What went wrong with my lee die?

[iufan2010]

I haven't been in the reloading game long and so far things have been going well. I have a lee classic 4 hole turret press and had no problems for the first hundred or so rounds until this happened...

. Anybody have this happen before? If so, what caused this and what can I do to fix it? I've used a lot of different types of brass and there is no pattern about what works and what didn't. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[blamecharles]

I haven't been in the reloading game long and so far things have been going well. I have a lee classic 4 hole turret press and had no problems for the first hundred or so rounds until this happened... . Anybody have this happen before? If so, what caused this and what can I do to fix it? I've used a lot of different types of brass and there is no pattern about what works and what didn't. Thanks in advance for the help.

No picture on my end.

 

[hammer24]

No pic. Maybe a description would suffice.

 

[iufan2010]

Sorry about that. The decapping pin looks to have pushed out the top of the die. I tried tightening the top screw, but it wouldn't budge at all.

 

[Broom_jm]

That is a design "feature" of the Lee dies. It keeps the pins from breaking, theoretically.

You have to lower the pin back to where it belongs and then, using two appropriately-sized wrenches, tighten the **** out of the locking nut. Like, almost as hard as you possibly can. You're not the first person to question this, believe me!

 

[iufan2010]

I've put it back in a couple times now. What is causing it to come up like that?

 

[shibumiseeker]

I've put it back in a couple times now. What is causing it to come up like that?

Either you are not tightening it enough (it takes a lot) or you are trying to decap crimped primers or berdan primed brass. If you look into the brass and see two primer holes instead of one then you can't decap it.

 

[iufan2010]

I'm seeing one primer hole. I'll do some serious tightening of the lock nut and report back about what happens.

 

[iufan2010]

That is why i keep coming back to this place. After some tightening of my own and some help from my fathers pop-eye arms, we were able to get it tightened and those pesky cases that were causing me problems were deprimed easily.

 

[John Wayne]

LOOK AT THE PRIMER HOLE INSIDE THE BRASS IVE COME ACROSS SOME THAT THE
PRIMER HOLE WAS NOT CENTERED IN THE BRASS AND THIS WILL CAUSE YOUR PROBLEM
ALSO. I HAD SOME BRASS WITH THE R P HEADSTAMP THAT WERE OFF- CENTRED SEVERELY

 

[rimfire_crazed]

I use a torque wrench to get my decapping pins tight. No popeye arms required.

 

[sloughfoot]

LOOK AT THE PRIMER HOLE INSIDE THE BRASS IVE COME ACROSS SOME THAT THE
PRIMER HOLE WAS NOT CENTERED IN THE BRASS AND THIS WILL CAUSE YOUR PROBLEM
ALSO. I HAD SOME BRASS WITH THE R P HEADSTAMP THAT WERE OFF- CENTRED SEVERELY

I have seen this too.

 

[45fan]

My Lee dies require that the decapping pin be "nut tight" before they remove the primer without coming out of the die. Pliers and adjustable wrenches will only aggravate, two wrenches of appropriate size work best.
The Hornady dies have an interesting fix to this, the decapping pin is slightly threaded, as is the inside of the nut, so the pressure required isnt nearly as high.