Lee 9mm Die not depriming.

[TennJed]

I have only been reloading for about 1.5 years now. tonight I ran into a problem and was wondering if I could get some help.

After loading about 50 rounds of 9mm, the resizing/depriming die on my Lee 9mm die quit depriming. As far as I can tell it is still resizing correctly.

It is one of the lee 4 carbide dies. Looking at the instruction booklet, it seems that it might have been pushed up to protect it from breaking and I need to loosen the collet at the top. The pin does not seem to be sticking out as far on the die as my other calibers. I wanted to double check before I did anything.

do I just need to loosen the collet and have the pin fall out? How easy is it to put back and in the right position? What would be the most likely cause of this?

Thanks

 

[Centurian22]

I don't yet reload myself though I have been doing as much research as possible on the topic. Can't speak about the die, but possible causes could be 'crimped' primers which would be harder than usual to push out and could have caused the 'safety setback'. Though so far I've only heard of rifle rounds having the primer crimp never pistol and it ususally seems to be some form of Mil-Surp bulk ammo. Good luck and I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than I will be along soon to answer your questions more thoroughly.

 

[jcwit]

Loosen the collet at the top of the die, push/lower the depriming pin and retighten the collet. This should solve your problem.

If perchance the rod still pushes up when trying to deprime a case tighten the collet more, you may need to use 2 wrenches. One for the die and one for the collet.

 

[rhadamanthos12]

You might need to adjust the decapping pin, I have had my decapping pin move on me before (223 dies from lee). The way I fixed it was to loosen the decapping pin screw assembly (to the point that you can move the pin with a little bit of pressure but not where it is falling out), raise a deprimed lubed case to the up position (in the die) then pressed my pin to the lowest position I could, after that I tightened it back down and it has been good to go for over 1k cases.

 

[Fractal X]

Hi TennJed,
I had a similar thing happen to me this last week. I was re-sizing a .223 case and had somehow missed getting all the tumbling media out of it. So when I went to re-size it, the depriming pin assembly was forced up through the collet. Thank goodness it was a Lee re-sizing die and not one of my RCBS dies - it would've just bent the entire de-priming rod (done that before).

It's pretty simple to fix. Just loosen the collet a bit and bump the de-priming rod back down to where you think it should be. Then, without re-tightening the collet, run one of your previously de-primed cases up so you know you won't crash the case bottom against the de-priming rod. Once it's all clear, tighten down the collet again.

 

[Scimmia]

do I just need to loosen the collet and have the pin fall out? How easy is it to put back and in the right position? What would be the most likely cause of this?

There's two major causes I can think of.

First is like you said, the decapper rod got pushed up. To verify, look at the top of the collet, the rod will be sticking out the top of the die. If it is, just loosen the collet slightly, push the rod back down so it's level with the collet, and tighten the collet.

Second, the pin broke. If the rod is already flush with the top of the collet, odds are the pin has broken off. To replace it, loosen the collet until the rod falls out, stick the new one in until the top is flush with the collet, and tighten.

 

[rondog]

Take a flashlight and look inside your cases. There's a lot of milsurp 9mm ammo out there that's Berdan primed, and not reloadable. If there's one big primer flash hole, you're OK. But if there's two little tiny flash holes side-by-side, those cases are scrap metal.

Berdan cases will definitely push your Lee decapping pin up, they'll also break the tip off the pin if it's too tight in the collet! So beware. That's the first thing I do when I bring home a bunch of range brass, is look in them with a penlight for Berdan cases.

It's also possible to find cases with the flash hole off-centered, or even cases with flash holes that are smaller than your decapping pin.

 

[gamestalker]

No problem, just loosen the threaded lock nut on the top. It's designed exactly as you described, to prevent breaking the decapping pin. Once you've loosened it just enough to allow it to be pushed out further at the die base, set it to about 3/8" protrusion from the die base. Don't go much longer than that or you'll have problems with it contacting the flash hole, and then possible deforming the flash holes. Once it is properly adjusted, tighten the lock nut good and snug. Over the years I've discovered that if this occures too often you'll have to replace the colet.

Those type of decapping pin cofigurations will kind of lose their ability to hold the decapping pin with enough friction, resulting in constant problems sliding back up into the die regardless of how tight you get them if they get sripped out. If you feel that tell tale resistence of it not alligning with the flash hole, which is usually the primary cause of what you experienced, then further adjusting of the decapping pin is necessary to get it centered in the flasj hole.

Personally, I prefer the solid design of RCBS and other simular type resizing dies. I have never broken a pin, but I know they are about as inexpensive as it gets and never present the hassle those Lee type will sometimes present. I have one at the present time for 9mm that I failed to tighten enough from the get go that is barely staying in place. Due to the internal striping caused by more than one sliding occurance, I really had to torq it down to get it to hold under normal decapping operation.

