crackshot258
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You can do that with a #17 drill bit in a handheld chuck easily.
Broken Primers while Decapping
- Thread starter rfwobbly
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crackshot258
Member
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2015
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- 44
You can do that esily with a #17 drill bit in a handheld chuck.
Swampman
Old Fart
Being an incorrigible brass hound, I've probably had more than my fair share of "ringers" over the years.
IIRC, all of them have happened with range pick ups that have sat out in the weather for a while.
Usually they happen in one's and two's, so they just get tossed into the recycle bucket.
A few years ago I ran into the mother lode of .30 Carbine brass, over a thousand 1952 & '53 WRA cases laying in piles at one of the local LE ranges (I don't know about the rest of you, but finding ANY reloadable .30 Carbine brass is rare for me).
Unfortunately about 2/3's of them gave that little "tink" during depriming that tells you a primer has separated.
I tried basting them in Kroil for a week before decapping and it may have helped a little, but I continued to have a lot of primer bases pop off. I decided to come up with a way to salvage those cases. (My apologies, but I didn't take pics when I was originally working out the process, these photos were taken later with a random .45 ACP case).
I decap and reload Berdan brass and use the "punch and pry" method on stubborn cases, so I already had an old Allen wrench modified into a chisel with a concave point ground on it.
I removed the decapping stem,, then screwed the resizing die into the press from underneath and used the lock ring to hold it in place. Then I used a small hammer to drive the chisel into the primer wall (don't go too deep or you'll trash the primer pocket).
Once the tip of your chisel has a good "bite", start tapping on the other end of your chisel and the stuck primer "wall" will pop right out.
At this point you've got a fully deprimed case, but it's lightly stuck in the resizing die. My solution was to grind a flat surface onto the end of a 4 inch deck screw, then place the head in the shell holder with the flat end positioned so that when you lower the press handle, the screw will push the case out of the die.
Getting everything set up takes some time, but once you're ready to go it only takes a few seconds per case to salvage what would otherwise be scrap metal.
Aside from time, a 4 inch deck screw and a worn out Allen wrench, there's no cost involved in this process.
It's probably not worth the effort unless you have a fair number of ringed cases, but it's easy and cheap to fix 'em if you don't mind spending a little time.
IIRC, all of them have happened with range pick ups that have sat out in the weather for a while.
Usually they happen in one's and two's, so they just get tossed into the recycle bucket.
A few years ago I ran into the mother lode of .30 Carbine brass, over a thousand 1952 & '53 WRA cases laying in piles at one of the local LE ranges (I don't know about the rest of you, but finding ANY reloadable .30 Carbine brass is rare for me).
Unfortunately about 2/3's of them gave that little "tink" during depriming that tells you a primer has separated.
I tried basting them in Kroil for a week before decapping and it may have helped a little, but I continued to have a lot of primer bases pop off. I decided to come up with a way to salvage those cases. (My apologies, but I didn't take pics when I was originally working out the process, these photos were taken later with a random .45 ACP case).
I decap and reload Berdan brass and use the "punch and pry" method on stubborn cases, so I already had an old Allen wrench modified into a chisel with a concave point ground on it.
I removed the decapping stem,, then screwed the resizing die into the press from underneath and used the lock ring to hold it in place. Then I used a small hammer to drive the chisel into the primer wall (don't go too deep or you'll trash the primer pocket).
Once the tip of your chisel has a good "bite", start tapping on the other end of your chisel and the stuck primer "wall" will pop right out.
At this point you've got a fully deprimed case, but it's lightly stuck in the resizing die. My solution was to grind a flat surface onto the end of a 4 inch deck screw, then place the head in the shell holder with the flat end positioned so that when you lower the press handle, the screw will push the case out of the die.
Getting everything set up takes some time, but once you're ready to go it only takes a few seconds per case to salvage what would otherwise be scrap metal.
Aside from time, a 4 inch deck screw and a worn out Allen wrench, there's no cost involved in this process.
It's probably not worth the effort unless you have a fair number of ringed cases, but it's easy and cheap to fix 'em if you don't mind spending a little time.
Last edited:
bullseye308
Member
Swampman, that’s great. Thanks for that very informative post. I have about 100 38spl to go salvage now.
lordpaxman
Member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2011
- Messages
- 2,427
A great post and fodder for the Tips and Tricks thread.
lightman
Member
Swamp man described in detail the method that I mentioned with the modified allen wrench. Great description and great pictures! The ground down deck screw was genius!
Swampman
Old Fart
Here are some of the old .30 Carbine cases that prompted my post on removing "ringers". They've already had the primer "rings" removed.
The picture lost some detail when I uploaded it, but you can still see both the heavy annular crimps on the 1953 WMA as well as the deep, four stab crimps they used in 1952 (they look sorta like what Lake City did with 5.56mm brass @ 2012).
I don't think the heavy crimps caused the primer base separations, but they probably made it worse/more prevalent since these cases had weathered for some time outdoors.
More than likely they had a Lemi Shine soak as well, so definitively pinning these separated primers on any one cause is fairly problematic.
The picture lost some detail when I uploaded it, but you can still see both the heavy annular crimps on the 1953 WMA as well as the deep, four stab crimps they used in 1952 (they look sorta like what Lake City did with 5.56mm brass @ 2012).
I don't think the heavy crimps caused the primer base separations, but they probably made it worse/more prevalent since these cases had weathered for some time outdoors.
More than likely they had a Lemi Shine soak as well, so definitively pinning these separated primers on any one cause is fairly problematic.
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