Hey,

I'm brand new to reloading, I'm getting my press and dies setup tonight.

The directions on my RCBS dies said to have the decapping pin sticking out of the die 3/16". Well I tried this and all it did was deform the primer, so I lowered it.. lowered it a little more, it's still not popping out the primer just buldging the primer.. so I kept lowering it until it popped out the primer but the pin is now below the face of the die almost 3/8"

Did I do anything wrong or is everything OK so far?

Thanks

dhayes

the answer depends on how you have your die set up. Im assuming that you are full length resizing, you can find a wealth of information on here about neck sizing and partial full length resizing as well. But, since your beginning, dont worry about those until you feel comfortble. raise the ram with the shellholder you want to use, then screw the die down until it touches the shell holder. Lower the ram, and screw the die body down another 1/8th -1/4 turn. I check the brass in my rifle at this step to ensure that the bolt will close with ease. If not, screw the die down a little farther. Once your happy, adjust the decapping pin to where you knock the primer out. You'll get the hang of it soon.

I used to bend those little decapping pins all the time when sizing and decapping in one stroke. I guess that's why they always send an extra decapping rod with the dies.

I now take the decapping pin out of the sizing die and use one of the univeral ones for all cartridges.

Yes, it's an extra step, but it does simplify the sizing process for me.

$7.99 well spent.

Thanks for the help guys, I'll try some more tonight.

Use the length of 2 nickels. Its worked for me from 17 fireball to 470 Nitro Dies. It was recommended to me years ago by a Redding technician.

Either your die isn't screwed down far enough or you need a better die. roger

Is you depriming pin locked down good or is it sliding around. If that's not it, it sounds like you have something set up improperly. Go back through the die setup meticulously.

Good luck.

What type of primers are you trying to decap? Berdan or Boxer?

Primer types

They had better be boxer if he's using a pin

They are boxer primers.

I will try the 2 nickel trick.

This is just my 1st time ever using reloading equipment, and I'm having to learn everything from directions, books, and reading forums online. I'm just trying to be careful and understand every step completely before I move to the next step. I have a good understanding of the process, but when you have no one right there to teach you, questions come up...

thanks
for you help
I'll probably have more questions when I get more time to try some more reloading.

quote:

Originally posted by dhayes:
..I kept lowering it until it popped out the primer but the pin is now below the face of the die almost 3/8" ...

Hey DHayes, You are doing fine.

With the Shell Holder and the Die in the Press, and No Case in the Shell Holder, raise the Ram. The Decap Pin needs to stick just below where the Case Head rests in the Shell Holder. You can stoop over and look where the Case slides in to see what I'm describing. It will look similar to new_guy's flick.

Best of luck to you.
-----

Great flick new_guy.

I'm new to this as well and did my first depriming/neck sizing this week. Like you it is hard to fine tune without having someone with experience helping you.

What I found, and this may not apply in your case, was that it requires a good smooth stroke with the ram of the press. At first I was going very slowly and sort of taking up the "tension" at various stages in the process and this wasn't entirely successful. I found that a smooth and relatively fast stroke with no pauses or stops was what worked best and it made the whole thing work well for me. My slow process of feeling the resistance and taking up the slack and slowly moving the lever to apply pressure was not the way to go.

As an aside I have some really nice Lapua brass which has been once fired in my rifle. I also have some brass from Federal factory loads which were also fired in my rifle and I use it for my experiments with the lapua being reserved for when I think I've got things right. The Federal that I use for "experiments" will not be going back into my rifle but will just be recycled for further experiments. I'm awaiting the arrival of my seating dies and so can go no further at present.

Do more experienced reloaders agree with my "smooth and relatively fast" approach or am I going about it all wrong? It is certainly decapping the brass well and the neck sizing seems to be going OK. Actually I get most resistance on the "up" stroke and not on the downwards decapping stroke which struck me as a bit odd.

All brass is not created equal!! From time to time I have come across brass that had too tight a flash hole and that usually resulted in a bent or broken decapping pin. Also, some military brass is harder to get to release the primer due to the built in crimp on those primers/cases. Since I deprime before I polish/clean the cases, I have gone to the universal decapping die method. Havent broken/bent a pin since! I have also found that certain pins are marginally thicker than others.

I deprime all my fired brass before I size it. At one time Lee had a little aluminum press that they sold for about $14. I bought one and mounted it on my bench with a deprimeing die. Thats all that it is used for. After depriming I clean the pockets,clean the shoulder and neck of cases that need it(with #600 steel wool)and then tumble the cases. I then size the cases. The cases are clean so they don't foul up the sizeing die and case scratches are almost nill. If you are useing lube to size,a short run in the tumbler should clean it off and you you can then check lenght and trim if needed. PS: As a Newbie, a couple good things to do is start low and work up and never(I mean NEVER) have more than ONE can of powder or type of primers on your loading bench at any time. Lots of luck.

dhayes, as usual on these forums, if you listen to Hot Core, you'll be in good shape. Especially if you need to grow any tomatoes!

The key is to set the DIE up like HC described, and then adjust your expander/decapping assembly to have the right penetration.

Caorach, it is very odd to have more resistance on the extraction stroke of the press....I would seriously consider taking some emory cloth and spinning my expander ball down some, other wise I would try lubing my case necks, which I never do, I set my gear up where I don't need to. The case is sized on the down (insertion) stroke, and once it is sized, there should be little resistance other than the expander on the up (extraction) cycle.

Good luck to you both--Don

quote:

Originally posted by eurocentric:
Use the length of 2 nickels. Its worked for me from 17 fireball to 470 Nitro Dies. It was recommended to me years ago by a Redding technician.

If you don't mind can you describe the procedure I don't seem to get it.

If you hold your resizing/depriming die upside down, stack two nickels on top of the die (the open end), off to the side a little. Adjust the depriming pin so it extends the thickness of the two nickels past the open end of the die.

Andy

marquezic, they are referring to the thickness of two nickels, being the amount that the decapping pin protrudes below the bottom of the die, this should get the primer clear of the case and the primer dropped through the caseholder and on into the primer catching set up of the particular press you are using.

Hope that helps.

Thanks Don, I have been lubing my case necks both inside and out but the up stroke probably has more resistance than the down stroke. It did strike me as a little odd but as I'm new to this it is hard to get a feel for what is strange and what is normal. I'm just neck sizing at the minute and I haven't tried to seat a bullet in any of the cases I've sized as my seating dies still haven't arrived.

If you're full length sizing and depriming, you need to first set the die to its proper depth. Raise the ram to its highest point, then screw the sizing die down against this. Once that's done, you may set the decapping pin so that spent primers fall clear of the shell.

People who tumble their brass generally prefer to decap as a separate step. You may buy a universal decapping die. Tumbling unprimed brass allows the tumbling media to get some of the gunk out of the primer pocket. Incidentally, tumbled brass is infinitely easier to full length size and I'm sorry I didn't discover this much earlier in my reloading career.

You may want to tumble the brass first, then use a universal deprimer, so you don't have to pick the media out of the flash holes. The Universal Deprimer die does such a fast and easy job, you can knock through a 100 cases pretty quickly.