If all else fails just go buy anither colet for that Lee and tighten it real good from the start.

GS

 

[gamestalker]

Don't just set it to be even with the colet as Scimmia instructed or you'll be right back at square A. It will make contact with the web and get pushed right back out again. Set it to approximately to 3/8" extrusion from the die base / mouth, as in where the brass enters the die.

Not to offend you Scimmia, but adjusting it to even with the colet is not the correct adjustment procedure.
GS

 

[Scimmia]

According to Lee, that is the correct method of adjustment.

The decapper is retained by a collet. Should
it be overstressed by an obstruction; it simply
slides up without damage. To reset, loosen
the decapper clamp and position the decapper
flush with clamp end and retighten.
Considerable torque may be necessary.
A 1/2” and 3/4” wrench are necessary.

 

[Walkalong]

Take a flashlight and look inside your cases. There's a lot of milsurp 9mm ammo out there that's Berdan primed, and not reloadable. If there's one big primer flash hole, you're OK. But if there's two little tiny flash holes side-by-side, those cases are scrap metal.

Like these berdan primed cases I picked up at the range recently.

 

[TennJed]

Like these berdan primed cases I picked up at the range recently.

Thanks for all the help. I am looking at this tread on my phone so the screen is small. I will look again on my home computer, but it looks like it would be very hard to tell the difference in the primer pictured and standard one

 

[jcwit]

I will look again on my home computer, but it looks like it would be very hard to tell the difference in the primer pictured and standard one

You have to look inside the shell, the inside bottom. One hole, good, 2 holes, toss into the recycle bucket.

 

[cfullgraf]

I will look again on my home computer, but it looks like it would be very hard to tell the difference in the primer pictured and standard one

9x19 cases will be easy to see due to the short case length. If it is a Berdan primed case, there will be no doubt. You will know it when you see it.

Rifle cases are not so easy to see the two Berdan primed flash holes.

 

[Walkalong]

it looks like it would be very hard to tell the difference in the primer pictured and standard one

My bad. Yes, you cannot tell from the outside. As posted, look inside. It will be obvious.

Here is a pic I took off the net. Googled it. As you can see, there is nowhere for the decapping pin to go.

 

[StandingTall]

http://leeprecision.net/support/ind...cle/View/437/14/remove--replace-decapping-rod

 

[GCBurner]

When you're reloading range pickup brass, it's not uncommon for a Berdan-primed case to slip in. It's happened a couple of times to me, but with the Lee depriming die, all it does is push the decapping pin up. It's easy to reset, with the correct swize wrenches.

 

[TennJed]

Thanks for all help

 

[beatledog7]

In depriming thousands of 9mm brass I've encountered exactly two Berdan-primed. Guess I've just been lucky.

It is true what was said above and in the Lee directions. You have to apply some real torque to the cotter bolt to keep that pin from popping loose at the least provocation.

 

[TennJed]

Thanks again for all the help. I got it working tonight and loaded 200 more rounds

 

[16in50calNavalRifle]

TennJed, be aware that apart from berdan cases, there are some headstamps (brands) of brass that can either push your depriming pin up or break it off (boxer-primed brass).

I believe somewhere in this forum you can search and find some posts listing headstamps to avoid in 9mm - boxer, not berdan, which as Walkalong explained and illustrated are definite no-go. Off the top of my head the ones I screen for are RWS and GAL (GFL??). The Swiss and NATO-marked stuff gets recycled automatically on my bench. But I don't encounter much of it.

You appear have quite the stable of 9mm ponies, so make it part of your pre-reload inspection (I do it right as I take the cleaned case to lube and place in the deprime/resize die) to check the headstamp for the "bad" ones - just add those to your brass recycle can, as suggested above.

 

[larryflew]

In depriming thousands of 9mm brass I've encountered exactly two Berdan-primed. Guess I've just been lucky.

Ditto, but not so lucky as they where in the same couple of hundred batch and both of them broke the pin. Luckily I remembered ,after years of not needing them, where I put my spare pins.

 

[hentown]

Don't just set it to be even with the colet as Scimmia instructed or you'll be right back at square A. It will make contact with the web and get pushed right back out again. Set it to approximately to 3/8" extrusion from the die base / mouth, as in where the brass enters the die.

Not to offend you Scimmia, but adjusting it to even with the colet is not the correct adjustment procedure.
GS

Not to offend gamestalker, but I've reloaded over 300,000 rounds using Lee dies. I ALWAYS adjust the decapping pin shaft level with the collet, after I've run into a problem and the shaft has been pushed up.