Help a Newbie(serious) with primers, please.

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wethepeople2nd

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I hope I dont upset any peeves(smile), and I have read all the post its. I also read and re-read my loading manuals. I talked with several serious reloaders.
I am very new to rifle relaoding. I lurked on the forum for a while. I have loaded over 800,000 shotgun shells. OK?
I have a Lee single stage press. RCBS dies. .223 I have all kinds of brass from years of hoarding(Ask my wife).
I broke 3 de-priming tips. Ordered Lee's so called unbreakable universal deprimer. Yep. Broke after 15 or so rounds. Now I know what is causing the problem but I dont know why. All of the "trouble" brass is headstamped 83 12. (I think, old eyes.) This brass is darker and the primers are darker still. They are brass.
Do I need to go through 3, 5 gal buckets of brass to take out the problem brass? And is there a reasong this one type of brass is so hard on the de priming tip? Others like that?
Thank you for your patience. I enjoy reading the forum and hope I dont peeve anyone....
Tim
 
Welcome to THR!

The brass is probably mil-surp and has the primer crimped in to the pocket. They make a tool for that, but I forget what it's called. I think you can pry out the crimp with a small tool also.
 
Make sure the decapper is lined up and is hitting the flash hole. Make sure the flash holes are centered. I've decapped many a crimped in primer with no problems. If they are crimped in, after decapping the crimp must be removed.

Welcome to THR
 
Do you have the correct shellholder? If you don't, the case will be misaligned to some extent, and could miss the flash hole.

Also, try some other brass and see if there's a difference. I don't see any reason why a crimped primer should be overly difficult to remove.
 
Take a step back and grab a flashlight. I have decapped thousands of the heaviest crimped stuff (I presume) around - and have only snapped one "unbreakable" Lee decapping pin. On 9mm brass of all things, but I'd decapped probably 50k brass with it and it was old.

MAKE SURE YOU DON'T HAVE BERDAN BRASS. Look into the case with that flashlight and make sure there aren't two holes in the bottom instead of one - there ain't a decapping pin in the world to punch it's own hole through a berdan-bottomed case.

I enjoyed this same experiment my first time loading - the bum at the store *swore* that my 8x57 mil-surp ammo he sold me was reloadable. Won't call him a liar, but he must've thought I was from europe somewhere.

Edit: Oh yeah, if you (as a newbie) peeve anyone with this it's their problem not yours. Hope we solve it for you, and very glad you took the time to ask. Good luck!
 
Do you have the correct shellholder? If you don't, the case will be misaligned to some extent, and could miss the flash hole.

Also, try some other brass and see if there's a difference. I don't see any reason why a crimped primer should be overly difficult to remove.
 
Sounds like the Berdan issue. Chuck the junk, it is not worth the hassle even if that isn't the case. The Lee tool should have done the job or pushed the de-capping pin back out. I have yet to have mine fail, but I have yet to hit any berdan primed casings either.
 
So you got 3 possible issues, all easy to check...
• Incorrect shell holder. Not all holders use the same numbering system. When you find out the number then find out who made your shell holder. http://www.reloadbench.com/gloss/rshellx.html
• "Berdan primers". If you look inside the case and see "snake eyes" then you've got European military brass that can't be reloaded (easily). When looking inside, you should see a single hole centered in the case, very similar to shotgun.
• Personally I do not like the RCBS method of decapping pin alignment. I've broken several pins on their dies and stopped buying them. The Lee and Hornady decapping pin system is far superior and always perfectly centered. The Lee Universal Decapping Die should do the trick.
 
Yse I think it's South African and Berdan. Not readily reloadable so scrap it. Double check the inside of the case and see if it doesn't have 2 flash holes.
 
I don't think it is Berdan primed. He said he had deprimed 10-11 before the pin broke. Could it be sealed in primers? I mean, this brass was made in 1983. That would be a long time for the sealer to setup..
 
If the brass you have is reloadable and does have crimped primers you can use a cheap and very good little tool from Lee. Their Decapper and Base made for removing military primers works VERY well and for only $5.00 each. They sell one for .22 Caliber (Part #90103) and one for .30 Caliber. (Part #90102) See the listing on this page of the Lee Site. (no picture though) All you need is your own hammer! LOL

They do work... Welcome to the forum.
 
I don't think it is Berdan primed. He said he had deprimed 10-11 before the pin broke. Could it be sealed in primers? I mean, this brass was made in 1983. That would be a long time for the sealer to setup..
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Could still be Berdan primed brass, I've pushed the decapping pin thru the case a number of times when i've been in a hurry depriming with no damage to the pin till the next one or the one after that or maybe even the 5th or 10th one.

I'm making a bet the brass has 2 holes in the bottom.
 
83-12 is South African...(Pretoria Metall Pressing) and it is berdan primed, far as I know ALL South African is berdan primed.

Easiest way to tell is look inside, for a 5.56 case you may have to cut it near the base and see what it looks like.

BoxerBerdan2.jpg
 
It sounds like you would be better off taking the time to sort the cases by type anyway. I do that and then work up a load with EACH different type of brass. DO keep good notes as to what works well, then next time you reload that type of brass use that set of notes to duplicate your perfect ammo.:) With as much brass as you say you have just use one type until it is bad and then change to a different brand etc. As previously noted the Berdan type primer is a pain in the a** to reload and primers are not readily available presently for them. I would throw all the suspected Berdan cases into the scrap pile now and save you the trouble of all the broken decapping pins in the future. The other milsurp and commercial brass should be a breeze to deprime.
Also note that crimped in primers need the primer pockets reamed or swaged or the new primer will not insert easily or at all. I use the deburr/chamfer tool to do this. They also make a special tool that you can use for this purpose.
 
Can't imagine who that first sentence was directed towards :D NICE!!! :) Even better to see that some people have a sense of humor :D
 
You guys are freaking geniuses!! That is why this is my home page now. I shined a hand held spotlight down the neck and, YEP two holes! I knew about Berden primers. Der! You guys answered my questions exactly like I needed(and suspected you would). It is amazing the combined knowledge on this site. Simply AMAZING!

Mongoose et al, I checked shell holder. That was an initial thought. ty

Depolomo, yep a light down the hole, thanks!

Randy, I didnt seperate the brass and should have. The 83 12 CRAP was mixed with other brass.

Arch, I have two different primer pocket tools, thanks!

Ian, I knew someone that was more computer smarts than me would post the perfect pic to explain my problem, thank you very much.

Az, if we can laugh, why live?

Tim
 
No use trying to de-prime them, because you simply cannot buy Berdan primers in the U.S. anymore, anyway.

They are scrap metal.

rc
 
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