I have a bunch of primed cases that I want to deprime so I am wondering what is the best/safest way to do it??

Drop in 3 drops of oil an let sit over night

I'd wear good safety glasses, just in case, and deprime as normal in a press, going slightly slower on the down stroke.

If the process really bothers you, I'd fire the primers first.

1. Put on your shooting glasses.

2. Slowly push them out with the depriming stem in your sizing die.

If you don't have any success with this, a couple of drops of WD-40 in the case will deactivate the primer; wait a few minutes and deprime normally.

Use a decapping die if you have one.

If you are going to resize the brass the normal FL die will do it.

Just go very slow when pushing the primers out.
Make sure there is no path for an ignited primer to get to you. In many presses the priming slot in the ram will let a primer shoot out toward the operator.

If you have that type you might make a shield out of a plastic container to protect you.

I have seen several Xray photos of primers embedded in fingers and hands so there is some possibility of a problem.

However I have decapped many live primers without any problem including crimped in military primers.

Wear safety glasses and a shield for your face.
Wear heavy gloves too.

Deprime them as you would a fired case using the sizing die. I have been reloading for over 50 years. I have never set a primer off using the decapping pin in the sizing die or LEE die.
I have even done the crimped in primers with no problems.
DO NOT use the LEE-Loader decapping pin punch. You will set the primer off.

You guys are the best thank you!

I also have a Harvey Handheld Deprimer...how about goggles and gloves with that?

I have used a Universal deprime die in a press with no issues. Just go slow.

FWIW, I remember seeing on here a test done by Saed where he used various oils and soaked primers for days and weeks and still the primers were not "dead" and went bang . . .

Went and found the thread, interesting reading -- you have to read it all to get all the info.

How to Kill a Primer

Just use your normal decapping technique. I do it all the time without issues. Putting oil on them will do nothing; modern primers are well varnished/sealed from moisture.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Just use your normal decapping technique. I do it all the time without issues. Putting oil on them will do nothing; modern primers are well varnished/sealed from moisture.

I tired killing primers WD40 etc.. They are tough to kill.

So I guess that those "primer sealers" from Hornady, Markham, etc. are a waste of time

quote:

Originally posted by Leopardtrack:
So I guess that those "primer sealers" from Hornady, Markham, etc. are a waste of time

For the most part yes. I only used a primer sealer for and AK hunting trip. Most likely wasn't even needed. Never hand any before then up to now.

quote:

Originally posted by Rapidrob:
Deprime them as you would a fired case using the sizing die. I have been reloading for over 50 years. I have never set a primer off using the decapping pin in the sizing die or LEE die.
I have even done the crimped in primers with no problems.
DO NOT use the LEE-Loader decapping pin punch. You will set the primer off.

Ditto- never have problems doing it with my Lee press & decapping die

I deprime by loading them up and firing. You must have quite a few or another reason for depriming. Start clean and catch them as you deprime one by one, but safety wise nobody can tell you "nothing might happen". Stay safe...

I have de-primed a few cases just like I would do a fired case - but a lot of care in being gentle / slow.

I never thought of goggles though! Good idea.

quote:

Originally posted by BNagel:
I deprime by loading them up and firing. You must have quite a few or another reason for depriming. Start clean and catch them as you deprime one by one, but safety wise nobody can tell you "nothing might happen". Stay safe...

Nagle you are correct. I am having my rifle (204 Ruger)rebarreled and I just found 10lbs of VV N140 powder so I want to work up a load for that.
I have 300 empty cases and 200 loaded rounds, so I want to to unload the 200 and start of fresh with 500 empty's. Maybe I should have asked it here first but I will use the same Remington 71/2 primer (in the cases now) with the new load, but I assumed that I can't neck size the cases with a live primer in the case?

With this in mind, do I have another option?

Got me thinkin...

If you have already pulled the bullets from the 200 loaded rounds, why not just use them "as is" with new loads -- work up with bullet/powder combo's. People who have pulled bullets and reseated them found it is only a couple thou difference and they both seat and shoot just fine.

200 is a LOT of taking chances (for me) especially because once I get a sequence figured out, I tend to go faster. Yeah, I'm a bit "chicken little" but still have my eyes and ears despite a couple mistakes in thinking over time.

Go slow and develop the loads right, as I'm sure you were already planning to do. Good man!

quote:

Originally posted by Leopardtrack:

Maybe I should have asked it here first but I will use the same Remington 71/2 primer (in the cases now) with the new load, but I assumed that I can't neck size the cases with a live primer in the case?

With this in mind, do I have another option?

Got me thinkin...

Sure, just remove the decapping pin from your resizing die. Unscrew the neck expander from the decapping rod and pull the pin out, or if using the new RCBS headed decapping pin, unscrew the neck expander and push it out.

Reassemble the neck expander with the decapping rod and reinstall in the resizing die.

