broken primer punch?!

[bennihanna]

so i was trying to resize/remove primers from the brass for my mosin and the piece in the die that pops out the primer broke, is this common or am i doing something wrong? is there somewhere that i can get a replacement or do i have to buy a whole new set of dies? and is there a way that i can prevent this from happening again?

[xxxKingCobra]

#1. Are you sure your cases aren't Berdan primed? Lots of that ammo is. If it is, you can't decap it using a sizing die. You have to do it by hand with a special decapper that looks kinda like a bottle opener. RCBS makes one.

#2. Yes, you can buy replacement decapping pins for most dies. A pack of 5-6 will set you back about 5 bucks.

[Vahunter]

More than likely it's #1

[bennihanna]

its very possible that it was berdan, i was thinkin that as i was sitting there staring at the pin and the case thinking "@#$%", and $5 bucks is not bad at all compared to what i was thinking

[zephyp]

Shine a flashlight down the case and take a look. Compare to a known civilian factory case and you will see the difference right away...you may have to clean them out a little first...



You can also tell the difference if you look closely at the primer on an unfired cartridge and compare to a know civilian factory load...the boxer primed case primer pocket is different than the berdan...notice the walls on the berdan pocket are straight and the boxer pocket has a slight curve...

[arkypete]

A suggestion, I learned a lot of years ago that it really slows down the reloading process to not be able to remove the spent primer. So I bought extra decapping pins for each style die set I had.
Then I discovered Lee's Universal decapping die. It's great, haven't needed a decapping pin in 20 years.
I have a cheap press just for decapping, with the Lee decapping die. All I need to do is change the shell holder.

Jim