gerritm Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 What would cause the clip to break? Do they just wear out? I had 2 pin setups for the die and broke one about a month ago. About 5K on it. The pin looked fine, not bent or broken. Replaced the whole pin/spring.clip & this one broke last night. This pin had a slight bend to it. About 2K on this one. Decapping range brass, might have some military sealed primers in the range brass. Ordered a 10 pack of each from Dillon, pins & clips. I have always used Lee decapping/sizing dies before, but when they rebuilt the press a few months ago they replaced my Lee with a Dillon die. It has worked perfect until recently all brass is sized correctly. gerritm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathanb Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 I just keep a bunch of them on hand. My guess is it’s a lot of torque against it for a thin wager of metsl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m700 Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 I usually do one every 4k or so, never really paid attention but have only changed a few. The pins usually last me a lot longer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cvincent Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 I think it’s just the nature of the beast. It’s a spring loaded decapper, it’s literally getting hammered every time it decaps. I’ve probably broken 10. You can grab them at a hardware store. 1/4” E clip. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RudyVey Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 1 hour ago, gerritm said: What would cause the clip to break? Do they just wear out? I had 2 pin setups for the die and broke one about a month ago. About 5K on it. The pin looked fine, not bent or broken. Replaced the whole pin/spring.clip & this one broke last night. This pin had a slight bend to it. About 2K on this one. Decapping range brass, might have some military sealed primers in the range brass. Ordered a 10 pack of each from Dillon, pins & clips. I have always used Lee decapping/sizing dies before, but when they rebuilt the press a few months ago they replaced my Lee with a Dillon die. It has worked perfect until recently all brass is sized correctly. gerritm Just did the same a week ago, ordered the e-clips and pins fro Dillon. I have so far broken 4 or five of them, mainly when I load 38 spl, and one each in 9 and .45. All of the clips had several thousand of rounds loaded. In my case, they break and the parts fly all over my shop. Remember, always wear glasses when loading! Not only can primers blow up on you, but you can get hit by small steel pieces from the disintegrating clips! When I change the clip, I also change the pins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 At the Dillon store they handed me about 10 of these for nothing, no questions asked. I'd have been happy to pay but I'm not in the habit of turning down free stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerritm Posted July 16, 2019 Author Share Posted July 16, 2019 Feel better cause each had several thousand rounds on it. Funny thing is I have never been able to find the pieces or clip. Looked all over. Thanks, gerritm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RudyVey Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 4 hours ago, gerritm said: Feel better cause each had several thousand rounds on it. Funny thing is I have never been able to find the pieces or clip. Looked all over. Thanks, gerritm Found half of the last one that snapped some 12 feet away on another work bench - behind me where I normally stand - must have flown right by my head. The other half had snapped in two pieces and one was close by the press, the other one is still unaccounted for. You see they can be quite dangerous, so wear protection for you eyes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George16 Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 32 minutes ago, RudyVey said: Found half of the last one that snapped some 12 feet away on another work bench - behind me where I normally stand - must have flown right by my head. The other half had snapped in two pieces and one was close by the press, the other one is still unaccounted for. You see they can be quite dangerous, so wear protection for you eyes. One of the main reasons why I ditch the Dillon sizing/decamping die and went with a Redding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AHI Posted July 16, 2019 Share Posted July 16, 2019 Have broken 2 both had a peace of MAXXTECH brass in/under the die. Both times over 20k rounds had been loaded. E clips can be bought at any hardware store(Lowes ,Home Depot, Ace, etc) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooke Posted July 17, 2019 Share Posted July 17, 2019 It's not a big deal. Go to the hardware and buy them (1/4" e clip). These things take shell of a beating with the spring loaded decapping pin. They only have the three small "fingers" supporting them. Work well, cheap and available. Worry about something else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CZp-01 Posted July 18, 2019 Share Posted July 18, 2019 If you're local to a Harbor Freight, they'll actually sell a variety box of e-clips for short money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooke Posted July 18, 2019 Share Posted July 18, 2019 5 hours ago, CZp-01 said: If you're local to a Harbor Freight, they'll actually sell a variety box of e-clips for short money. Considering these are cheap as hell I wouldn't waste time with bargain brands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xrayfk05 Posted July 18, 2019 Share Posted July 18, 2019 Just e-mail Dillon and they will send you a couple of new ones free of charge. And don't forget to check the box, the dies come with a couple of extra e-clips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CZp-01 Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 18 hours ago, Brooke said: Considering these are cheap as hell I wouldn't waste time with bargain brands. I understand that, but in a pinch they work well. I've had one of them going strong for over 10k. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muncie21 Posted July 22, 2019 Share Posted July 22, 2019 Unless you're enamored with Dillon resizing die why not switch to a Lee, where the decapping pin releases (moves) when there's too much force. I have both setups (Dillon and Lee) both seem to work fine, however if I start breaking Jesus clips, I'm going to retire the Dillon, as the Lee is super solid and only requires the locking collar to be re-tightened if you end up trying to decap a .40 with a 9mm case stuck inside it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerritm Posted July 23, 2019 Author Share Posted July 23, 2019 11 hours ago, muncie21 said: Unless you're enamored with Dillon resizing die why not switch to a Lee, where the decapping pin releases (moves) when there's too much force. I have both setups (Dillon and Lee) both seem to work fine, however if I start breaking Jesus clips, I'm going to retire the Dillon, as the Lee is super solid and only requires the locking collar to be re-tightened if you end up trying to decap a .40 with a 9mm case stuck inside it. I actually replaced the Dillon die with a Lee when the E clip broke. I have always used Lee Decapping dies until I sent the unit back for a rebuild having issues with the 9mm brass tilting going into the first die. Dillon completely rebuilt my 650 & installed one of their decapping dies and gave me back the Lee. There is a little more forgiveness in the Dillon die mouth than the Lee. The brass goes in more smoothly & I like the feel. It works well & sizes the brass correctly as I case gauge every round. gerritm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RePete Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 I have gone through about a dozen over the last 13 years but, none in the last five. Just picked them from an auto parts shop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mveto Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 On 7/16/2019 at 2:25 PM, George16 said: One of the main reasons why I ditch the Dillon sizing/decamping die and went with a Redding. Same with me, I got tired of having clips break in the middle of a reloading session and holding everything up. I only loaded about 2k rounds with the Dillon dies and had 4 clips break on me. I’ve loaded about 8k with the Redding sizing die and have had zero issues with the die. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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