, decapping die included! Once I swapped out the shell holder and installed the die - my kids are all now itching to deprime stuff. It is like effortless! You don't even feel the primer being popped out except for the fact that it is falling all over the floor!

There is one in the 30.06 and .308 die set too!

Oh my gosh, I am in heaven, people!
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Are you referring to the sizing/decaping die that comes in every 2 die sets? Any 2 die set comes with a sizing/decaying die that pushes the primer out and resizes your brass and a seating die to seat the new bullet.
 
thegazelle said:
But it can't be worse to when I got to some of the 5.56 rounds. Yikes - it is two hands, straining with all my might - I may have blown some blood vessels as I was woozy at points. Honestly, I don't know why some are harder than others.
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Likely some of the 5.56 were crimped
thegazelle said:
A buddy told me not to deprime using my press, so I decided to get the hand deprimer.
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With friends like that, who needs enemies?

You can deprime as you size, no problem unless the primer sticks to the pin and is pulled back up which will prevent your progressive from progressing. Rare, but it depends on the primer type, and then you fuss with it until the primer falls off the pin.

If you are depriming separately, then sometimes primers will stick as above, and I recommend one of the many spring-loaded deprimers, such as the Mighty Armory XMA Decapping Die - https://www.mightyarmory.com/products/mighty-armory-xma-decapping-die Never a stuck primer.
 
thegazelle said:
New reloader here...just bought some presses (RCBS progressive and an RCBS single stage). Also bought a Frankford Arsenal hand deprimer. I was hand depriming my 30.06 and .308. No problem. I would even say it was a pleasure.

Now I am moving to my .223 and 5.56...and of course I changed the collet and I started depriming by hand.

I am surprised I can even still type...

Most of the .223 was ok. The Hornady and Nosler ones took a lot of strength and many times both hands. I wish the hand deprimer had some padding on it. My hands are sore...

But it can't be worse to when I got to some of the 5.56 rounds. Yikes - it is two hands, straining with all my might - I may have blown some blood vessels as I was woozy at points. Honestly, I don't know why some are harder than others...none of the various brands of 308 and 30.06 were like this.

A buddy told me not to deprime using my press, so I decided to get the hand deprimer.

At this rate, my reloading experience may be short lived...

Surely there is something better out there - automated power deprimer? I see lots of senior citizens reloading so I can't see them all using this hand deprimer. I am middle aged, and the carpel tunnel and such are all now rearing their head...

Suggestions welcome...and remember, I am new at reloading, so if I am making newbie mistakes, please take it easy on me...
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The Lee decappinf die works excellent 👍😊
 

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thegazelle said:
Yes the brass is wet tumbling as we speak with the SS pins...I set it for 2.5 hours. Poor kids are trying to figure out how to escape the noise. I should have put it in the garage.
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I use a universal decapping die on my 6.5 PRC brass, then wet tumble,then resize and wet tumble again.
I stopped using the pins a few years back,

For .223 and pistol cases I just decap them with the sizing die and wet tumble again.
A small squirt of Dawn and teaspoon of lemi shine and boom ,
 

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thegazelle said:
A buddy told me not to deprime using my press, so I decided to get the hand deprimer.
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When it comes to priming cases, I briefly used the system built into the Rockchucker but switched to a RCBS hand priming tool for better feel while seating and it is much faster than the press. However, virgin Lapua 300 PRC cases required an almost obscene amount of force to seat Federal LRMs to the point I was worried I would break something.
 
apex survival said:
It's quite possible the 5.56 brass has crimped primers. You may see it either as a full ring around the primer or 3 individual areas where the brass has been "staked". After you have deprimed the brass the crimp can be removed by cutting a radius on the primer pocket or using a swager in the press. I have never used a swaging die, only a manual Lyman crimp remover tool.
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I've use both methods of fixing the crimp, cutting it with a crimp cutting tool (or reamer) and the swager. I prefer the swager (RCBS), does a really nice job, but it does require some force for both reforming the pocket and extracting the tool. I could possibly see it causing undue stress on some presses. IIRC, it does take more force than full length sizing.
 
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