Lee decapping/expanding pin stuck in case

O

outoftowner

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Medicine Hat, AB
So today I was loading my second batch of 303 british and saw that the top of my decapping pin on my resizing die was not flush with the nut that holds it in place (they tell you to adjust it flush in the instructions). So I loosened the nut and slid it down to flush and tightened it up using quite a bit of muscle. I push my first case in and notice that it pushed the pin back up to where it was before (moved it up about the thickness of 2 dimes stacked on top of each other). When I tried to extract the case the pin pulled out with the case, yes I did lubricate the inside of the case mouth. So I re-lubed the case and put it back in the die and adjusted the pin to the proper height and tightened it up again using alot of muscle this time. But once again the pin got pulled out with the case. This happened about 2-3 more times before I gave up.....help :redface:
 
die trouble

I had a Hornady die set that would do the same,
"the decaping/expander rod was not held tight enough by the collet"
First degrease the collet and the expander then double wrench it.
If that dont work RCBS and Redding sell dies that use a lock nut.
 
Take your decapping pin and put the part that sits in the jam nut into a vise.
Tighten the vise on the pin enough that the jaws of the vise leave an imprint
on the pin. This will roughen up the surface, and give the nut something to
grab on to. You don't have to squish the pin flat, just dimple it a bit.
Put the pin back into your die and put the die into your press.
Tighten the jam nut. Tighten it some more.
Grab a 3/4" wrench to stop the die from turning.
Adjust the two wrenches so that you can squeeze the handles together like
you would a pair of pliers. You can get a lot of force, without wrenches slipping,
flying across the room of taking any skin off your knuckles.
 
Also I somehow managed to bend the pin above the expander section somehow, I don't know when this happened (I really wouldn't have been able to tell with 3/4 of the pin stuck inside the case) but I'm thinking this might have caused the difficult extraction. I just don't know why it would bend there instead of the thin decapper pin part.
 
The Lee decapping pin and expander are one piece. You can't take the decapper pin off the end like with RCBS dies. If you remove the whole thing some bottleneck cases may not be expanded large enough to start the bullet after sizing.

Really tight with two wrenches is the way to set your decapping rod as mentioned above.
 
What you should have done is remove the collet and pin and de-grease them.
Oil the collet thread's so they don't rust, but don't oil the pin then re assemble.
I like to keep my decapping pin a little bit above flush,just in case.
Out of the 1000's I've resized in my LEE dies I've never had a case get stuck,or torn off a rim.
 
Ya why I think it was rising so much was because the pin was bottoming out on the case and getting pushed up that little bit. So i'm thinking that last time I adjusted it down when the case got pushed in it bent the pin above the expander thus the case got stuck because the die wanted it to go straight out and the pin wanted it to go out at an angle. Now I know what to do next time.
 
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