Wet tumbling pins stuck in flash holes

[cfullgraf]

Anyone who wet tumbles, do you find pins stuck in the flash holes on some cases?

I have been wet tumbling some once fired R-P 223 Remington cases and about 5 percent have a couple pins stuck in the flash holes.

I did not see this when I cleaned a large batch of 38 Special cases a little while ago.

Not really a big deal but it takes time to make sure all of the flash holes are clear.

Thanks

 

[jmorris]

I haven't had it happen, yet.

 

[NeuseRvrRat]

happens to me on some batches. i did a bunch of LC 5.56 and i had similar results as the OP (~5% with pins in flash hole). i recently did a bunch of federal and blazer small primer .45 ACP and none of them had pins stuck in the flash holes.

i usually decap with a universal decapper, then wet tumble, then resize. any pins in the flash holes will get pushed out by the decapping pin on the resizing die. at the very least you'll feel resistance and then you can push them out with a paperclip.

 

[bags533]

Yep, happens to me too. Only seems to be with .223. I use an angled pair of needle nose pliers to get them out.

 

[cfullgraf]

Thanks all.

Yes, the pins are not difficult to remove, it is just they do have to be removed. I use a stiff piece of piano wire. The same wire that I use to clean dry media out of flash holes.

I wet tumble infrequently, only when I have a large batch of cases I want spotlessly clean. My process is still evolving and checking flash homes became a new wrinkle.

These particular cases are actually 223 Remington cases reformed for 300 BLK. Tumbling is needed to clean off the forming lubricant, among other things.

 

[PCCUSNRET]

Was resizing some 223 the other night and didn't notice 2 pins stuck in the flash hole and ended up breaking the decapping pin. I have now removed decapping pins from all my rifle dies. I decap all my rifle brass prior to cleaning.

 

[Jeff H]

Was resizing some 223 the other night and didn't notice 2 pins stuck in the flash hole and ended up breaking the decapping pin. I have now removed decapping pins from all my rifle dies. I decap all my rifle brass prior to cleaning.

What dies have a decapping pin separate from the expander ball?

 

[NeuseRvrRat]

iirc, with rcbs dies you can screw the expander ball off, remove the decapping pin, then screw the ball back on.

 

[FROGO207]

I just took a set of vise grips and pulled the Lee depriming pin out of the expander and use a universal deprimer first before wet tumbling. Yes after using the SS pins for about a year I found 2 or 3 that had pins stuck in them over that time period. That's about 12K 223 brass BTW. IIRC I have had it happen once with a PPU 308 casing also. Might be related to size of primer hole versus pin size. Were your problem casings metric or US origin. I do not remember what mine were in 223 at this point.

 

[cfullgraf]

What dies have a decapping pin separate from the expander ball?

At least, Redding, Hornady and RCBS have replaceable decapping pins in the resizing dies. You can remove and not used them if you want. Re-install them when you want.

 

[cfullgraf]

Might be related to size of primer hole versus pin size. Were your problem casings metric or US origin. I do not remember what mine were in 223 at this point.

Right, or maybe also burrs in the flash holes.

My problem cases have been 100 percent R-P 223 Remington.

I am in the process of converting 1500 of them to 300 Blk.

Another thing, I have let the tumbler run longer than normal only because I did not get back to in a timely fashion. The extra running time may give the pins more time to get stuck.

 

[Hacker15E]

I've gotten the 2-pins-stuck-in-flash-hole in some years of Lake City 5.56, too.

Needle nose pliers are my answer, too.

 

[Canuck-IL]

I get 2-3 per batch of 275 223s, mostly LC to date. Roughly the same in 45 with the same size batches. Very rarely does a batch come through with none stuck.
/Bryan

 

[Rmeju]

I have a slightly different answer for the pins in the flash hole problem.

When loading on my progressive, I just have the primer dump tube drop into something that catches the pins as they fall out. For rifle (since they're already sized), I put a lee universal decapper in station 1 for the same effect.

This saves me an operation. YMMV

 

[jmorris]

and didn't notice 2 pins stuck in the flash hole and ended up breaking the decapping pin. I have now removed decapping pins from all my rifle dies.

So now they just go inside the case and down the barrel when you miss them?

 

[PCCUSNRET]

So now they just go inside the case and down the barrel when you miss them?

No, I'd catch them when I trim or prime the cases. I prime all rifle brass by hand with one of the RCBS priming tools.

 

[jbm]

This happens to me quite often. I just use these:

http://www.lewilson.com/punchbase.html

to punch the pins out. It only takes a few seconds.

Brad