Re-using Primers from Crimped Cases

I bought a bunch of primed, unfired LC 7.62 cases that were previously loaded but had the bullets pulled. I intended to just load them up and shoot them, but it turns out the industrial bullet-pullers were a little rough on the cases, so they need to be resized. Problem is, there's residue from the pitch bullet sealant in the necks, and it tends to gum up the expander ball. I've decided that it's best to just de-prime them and go through the entire case-prep routine of cleaning, sizing, trimming, and primer-pocket treatment.

I hate to waste all those good, military magnum primers though. Has anyone ever attempted to use primers that have been removed after having been crimped in? I've de-primed a handful of the badly mangled cases, and the primers seemed to come out without much more force than un-crimped primers, but I still wonder if I'm pushing the anvil back too much. I know I could try loading them in a couple of test cases and see if they fired, but before I load a thousand of them I'd like to know if someone else has tried this. A ten or twenty percent failure rate would probably mean it's not worth it, but I could live with a couple of failures per hundred.

Also, I wonder if the potential for slam-fires is increased. If so, I have a couple of rifles without floating firing pins I could use them in.

What do you think?

I need to de-prime because I need to clean that tar out of the necks. It gums up the expander.

Soaking in mineral spirits has proven to be the fastest, easiest method to remove the tar, but it's not great for the primers.

I tried the Q-Tip method, but it's excrutiatingly slow, required one Q-Tip per case, and still tended to drip mineral spirits into the bottom of the case around the primer. Besides, my wife lost patience with the process after only a dozen cases.

Um...guys...please just read the original post. The question is about re-using primers that were originally crimped in.

I know all about removing the decapping pin. I know about de-capping dies. I know where babies come from. I know why the caged bird sings.

Now, how about re-using those primers?

(None of this applies to you of course, Sam1911...go to the head of the class).

There's some excellent input here, and I appreciate it.

119er, I suspected exactly what you reported. It looks like re-using the primers is out. I was hopeful because the primers came out of some of the damaged cases pretty easily, but I suspect the failure rate would make re-use more trouble than it's worth.

Ken70, it wasn't me who asked about cleaning earlier; I already know how to dissolve tar. The question was strictly about re-using primers. For what it's worth to everyone who suggested cleaning out the tar, it's certainly an option, but even dipping and drying 1000 cases is pretty labor intensive and time-consuming.

Fire_Moose: good thought. Tumbling was the first thing I tried. Guess what sticks to tar: corncob. What a mess.

I think at this point I have two options: just go ahead and deprime and toss the primers, or proceed with the sizing, tar and all. I already sized a hundred; that's when I discovered the fouled expander ball. To tell you the truth, though, cleaning the expander ball was easier than cleaning the cases.

Not sure which way I'll go yet; I really hate losing those primers in this market. I suppose I'll probably just bite the bullet (haarr), expand them with the tar in place, and pull the expander for cleaning every hundred or so.