Broke my decapping pin.

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JDGray

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After 17yrs of reloading, I finaly broke something:D The second case I tried to size, with my new set of Lee .40cal dies, broke the pin, twice! I looked at the case, and noticed either the primer hole wasn't drilled, or a huge amount of primer sealant was filling it. This was a dud round, that I pulled down. guess I should have looked at it better. I'll try out Lees warranty, and send them the case and broke pin, dont expect them to replace it, but its worth a try.
 
Has to be something going on as Lee decaping pins won't break even on a Bredan case. Ask me how I know, the pin slides back up. Take a good look into that case there must be something causing the pin to be pushed to the side or some such, completely out of the ordinary.
Good chance Lee will replace a pin with just a phone call.
In emergency's with other makers dies I have cut and used a small finish nail as a pin until I got to the store to buy another. If you do that set the pin only out enough to punch the primer out, as nails are soft and will bend.
 
I've tightened my decapper locking nuts pretty tight before. I'd assume if you get it tight enough, it might not move, which would result in a breakage. Regardless, they should replace it if it's still in the 2 year period.
 
I've broken several Lee pins, all in 45 acp. These days I set the pin shallower, and tighten the collet about half as much as I used to. Needs resetting every now and then, but no big deal.
 
Guess I should adjust all my collets, I just plop em in the press the way Lee sends them.
 
I have broken a handful of Lee pins over the years. They're cheap - I keep a stock on hand for my most loaded chamberings....
 
I've broken a couple of Lee decapping pins using a Lee hand press; when the primer catcher gets full and you don't notice it, sometimes it will break the pin instead of pushing it up.

OTOH I've punched out Berdan cases (they were .30 Carbines; there's not supposed to be any Berdan primed .30 Carbine cases) with a Lee decapping die without breaking the pin.
 
I have a Lee dealer here locally. It's cheaper to just buy a pin than to pay for the postage. I keep extras. As noted, they should slide in the collet, but there's a fine line between moving all the time and having enough friction to snap off.
 
The decapping pin is guaranteed for two years. I broke my 223 decapping pin they replaced it no problem. Just call them 262 673-3075 they will replace it free of charge and they will have it the mail to you the same day.

Mike
 
I've broken 4 in the universal decapping die...all on PMC 223 brass with off-center holes. They replaced the first one with only an e-mail complaint but asked for the broken ones to be mailed in for the others.
/Bryan
 
I phoned them and asked to order a new one they asked how old the die was i told the gal the die was a year and a half old she told me it was still under warrenty and they would send me a new one free of charge. They did not ask me to return the broken one.

Mike
 
Hmmmm.....I've had two occasions to call Lee on broken pins and both times they said send it back first :( and they will replace it.

Not to waste time, I simply ordered new ones on the spot.
Interesting, though, how one managed to break.

A .22LR found it's way into a .357 Mag case. The pin punched it's way through the bottom of the .22 and continued to push out the spent .357 primer.

The pin continued to work for some time after that, for when the pin finally broke, I discovered that the punctured .22 case was still stuck there and covered with lots of crap, as evidence that it was there for some period of time.

The second pin broke after I mistakenly tumbled .223 brass in reptile bedding corn.

For all of us who have done that, we found that getting all the coarse corn out of a .223 case is a chore indeed. And that corn can break pins.
 
I once bent an RCBS decapping pin on some military cases. I wrote them a letter and they sent me several replacements. Unlike Lee, RCBS products have a lifetime warranty.
 
IMO, the easiest solution is to just keep a couple extra pins around. I have to keep both Lyman and RCBS because I have both kinds of dies.
No big deal though and when you need them you'll be glad you shelled that extra $5 out.
 
Thanks for the responses, I'll call them today or Monday. The case had no flash hole, I cut it apart to see.
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I had the same experience with the Lee warranty as others here. Send the broken parts back and we'll send the replacement.

My first test of the Lee warranty was when the chain to my Lee Auto Disk Pro Powder Measure broke. Sent them an email and I got the "you'll have to send us the chain first" deal. Couldn't wait that long so I went to Lowe's home center and picked up a 3' length of the same chain from the fan section for $2. There's much to be said about the "No BS" warranty of some of the others. If you can't afford any downtime the extra cost of the higher end equipment is money well spent.

Richard
 
I broke a Lee decapping pin last week while working on .44 mags. I was loading on a Pro-1000 but hand-feeding cases one at a time because they were sticking in the shellfeeder. Somehow a spent primer wound up falling into one of the cases in my bin and when I tried to decap that shell it felt tight, so I gave it some more grunt, and heard that familiar little 'snap'..
Luckily I have die sets I don't have guns for so I stole a decapping pin out of another die set and kept on trucking.
 
RCBS has the best warranty. If any thing breaks or wears out just call them and they will ask you how many you need if it's a small item. I had trouble with my Rock Chucker press and they sent a new ram for it. Also told them my JR press handle kept falling down. They sent parts for in. Only thing I've had was a Green Machine that I don't like. But it is good to run 45 apc cases through a lot faster than a single stage press. Why I don't like the G machine is my fault. Was loading with it and my daughter came out ant talked to me. Dumb me disconnected the powder measure .Then I loaded a big box with no powder. It kicked them in with the ones with powder in them. Then I had fun trying to sort them out.
 
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