The deprimer 'spike' punch broke off. Used it for only three weeks.

[Ignition Override]

Had a little bit of lube on the .303 necks and a tiny bit inside.
Just saw that the punch broke off where it joins the tapered section.

Maybe Lee can replace this brand-new part (my first kit: bought middle December) for a modest charge?

 

[jfh]

I believe Lee provides those with a lifetime guarantee--so, e-mail them tomorrow. You'll probably have to pay postage for the new part--so maybe order a spare one as well.

If you are polite, they won't ask for the old one or for your order proof

Jim H.

 

[ljnowell]

they will replace the decapping pin for free. probably send you a few extras, it happens with a ll brands of dies.

 

[mkl]

You might want to check that case.

Breaking off a decapping pin in a 303 British was how I "discovered" Berdan primers

 

[Ignition Override]

It could have been a military case.

Were all 'HXP' and 'R P' rounds manufactured for military contracts?
These used 'R P' cases look older than the Greek 'HXP'.

jfh: Yes. Good point.
I can't imagine anybody wanting to be rude with their kit people, or anybody else, even with the anonymity of the Internet.

 

[Sudden Impact]

Ignition Override,

If you keep breaking pins or plan on reloading military cases with crimped primers I strongly advise looking into the Lee Universal Decapping die.

It is setup with a compression fit on the decapper rod so it will "pushup" instead of breaking. Don't expect it to move unless you try to decap a berdan case!

It adds another step to the process but if you get tired of breaking pins on crimped brass you'll save time in the longrun.

I use mine to deprime everything before initial polishing. No more broken pins (and I was stocking pins for Lyman, RCBS, etc.)

Good luck!

 

[mbopp]

I've broken 2 decapper pins, one on a stubborn military primer and one on a pebble jammed into a .38 Spl case. That'll learn me to look inside all my range pickups.

 

[bullseye308]

That'll learn you to order a spare for the spare when you order one do you won't be down when you need to be making ammo. Ask me how I know.....

Don't ask, I'll tell you. It's pretty obvious aint it. I have since learned to stand up all my cases and shine a light in every one counting flash holes. More than one they go to the scrap bucket. :banghead:

 

[armoredman]

Lee will probably send you a new one with no issues.

 

[navyretired 1]

I use nothing but Lee universal decapper and since I started with it haven't broke one since.
I'm sure Lee will replace the broken one but get the dedicated one as soon as possible. I do all depriming and repriming by hand with old Lee tools cause they never fail and I can watch TV while I prime them with just the right feel.

 

[Hanzerik]

Lee is pretty good about this kind of thing. I have only had one item (Primer Seater Cup on the Ram-Prime) break, but I called them and had a replacement a couple days later, no questions asked.

 

[Ranger J]

It has been my experience that if you reload much, sooner or later you are going to break them. This happens mostly on military cases or on a stray Berdan case. I always keep 'several' spares around for just that occasion. This avoids having to cannibalize a pin from another caliber set in order to finish the reloading job. They're relatively cheap and it saves a lot of frustration.

RJ

 

[orionengnr]

I broke one as a newb reloader.

I had tumbled a bunch of .45 acp brass, and de-primed the cases.

Unfortunately, there was a .40 or a 9mm case stuck inside one of the .45 cases, and the decapping pin wouldn't push the 9mm primer out through the 45acp case (imagine that)

Lesson learned--if it requires a bit more force than normal, stop and find out why.

 

[Ignition Override]

It just happened again, to my last .303 deprimer.

I followed somebody's advice to soak these old cases in a thin layer of Hoppe's #9 Solvent.
After soaking about half for two hours, washed them and had no problem depriming/neck-sizing.

But-after going through almost all of the old cases which had Not Been Soaked, it happened.
Had a bit of Lee Lube inside and outside the cases, but Not the last "dirty dozen" of these unsoaked cases, as the press seemed to move well with no extra pressure needed (complacency).

