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Decapping pins


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After a hundred thousand rounds loaded on my SDB, I have yet to even wear out, let alone break, the original decapping pin. (This is a locked down pin in a threaded sleeve, no spring mount.)

Is this just a fluke? I keep reading posts where people break pins regularly. I have several spares that came in various replacement part kits that are in greater danger of rusting away than being broken in use...

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Like Erik, I broke a 550 pin on a piece of that same gravel that survived tumbling (twice), and a pin on a 1050, when the case didn't make the shell plate, and was on the press sideways.. I was watching powder/bullet, didn't notice...

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I broke a Lee 9mm one in my 550 when I was cleaning the press and I forced the ram to high without the shell plate in place. The pin pressed on the shell plate carrier and snapped. Completly my own stupid move.

Vlad

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I've broken many. Lately they have mostly been on Richmond Rocks that manage to stay in the brass. I keep extra pins around and buy them whenever I see them at a gun store or shop. They aren't expensive and if you don't have one when you need it you are totally shut down over a small cheap stupid part. I hate it when that happens.

I got to the point once where I was pulling pins off the other die sets that I had. I got down to one pin for 4 die sets ... :blink:

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Guest Larry Cazes

I've broken 2 in the last 3 years. I just bent one the other night due to a piece of richmond gravel hiding in a case. Caught it and straightened it out before I broke it this time. :D

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I used to bend RCBS pins and stems all the time. They'd wonder what I was up to but always send me new ones free. Mostly that was from cases flipping sideways in the 1050 and not getting caught (38 TJ brass going through .38 Super casefeed parts is the usual suspect).

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I dunno.. I've broken many over the years, RCBS, Dillon, Lyman.. Never have broken a Lee yet, but those are pretty much one solid piece, and when you hit something with a Lee, the little thing slides up so you don't break/bend/twist it. Usuallt when a case goes in sideways, it punches right through the brass that is sideways.

Vince

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I've broken 2 in about 25K rounds - always associated with some kind of garbage in the case (i.e. a 40 case inside a 45 case).

1st one caused me a great deal of heartburn since I didn't have a spare. Now I have a couple of spares :rolleyes:

For rifle rounds (223 and 30-06 mostly) I use a Lee Universal Decapper which as posted above will slide out if it hits something. I poke the primers out, then tumble. Cleans out the primer pocket and with a 650 it is no problem to run cases through the feeder & press just to decap them.

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Thanks guys, I read this post and then last night was reloading 38super and one case slid out of the case feed on the shellplate and bent the pin. Being cheap I just rebent it to the proper configuration and it still works. What a coincidence. DougC

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  • 1 month later...

Update: the pin is still going strong.

I hit a piece of that infamous Richmond Range Gravel in a 40 case last night. The whole work bench vibrated from the impact of the pin on the rock. The crack was strong enough to make me think that a primer had gone off.

A quick inspection showed that the pin wasn't even bent or nicked. The top of the rock was reduce to coarse sand, the bottom portion was split into large chunks. There was a bit of gravel driven into the flashhole that the next pass w/ the decapper pushed out cleanly.

Erik should find some way of putting this pin into his sights... :D

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I have broken 2 in about 2500 rounds. NEVER broke a Dillon, they started breaking when I switched to the Redding "U" Die. Anyway, it seems my Media Separator "sometimes" leaves some media in the case, and the pin breaks due to the deflection of hitting the corn media.

This is a great meninder, I need to order some more pins, l would HATE to be shut down by a small inexpensive part!! :angry:

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Even a 9mm case hidden in a .45ACP case didn't break mine. The press stroke felt odd, and I found the 9mm case inside the sizing die with the decapping pin sticking-out of the fired primer. Being held inside the 45 case caused it to punch completely through the 9 primer.

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I"ve broken and bent a lot of decapping pins on my 1050 -- almost all RCBS parts because I replaced the Dillon die with an RCBS. I'm using the EGW (Lee) die now for .38 super and its design seems to be more robust. When pin contacts something it can't get through it gets pushed back up into the die rather than bending.

Karl

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