Making a universal decapping die out of 325WSM seating die.

[eyeshot]

If I pop out the seating stem, from the above, can I screw a decapping pin in its place? I have no use for this die but was looking to purchase a universal decapping die. If the pin threads are the same, RCBS to RCBS, it would seem to be an in-house solution.

I bought a second RCBS single stage, for the garage, strictly for decapping. I am not at home, in the "man den" with access to my dies for a look-see. Is this doable or do I need to "pony up" for a new die?

 

[FROGO207]

It will only work for things that are as long as the sidewall length up to the shoulder and the diameter of the neck above. Might work for all handgun rounds. I have a Lee universal decapper but used my 500 S&W sizing die for everything up to 308 length before that.

 

[troy fairweather]

Should work getting the pin to find the hole may be hard. Keep the nut a bit loose and file some bevel on the decaping pin to help find the hole.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I've been using an old 30-06 resizing die for over 20 years for decapping all my 9mm and .357 mag. I have one screwed into my APP right now.
The punch pin on the stem will work fine. Just set it for length, look at the end of the assembled die and if the stem is out of place, gently bend it to the center.
They actually work better than RCBS's universal de-priming die because the punch pin is fixed instead of spring loaded. It won't shoot spent primers all over the loading room.
Like FROGO said, your limited to what will fit under the bottle neck in the die.
30-06 dies work good for smaller diameter pistol calibers, but it won't deprime from .41 mag up because it tries to resize the case.
As far as the depriming stem, I haven't broke a pin in my 30-06 die in over 10 years.

 

[bullseye308]

Why is it that most of us didn’t figure that out years ago? I stopped loading 7.62x54R quite a few years ago and could have used that die to decap all my 308, 9mm, 38, 357, 40, & 45, everything but 223 could have worked unless I changed the expander. But no, I had to buy the Lee universal decapper(which works perfectly btw). Well darn, little late to help me out, but hopefully it will benefit some newer person.

 

[eyeshot]

I just dug my .308 and 22-250 dies out and the decapping pin threads are not the same as the 325WSM seater die threads. So that won't work.

Looks like a new die is in the works. The 325WSM seater die was stuck in the press I bought for the garage and I was trying to repurpose it.

Thanks, for the viewpoints.

 

[bullseye308]

Get some kroil and let it work into the threads of that die and I’ll bet it will free it up.

 

[eyeshot]

Get some kroil and let it work into the threads of that die and I’ll bet it will free it up.

By stuck in the press, I meant that it came with the press. Poor wording on my part.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

Why is it that most of us didn’t figure that out years ago? I stopped loading 7.62x54R quite a few years ago and could have used that die to decap all my 308, 9mm, 38, 357, 40, & 45, everything but 223 could have worked unless I changed the expander. But no, I had to buy the Lee universal decapper(which works perfectly btw). Well darn, little late to help me out, but hopefully it will benefit some newer person.

All the complaining about RCBS presses throwing primers all over the place could have been solved by using a fixed pin punch like rifle dies have.
People were buying other peoples 3D printed catch devises for on their press when all they needed to do was use an old rifle die to punch them out with.
I was on multiple threads on here telling people to use rifle dies instead of spending money for the latest hack that wasn't necessary but it didn't matter to them.
I guess they just like to spend money and complain. The universal RCBS de-priming die with the spring loaded primer punch is for hollow ram presses and hollow ram progressive presses, so it will shoot the primer down through the ram and not hang up somewhere along the way and tie up the press. They don't work well in Single stage presses that don't have hollow rams, like the Rockchucker series.