Durned if I ever saw such hard, tight primers!

[rwsmith]

I was able to collect some 7.62 x 39 brass at the range the other day that my friend was shooting. Those are valuable to me because so much of it is steel and berdan primed. The primers APPEAR not to be crimped or laquered in. So I set about depriming and sizing them, and immediately broke a decapping pin. "Fluke" I thought and carefully proceeded. Broke another pin. I set up a 30-06 die to do ONLY decapping. When the primers DID come out there was a very loud PING and the primers SHOT out of the slot under the shellholder and hit some stuff about 3' off the floor on the other side of the room. This is no exaggeration and exactly what happened. I put up a piece of alum. foil to try to contain them but they still shot across the room or richoceted all over the place. Another pin broke. I figured I'd better change my approach. I got out my old Lee tool decapper anvil and an extra depriming rod and a mallet and tried to tap them out. No go. I tapped harder and harder and ended up breaking another pin. I still have 8 cases that have the primers in them. I think I'll try the 'hydraulic' method on those. Or if I can find a heavy duty decapper of some sort. Any ideas? See pics. You can see that the primer on the left looks like the pin pushed out the dent a little, but dang if they would come out. I'm definitely going to have to do some work on the primer pockets if I'm going to use them.

PS: Looking closely at the blow up of the picture I wonder if the primers ARE crimped in. Can anybody tell?

 

[Garrett-J]

Look inside. Are you sure they're not Berdan primed, brass case notwithstanding?

 

[stansdds]

Broken decapping pins often occur with Berdan primers, rarely with Boxer primers unless the flash hole is undersized or off center. I cannot imagine a primer crimp being so tight that decapping would result in broken pins and I don't think a lacquer or tar sealer would cause that either.

 

[LostintheOzone]

I use a Lee Universal decapping die. Those are about twice as strong as any standard pin. I just decap in a separate operation.

Other than that I've never heard of primers being that tight unless it was Berdan cases. Then they always break decapping pins. I came across that in some 30 carbine cases that were manufactured in China or S. Korea.

 

[Yendor357]

RW, please take a pic of a decapped case so we can ascertain whether you’re dealing with Boxer or Berdan. If they were Berdan primed, you wouldn’t have been able to get any of the primers out. But it’s the internet, and all sorts of impossible things happen.

From what I gather, the growing trend in ammo manufacturing is to crimp the primer of any case that could possibly end up in a semi auto. Decapping pins break. Period. I’ve broken more than my fair share; Hornady and RCBS are not interchangeable. RCBS sells decapping pins by the 6 pack. What’s that tell you?

Doesn’t Dillon make some specialty tool for just such an application?

 

[STORMINORMAN]

I use both the LEE Universal and the RCBS dedicated large caliber de-priming dies... I de-prime all my brass prior to "Thumbling"(!) in SS pins because I wish to maintain my resizing dies as pristine as possible. The only sizing die I can anticipate needing to replace is the Hornady 9mm Custom: this is because of the great number of cases that have been reprocessed. Luckily I have a spare in the drawer. The nitride rings can loosen, but a little JB Weld can work wonders.

Cheers!

P.S. When the LEE bends a bit it can usually be corrected with judicious use of ViceGrips: but, when it goes, it goes! I buy pins for the RCBS in quantity.

 

[Rule3]

What depriming dies are you using. Use a LEE, you really have to try and break those! But as mentioned sure the are not Berdan??

 

[LostintheOzone]

RW, please take a pic of a decapped case so we can ascertain whether you’re dealing with Boxer or Berdan. If they were Berdan primed, you wouldn’t have been able to get any of the primers out. But it’s the internet, and all sorts of impossible things happen.

From what I gather, the growing trend in ammo manufacturing is to crimp the primer of any case that could possibly end up in a semi auto. Decapping pins break. Period. I’ve broken more than my fair share; Hornady and RCBS are not interchangeable. RCBS sells decapping pins by the 6 pack. What’s that tell you?

Doesn’t Dillon make some specialty tool for just such an application?

He should be able to see the difference immediately. look for the Berdan double flash hole.

Boxer vs. Berdan Primers - What's the Difference?

What's the difference between berdan and boxer primers in ammo? In this post with photos, we lay out the benefits of each and the differences between them.

www.ammunitiontogo.com

 

[Huskerguy]

Several years ago I purchased a Mighty Armory Universal depriming die and love it. I ordered extra pins with it and only a week ago had to finally replace the first one.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

RW, please take a pic of a decapped case so we can ascertain whether you’re dealing with Boxer or Berdan. If they were Berdan primed, you wouldn’t have been able to get any of the primers out. But it’s the internet, and all sorts of impossible things happen.

From what I gather, the growing trend in ammo manufacturing is to crimp the primer of any case that could possibly end up in a semi auto. Decapping pins break. Period. I’ve broken more than my fair share; Hornady and RCBS are not interchangeable. RCBS sells decapping pins by the 6 pack. What’s that tell you?

Doesn’t Dillon make some specialty tool for just such an application?

I MAKE my RCBS decapping pins from finishing nails.........Works perfect.

 

[sjmjax]

I suspect that they are berdan primed and your heavy duty die just punched through the base.