Greetings,

I've been reloading for a few years and recently bought a 45-100 Sharps to include Norma brass for that rifle. Instead I received a box of 20 PRIMED RCBS .45 Basic cases (3-1/8" long) used for case forming.

I do NOT have the forming dies to reduce these to 45-100 length, BUT if I did, would the working of the cases be ill advised with the primers raring to go? I suspect so and feel that the primers need to be removed. If so, what is best way to remove live primers, please. Appreciate any feedback.

Regards,

Blackie

I think the risk of reforming the brass with a live primer in place is non-existent. You'll be doing nothing which might be able to set the primer off (assuming you're not annealing or anything of that nature!) It requires either heat or crushing the priming compound against the anvil to set off a primer. I can't feature how you would be able to accomplish that when simply reforming brass.

If you want to remove the live primers, I and many other reloaders have done this gadzillions of times by simply pushing them out with the decapping stem. I always take the precaution of shielding my eyes when forced to do this, but I have neither had a primer go off nor have I ever heard of a primer going off in this process. But there's always a first time, which is why I shield my eyes/face .

I ran several thousand primed .223s through my small-base die over Christmas. I had zero problems.

No problem. AND THEN, after you have resized them and loaded them, you can run them thru your vibrator to get the lube off.

I have resized with primers and deprimed a few live primers.

"And remember this: there is no more important safety rule than to wear these — safety glasses." Norm

Don't forget to remove the depriming pin from the end of your sizing mandral in your sizing die. rc

Just purchase a Redding body die.It has no decapping pin and will just set back the shoulder.I neck size a lot and if a round won't chamber, I just run it through the body die.nothing to it
rob

Once again I agree with everything Stonecreek said in his post on this subject in the first response to this thread.

I HAVE had a couple of primers go off when removing them from primed cases....but then I've done that many times over the years, so having a couple go off is no big surprise.

Anyway, as the primers were inside the press ram and/or shellholder when they went off, the explosive force was confined on the sides and the resulting small amount of gas and burning material either went up into the die or down into the ram, or both.

Not one iota of harm was done to anything, including me. There is no primer I am aware of which can possibly blow a steel die or a steel press ram apart. Apart from a small "pop" there was no sign whatever it had even occured.

It is always at least theoretically possible the primer "anvil" might somehow escape with a high enough velocity to penetrate skin or eyes. To be as safe as possible from that possibility a person should always wear safety glasses and a long-sleeved shirt when removing live primers. If he wants to exercize his God-given right to a little paranoia, I suppose he could even wear a clear welder's mask (hood).

But my experiences have told me, as they have Stonie, you are in virtually no measureable danger.

The trick, for anybody that hasn't deprimed live primers, is to push the primer out, not punch it like you normally do.
Raise your press ram until you feel contact with the primer and then gently exert an increasing amount of pressure until the primer drops out.

quote:

Originally posted by robz:
Just purchase a Redding body die. It has no decapping pin and will just set back the shoulder. I neck size a lot and if a round won't chamber, I just run it through the body die. Nothing to it.
rob

So you can bump down loaded rounds? Just making sure. I have about 1,000 loaded .223s that need it...

Thanks, fellers.

Appreciate the info and will take appropriate action.

Regards,
Blackie

Homebrewer,
Just be sure to lube the case as you would for normal F/L sizing and you will have no problems.I've got a couple of rifles that are easy on the brass and don't require F/L sizing every firing, so it saves me a lot of time. I just run them through my rifle and use the body die on those that are difficult to chamber.
Remember to wipe the cases clean of lube after you run them through the die
rob