RainDodger
Member
Howdy, guys -
I thought I'd relate my latest hand loading peculiarity. I was happily sizing and de-capping a bunch of 5.56mm cases today. As the de-capping pin passed through each case base, it was binding a bit. I chalked it up to what looked like very well-crimped military primers. No big deal - I've seen that before.
Then the de-capping pin broke. When I pulled the spindle out of the die, I saw that it not only broke, but the end of the spindle bent before the pin broke! I use a big single stage Redding UltraMag and it has a lot of leverage, so it's easy to do things like this and not know you're doing it.
I keep spare die parts, so I put together another working spindle with the carbide sizing button and then noticed the de-capping pins. I put a standard Hornady pin in the spindle, but it looked larger than the ones I had in my spare parts box (I use Hornady dies).
Comparing the Hornady de-capping pins to Lyman pins I have as spares... the Hornady pins were .070" in diameter and the Lyman pins are .060".... and they work much better. I took a look at the cases and it looks like the larger Hornady pins were actually punching the flash hole bigger. I've never see this happen before.
In a nutshell... if you feel binding when punching primers, take a look at the de-capping pin you're using. I've been loading for a lot of years and never noticed this before.
I thought I'd relate my latest hand loading peculiarity. I was happily sizing and de-capping a bunch of 5.56mm cases today. As the de-capping pin passed through each case base, it was binding a bit. I chalked it up to what looked like very well-crimped military primers. No big deal - I've seen that before.
Then the de-capping pin broke. When I pulled the spindle out of the die, I saw that it not only broke, but the end of the spindle bent before the pin broke! I use a big single stage Redding UltraMag and it has a lot of leverage, so it's easy to do things like this and not know you're doing it.
I keep spare die parts, so I put together another working spindle with the carbide sizing button and then noticed the de-capping pins. I put a standard Hornady pin in the spindle, but it looked larger than the ones I had in my spare parts box (I use Hornady dies).
Comparing the Hornady de-capping pins to Lyman pins I have as spares... the Hornady pins were .070" in diameter and the Lyman pins are .060".... and they work much better. I took a look at the cases and it looks like the larger Hornady pins were actually punching the flash hole bigger. I've never see this happen before.
In a nutshell... if you feel binding when punching primers, take a look at the de-capping pin you're using. I've been loading for a lot of years and never noticed this before.
