[ed dixon]

I really like the RCBS handheld priming tool I got a couple months ago and recently wondered if anybody makes a handheld decapper. Picked up a few hundred once-fired cases and was thinking how I'll enjoy lying in bed priming them, but if only I could also start 'em that way too! I'll let my wife answer ... "Yes, he's that lazy."

[Dave R]

I am no expert, but I never heard of a handheld decapper. And since a decapper is generally also a full-length resizer, I think you'd need Popeye forearms to be able to generate enough force with one. That's why presses have the long leverage.

But I could be wrong.

[444]

It sounds like you need a handpress. I don't know who all makes one, but I have the one from Lee. They are really cheap, so I bought one just for the heck of it. I don't use it a whole lot, but it is perfect for what you have in mind. Just last week I lubed up a batch of .223 cases and sat in front of the TV and sized/deprimed them. I then primed them using my Lee hand priming tool. I have also used the handpress with a Lyman universal depriming die. I have found that PMC brass is so bad that if I size them in my regular sizing die, about 75% of the time, the decapping pin is driven up out the top of the die. So, I deprime the cases with the universal depriming die that doesn't seem to have a problem with it. Then I ream the primer pocket with a handtool designed to remove military crimps. This allows me to seat a primer in the PMC cases, although it still requires considerable effort.
I would not lie in bed and deprime cases. It makes too much of a mess. By the way, when you deprime on the Lee Handpress, the spent primers drop down inside the ram. You can deprime maybe 50 cases without emptying it.
http://www.leeprecision.com/catalog/browse.cgi?1050121786.689=rlpress1.html
The press I am referring to is the last one listed on that page.

[ed dixon]

Dave: I use a universal decapping die, tumble and then re-size separately, so that's not a big deal.

444: Sounds interesting and ... relaxing. No fear. My beverage/ ashtray/reading stand at the foot of the bed readily converts to makeshift workbench. (Okay, I haven't actually primed in bed yet, but I've cleaned primer pockets and, well, a man can dream can't he?) ;)

Being mostly whimsical about the bed thing anyway, but was wondering about the tool.;) (Uh, have honed knives and cleaned pistols there now that I think about it. Not quite Homer Simpson, despite wife's litany of comparisons. Swear to Jebus.)

[swifter]

I mostly use a Wilson Decapper. Not hand held, but a base you set on the bench, place the case in it, drop the rod into the casemouth, and whack with a rawhide mallet Goes a lot faster than you'd think, and tends to jar the crap loose from the primer pocket, as well as relieve hostilities...:what:
Tom

[444]

That sounds like using a Lee Loader.