Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles How did I manage to do this?

Hey guys. I'm new to reloading and already had my first mishap.

While waiting on my friend who does a lot of reloading to come over and help get me started, I thought I could at least de-primer and resize some brass to get it ready. I had bought a large lot of 1x fired 300wm brass here on the fire.

I put the resizing die into the press and adjusted it to where it just touched the shellholder with the handle fully down, got out the case lube, and started resizing. All went well, did quite a few, then went to bed. Went back out today to do a few more and the very first case would not go in. Removed the die and checked inside and saw the primer remover(not sure of the technical term) was bent to the side. Tried to bend it back straight and it broke off.


What did I do wrong and how do I make sure this doesn't happen again? Thanks in advance for helping out a new guy.

Also, can I order just this broken part or do I have to buy a new die?

Not sure what happened to cause that. I personally have not had anything like that happen (at least not till next time I reload LOL). The part that is broke is the decaping rod. If it is RCBS then I would call them up. They have great customer service and they will probably send you a new one free of charge. If you cant wait and need to load shells right away they are available at just about any sporting goods that handles reloading supplies.

How far below the bottom of the die did the decapping pin extend? Any of the cases have off-center flash holes?

quarter inch. maybe a little more. about the same length as the rest of my dies and I didn't have any problems with any of them.

I resized some 257 wby, 35 whelen and 243 win before I did these. All with no problems.

A few of the pieces of 300wm brass had been de-primed when I got them. I ran them through the resizing die anyway just to make sure all my brass got the same treatment. could that have caused the problem?

I didn't notice any off center holes but I didn't check that closely.

If the case isn't sitting fully into the shellholder, if the case is tipped a bit when in the shell holder, if the flash hole is bit off center, if there is "breakout" when the flash hole was punched during manufacturing, if the spindle nut isn't tightened down ( I leave mine loose for concentricity reasons, so I have to be aware...), if the spindle or decapping pin isn't straight.

When sizing--or seating--you will learn to "feel" if things aren't going right.

Having said that, I recently bent the spindle on a Forster die when not paying attention and the decapping pin missed the flash hole. Worse yet, I almost always first decap my brass with a decapping die before sizing...but got lazy this time.

Presses with less leverage make it easier to tell if something is going wrong than the high leverage presses. My RCBS Jr presses have a better "feel" than my Rock Chuckers or my Lee Classic.


Casey

You didn't mention tumbling the brass. If some media was left in the bottom of the case this could happen.

The kids were messing with your stuff, broke it and didn't tell you. They were hoping you would think you did it somehow....

The way I adjust my decapping die is to run a case into the die with the decapping pin well up (not touching the primer). Once the case is fully in the die, I thread the stem down until I feel it touch the primer, the I retact the ram and thread the stem down another 1/4-1/2 turn and lock it. Then I cycle the ram and if the primer pops out, I call it happy. If it doesn't, I make another 1/4-1/2 turn, and so forth until the primer is reliably popped out.
When your resizing ball was touching the shell holder, this meant that when you cycled the press with a case in place, the resizing ball was having pressure put on it on every cycle.

Long ago I removed the primer punching pins from all of my dies , and went to a universal decapping die (Lyman) . I like to have my neck expander higher up in the die where it is more rigid and less apt to bend stems and break pins !

Properly adjusted, the resizing ball shouldn't come in contact with the case. No way you could be bending stems and breaking pins.

I would say your decapping pin depth wasn't properly set. depending on the press you're using if you have it set too deep it can hit against the bottom of the charging rod on your press. I have done this using rcbs dies with a lee press. set your decapper to where it contacts the primer just enough to knock it out.

First contact the company that made the die. They will likely send you a new one at no cost.

Second, if the decapping pin gets bent, screw the sizing button off the stem and replace the pin.