Depending on what method you use to remove the bullets, you may not need to neck size at all.

I have no idea how many live primers we have removed through out the years.

We never had any problems whatsoever.

We use the normal sizing die, and just do it slowly.

In addition to eye protection, consider your muffs, too. Otherwise, good to go. I've done it a lot.

quote:

Originally posted by Leopardtrack:
I have a bunch of primed cases that I want to deprime so I am wondering what is the best/safest way to do it??

I think I remember reading about a technique that involves filling the case with liquid, then using a tight-fitting rod to raise the pressure in the case by inserting it in the case neck and smacking it with a hammer to push the primer out of its pocket.

Hydraulic method is used for Berdan primers; and it will work but is not necessary in this case. Anyway, it seems you don't need to remove them after all.
No offense, but I see lots of panty waists out there who are afraid of everything and tiptoe through puddles as a routine way of doing things. I prefer a more aggressive approach. They do not live any longer than the more adventurous of us, I have found.

Saeed,
isn't that what you keep Walter around for?

I think I'll do just that and remove the decapping pin.

Do you recommend an inertia hammer or bullet puller and then just clean off the neck lube with alcohol?

The light weight .204 bullets do not have enough mass to pull easily with an inertia puller. If you damage them with a collet puller they will not be good candidates for accuracy testing.
You are currently dealing with one of the effects of loading huge lots that tie up all of your brass.
You might consider loading smaller lots or buying more brass so you do not have to tear down so much ammo.

I have formed many factory primed cases through multiple dies and then trimmed them. I just wipe the lube off of the outside. I try to avoid lube in the necks by using a die that is just right for the bullet with no expander or by using a bushing die. If I do use lube I put an old bore brush on a handle and wrap a piece of cotton T shirt round it. I used the cloth to remove all of the lube from inside the case neck.

Three hundred rounds is more than enough brass to work up a new load. Often 50 is. I would not tear down 200 rounds just to make the mashed potatoes and gravy come out even on my plate.

If the 200 rounds is good ammo save it for a hunt.
I guess what I am saying is start your load development with the empty brass. Once you find a load you are happy with you may decide you don't have to have 500 at one time.

quote:

Originally posted by Leopardtrack:
I think I'll do just that and remove the decapping pin.

Do you recommend an inertia hammer or bullet puller and then just clean off the neck lube with alcohol?

You're right. I loaded up 500 for a recent Prairie Dog Shoot and only shot 300 with the 204...I made a massacre with my scoped HBar.

Would you try inertia-pulling them..what would you do?

The inertia type will work, but if I was gonna pull 200, I'd use a collet type puller.

If you use oil or WD-40... don't forget to remove it before you reload those cases........

If the ammo did not have a safety or accuracy problem I would find any excuse to avoid pulling it down.
If the bullet does not have much shank exposed a collet puller may damage the bullets. That only leaves 3 choices - Damaging the bullets, shooting them, or attempting to pull with an inertia puller.
You might try rolling the case neck between two flat pieces of smooth steel to loosen the bullet pull. That is a labor intense operation but given enough time and effort you might save all of your bullets.

quote:

Originally posted by Leopardtrack:
You're right. I loaded up 500 for a recent Prairie Dog Shoot and only shot 300 with the 204...I made a massacre with my scoped HBar.

Would you try inertia-pulling them..what would you do?

Please do not use oil or WD40; they won't kill the primers and you will just contaminate your brass.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by SR4759:
If the ammo did not have a safety or accuracy problem I would find any excuse to avoid pulling it down.
If the bullet does not have much shank exposed a collet puller may damage the bullets. That only leaves 3 choices - Damaging the bullets, shooting them, or attempting to pull with an inertia puller.


So then after pulling the bullet and dumping the powder would you then neck-size, clean the lube from the neck, and load?

We used to load "Mexican match" ammunition by pulling the M118 bullets from Lake City 7.62X51 match ammunition and replacing them with Sierra 168's. Later, we loaded the M118's and used them for practice loads.

Although the bullets were pulled with an old Bonanza bullet puller which put deep gouges in the side of the bullets, the accuracy was unaffected.

We seated the 168's without resizing the cases and they worked perfectly through our M14's.

I did it a few times - very slowly on the press. I re-use these primers to bump out shoulders which were accidently dented due to too much lube. Never had one misfire. I store them in orginal packaging. Never store it in a glass bottle. It it drop you will have a bang.

quote:

Originally posted by Leopardtrack:
So then after pulling the bullet and dumping the powder would you then neck-size, clean the lube from the neck, and load?

If the necks remain tight enough (and they should) just recharge and reseat your bullets.

Oils and WD40 will not necessarily kill a primer.

We ran a test a while back, and some primers fired normally even after a few days being soaked!

I just deprime them slowly..I have never had a primer pop and never really know of one going off in the last 60 or so years.