No more old cases for me, as buying more Prvi should be much more cost-effective. Signed, 'retired' Lieutenant Forrest Gump.

 

[OYE]

I've never broken a decapper on a Lee die ( on military cases or otherwise ). I didn't
know they would break. Used them a lot more years than I care to think about.

 

[qajaq59]

Breaking off a decapping pin in a 303 British was how I "discovered" Berdan primers

Yup, you and about 40,000 other guys. LOL

 

[Walkalong]

I culled some berdan cases from some 9MM range brass the other day. I probably missed some. It pays to check each case before sizing/decapping with any caliber where there may be berdan primed cases. I also use a magnet to check 9MM brass these days. It picked out about a dozen S&B brass plated steel cases from the spread out pile. Visually they look the same.

I have some extra decapping pins for RCBS and Reddding dies. I haven't broken one in a long time....knock on wood.

 

[wittzo]

I thought it was just me...

I've been trying to decap some old 5.56 brass I had in storage for the last few years. I successfully decapped two casings and then the decapper pin on my Lee .223 die broke. I thought I hadn't lubed the casing properly at first; when I pulled up, the rim sheared off. I had to hammer the casing out with a steel rod, the decapper pin was stuck in the casing. I had to wrestle with a leatherman and a vise grip to get the casing off the decapper pin, which was snapped.

I had tumbled 4 batches of brass the day before, about 3 hours for each batch to make them cleaner. Then I soaked them in an old fashioned mix of vinegar and brine to get the patina off and tumbled them again after they were rinsed and dried, making them almost factory fresh and clean.

I discovered that a large part of my brass was South African surplus with Berdan primers after I broke my Lee Decapper Pin from my .223 Lee Loader kit. Grumble..I went online and ordered replacements along with some other tools from Midway. It was my own fault, not Lee's.

But now I'm running into other problems. I culled my brass of South African surplus. It's mostly Lake City with a few Winchester White Box, and some PMC. Before I pulled the pin out of another die set to ruin, I bought a Lee kit at a local feed store yesterday. The packaging boasts,"Decaps even the most stubborn crimped primers!" I bent that one on a Lake City casing and it snapped when I tried to straighten it on the first casing I tried. I took it back this afternoon and swapped it for the last kit they had on the hook. I just broke that one after decapping three more casings, it warped on the first casing. Two were Lake City and one was PMC. It broke on a Lake City and the primer is halfway out, even after I tried popping it out with a masonry nail and bent two 2D finishing nails. It's like the primers are welded to the flash hole, all the Lake City flashholes were deformed after I got the primer out.

At this point, I think I'm going to cull out the non-Lake City and sell the rest for scrap and buy brand new, unprimed brass.

How can brass beat steel?

 

[dmazur]

How can brass beat steel?

Well, (assuming this isn't a rhetorical question), there's the "slenderness" of the column to consider. See -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckling

So, considering the force required to "uncrimp" the brass, it is possible this is more than the slender column (the depriming pin) can support. The area of the brass that has to bend, and how ductile it is, can be a problem. A normal depriming operation only has brass friction to overcome.

A much thicker steel pin would be the obvious solution, except then it wouldn't fit through the flash hole...

 

[billybob44]

I broke one as a newb reloader.

I had tumbled a bunch of .45 acp brass, and de-primed the cases.

Unfortunately, there was a .40 or a 9mm case stuck inside one of the .45 cases, and the decapping pin wouldn't push the 9mm primer out through the 45acp case (imagine that)

Lesson learned--if it requires a bit more force than normal, stop and find out why.

++100 on that. After a few thousand pulls of the press handle, you will learn the "feel" of what is right and what is not..Bill..

 

[wrangler5]

Been using Lee dies for ~25 years and every sizing die uses a collet to hold the shaft of the decapping pin. (As does the universal decapping die.) If the pin can't go all the way through the flash hole, the whole shaft just gets pushed up and out of harm's way. Unless the collet is cranked down way too tight.

Like OYE, I've never broken one.