decamping military crimped cases

[dukeboy_318]

Been reloading .223 for a few weeks now, mainly been avoiding my stockpile of military crimped cases by sticking with just the commercial cases, however, I'm now looking at trying it as I'm starting to get to the bottom of my commercial ones but I've been told that my RCBS dies are not strong enough to decamp/deprime the crimped primers and it will damage the die. Anyone know if this is true?

 

[mike8170]

I had my Lee decapper break on me after two or three years. So I put in a new RCBS die, and it didn't last 100 rounds. It might have been a fluke, but now I just keep a couple of extra Lee pins around.

 

[dukeboy_318]

I had my Lee decapper break on me after two or three years. So I put in a new RCBS die, and it didn't last 100 rounds. It might have been a fluke, but now I just keep a couple of extra Lee pins around.

Yeah, I did just find a note on RCBS's website, their standard .223 dies sets(which of course I have) say not for use with military cases. They do make AR dies but they are almost the price of a dillion set. Looks like I'll be buying new dies tomorrow. Dillion anyone.

 

[billybob44]

Just another thought..

I decap all of my brass, prep the primer pocket,tumble, size (trim if needed), re-tumble, prime and load.

One of the few Lee products that I use is their Universal Decap Die. I have prepped 10's of K of brass with that die+only replaced the decap pin once.

Some people have decap problems by trying to decap Berdan Primers. If you use the Lee dies, do not over tighten the decap rod retainer nut. If you hit a Berdan case the decap rod should be able to push up, thus saving the pin.

If you use other brand of dies, shine a small flashlight in all unknown cases, to check for Berdan primers.

FWIW, my Redding+RCBS decap pins VERY rarely see(push out) a primer-mostly tumbling media--My Lee Universal Decap Die does that job...Bill.

 

[nucone]

I use the RCBS universal decap die on military .223 brass and it works fine. In 223, I have decapped approx 800 military brass rounds and over 2K of commercial brass with the universal decapper. I don't use the sizing die to decap rifle rounds.

 

[Broom_jm]

Since you're going to have some extra work to do on those crimped military primer pockets, after resizing, why not buy the much less expensive Lee Universal depriming die and go from there with your existing 223 reloading dies? You can ream out the crimp with a simple counter-sink bit or go whole-hog with the RCBS or Dillon swaging equipment. There are lots of ways to go, short of buying a set of Dillon dies that may, or may not, be the best solution to your current challenge.

 

[pinshooter45]

I decap all of my brass, prep the primer pocket,tumble, size (trim if needed), re-tumble, prime and load.

One of the few Lee products that I use is their Universal Decap Die. I have prepped 10's of K of brass with that die+only replaced the decap pin once.

Some people have decap problems by trying to decap Berdan Primers. If you use the Lee dies, do not over tighten the decap rod retainer nut. If you hit a Berdan case the decap rod should be able to push up, thus saving the pin.

If you use other brand of dies, shine a small flashlight in all unknown cases, to check for Berdan primers.

FWIW, my Redding+RCBS decap pins VERY rarely see(push out) a primer-mostly tumbling media--My Lee Universal Decap Die does that job...Bill.

I use Lee dies as well and the De-capper works great properly adjusted done hundreds of Lake City with out a problem. You can avoid the Berdan primer problem by assuming any foreign made Mil-surp will be Berdan and check to make sure before attempting to reload them. Only off shore 5.56 cases I've found that aren't Berdan were IMI cases. But I have not used much Mil-surp but American made.