Spent Primers hanging up

700

700

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
18   0   0
Location
On a bench in a field with gophers
I have a problem that defies logic and over 30 years experience reloading. I am reloading 9mm range brass. I clean it well before I start and give it the shake to listen for cracked and other case integrity issues. The problem is the spent primers are not cleanly ejecting from the primer pockets on WIN headstamped brass. Does not matter if it is once fired or previously reloaded. My decapping pin is all the way down and sticks out of the bottom of the die just under a 1/2 inch, .488 to be exact. The face of the die just kisses the shell plate. Press is an XL750, I have also had the same issue with my Loadmaster. The issue persists with Lee and RCBS dies.

What have i missed?
 
700 said:
I have a problem that defies logic and over 30 years experience reloading. I am reloading 9mm range brass. I clean it well before I start and give it the shake to listen for cracked and other case integrity issues. The problem is the spent primers are not cleanly ejecting from the primer pockets on WIN headstamped brass. Does not matter if it is once fired or previously reloaded. My decapping pin is all the way down and sticks out of the bottom of the die just under a 1/2 inch, .488 to be exact. The face of the die just kisses the shell plate. Press is an XL750, I have also had the same issue with my Loadmaster. The issue persists with Lee and RCBS dies.

What have i missed?
Click to expand...

It may well be the shape of the tip of your decapping pin. The primer sticks to the pin,
and when it leaves the primer pocket, it pulls the primer back into the pocket.
I had the same issue with a certain lot of primers, so I "pointed" the pin just a bit, and
the problem disappeared. Dave.
 
Eagleye said:
It may well be the shape of the tip of your decapping pin. The primer sticks to the pin,
and when it leaves the primer pocket, it pulls the primer back into the pocket.
I had the same issue with a certain lot of primers, so I "pointed" the pin just a bit, and
the problem disappeared. Dave.
Click to expand...

I will give this a try. Only seems to happen with WIN brass but makes sense with WW primers.
 
I think the issues is pocket tension. Some hold on a bit better while being punched out and cause the problem. That would explain why certain head stamps do it. I haven't noticed any specific primer causing.
 
It might seem like a chore, but I manually decap all my brass as a first step.
It helps to identify and discard the excessively loose brass.
Also, it exposes the pocket for cleaning.
Once you get into the rhythm, it's not bad...
 
Bubba Yugga said:
It might seem like a chore, but I manually decap all my brass as a first step.
It helps to identify and discard the excessively loose brass.
Also, it exposes the pocket for cleaning.
Once you get into the rhythm, it's not bad...
Click to expand...

I do this as well. Just watch TV and plug away. I have noticed over the course of tens of thousands of pieces that Winchesters have some of the most wonky effed up flash holes out of any headstamp. Some of them are fine, some of them are just random and jagged and the decapping pin gets stuck, and others it seems like the hole is almost closed up.
 
I had the same problem occasionally with primers getting stuck on the pin and then getting pulled back in the pocket when the ram goes down.
This was using my lee universal decapper. Switched over to using an rcbs die as decapper that has a thinner decapping pin and the problem went away.

I don't think it has to do with the flash hole in the brass but think it is mostly caused by the shape of the anvil in certain primers that grip around the decapping pin when the primer gets pushed out, maybe combined with a primer pocket that is not very tight and/or has a good bevel to guide the spent primer back in the hole when the ram goes down.
 
Well I removed the decapping assembly from the size die and broke the corner on the decapping pin and it has solved about 90% of the problem. Out of 250 round I reloaded this afternoon I had one case that failed to deprime. That is a lot better than 1 on 20 or so. The test was also conducted with the offending Win brass that I had previously removed from the collection.

Thank you to everyone who has chimed in!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom