Primer punch inside a cartridge

[jamz]

So I finally started loading .44 mag, something I'd been meaning to do for a while now. As I was finishing up my last of 100 powderpuff rounds (8 gr Unique) rounds, I saw a couple of cases that I had overlooked, so I grabbed them and started to load again. On the first case, there was a "clink" when trying to seat the new primer. Examining it, I saw that the primer punch pin was gone! I looked everywhere, to no avail. I can only assume that it fell off or broke off in the last case I ran through the press.

I pulled a few of the topmost cases apart, then thought well does it really matter? It's a tiny piece of metal, less than an inch long and quite thin. Maybe I'll just shoot it out eventually?

What do you guys think, not a big deal to have a small cylinder of metal in a cartridge, or should I pull all 100 cartridges apart until I find it?

 

[cdrt]

What kind of press are you using? If you're seating a primer and something broke, it should be outside the case. If you were depriming first, the pin would have fallen out with the primer. Just a little confused, but it's early here in Texas.

 

[FieroCDSP]

Are you saying you broke off the decapping pin in a case and don't know where it is? If that's the case, I think you'd better start pulling. There aren't many way to lose the tip of a decapping pin, and if you did, it's likely still in the flashhole. You don't want a piece of metal obstructing your flashhole. Find that pin or confirm your loads are okay. I'd be warry of firing if I didn't know for sure.

 

[bugs100]

If the primers in all the shells are seating okay, I would shoot them. It sounds like it just fell out after you finished the last group of reloads.

 

[Master Blaster]

look in the spent primer bin??

 

[jamz]

It is a Dillon 550 B press, with depriming/sizing happening in the same stroke, and on the opposite stroke the new primer gets seated. Oh, and I am using used RCBS dies. I think it just "fell out", because when I took the die apart, there was no remainder in the collet in which it sits.

It wasn't in the depriming bin, where you'd think it would be if it got stuck in the exiting primer.

 

[Sharps Shooter]

I'd find that pin regardless of whether or not it takes pulling apart all 100 rounds. Shoot it out? I wouldn't count on that. I think there's too much chance it would get "shot" part way down the barrel and the next bullet down the tube would be disastrous.

 

[Mal H]

Since you have such a small amount of powder in a relatively large case, you should be able to clearly hear the pin as you shake each round.

I'm a little confused as to how this could happen though without being readily noticed. If the pin came off while depriming, unless it was the very last one (low probability) then the next round wouldn't get deprimed and you would try to seat a primer on a spent primer.

Have you looked inside the depriming die? Maybe it's jammed in there somehow.

 

[jamz]

Found it, thanks to Mal's advice! Went through about half of them, and sure enough, one sounded a bit funny. Took it apart, and there was the silly little pin. It hadn't broken, it had just somehow worked it's way loose and dropped into the case apparently.

So far, with this set of dies, I've had this one hide on me in a case, and another come loose AGAIN, stick into a dead primer and come out of the die.

I think I'm going to stick with Dillon dies, or give Lee a try. Thanks all!

 

[BeJaRa]

I have had that happen a few times with my RCBS 30-06 dies but never with my Lee dies. I now check that the die is screwed together tighly before I start and that seems to avoid having issues.

 

[FieroCDSP]

Is that a combo decapping/sizig die? If so, simply leave the decapping pin out and get a Lee Universal Decapping die.

 

[GP100man]

my later RCBS dies have a pin with a head on them.
what yr. are the dies your using???
some of my dies have enuff threads to drop a headed pin in then screw the cap back on .
thinking out loud .

GP100man

 

[jamz]

These are the older, headless pins, they are just straight cylinders. I bought the set used a few days ago. Fiero, yeah it is the combo decapping/sizing die, that's what I'm used to with the dillon dies, of which I've never had an issue. Not sure I want to make depriming a whole seperate step.... but I did buy what I *think* is a universal de-primer anyway from the used dies bin at the LGS.