I've reloaded military brass before but I've run into a new problem. My question is: Is some military brass not reloadable? I have LC 75 308 brass. It seems the primers will not come out. I am aware that they are crimped and have delt with crimped brass in the past. I even mad a special metal rod tool to knock out the primer. Kept banging on it with a hammer. It knocked a hole in the primer after many whacks but the primer still stayed in the pocket. ANy help will be appreciated.

Have you looked inside the case to see if there is one flash hole or two? Surprise surprise! I found some .30 carbine brass that was LC in the mid 70s and it was, yup, you guessed it, BERDAN PRIMED.
Might pay you to shine a light inside those cases and take a look see. I still haven't figured out why they did that, but they did.
Paul B.

I had a problem breaking decapping pins with Lake City 5.56 brass.
I went out and a bought a LEE UNIVERSAL DEPRIMING DIE.
Problem solved.

Some of the LC 308's are pretty tough to deprime.I use a RCBS small base and I've not had any real problems or broke pins.I do suggest stocking up on pins.They're cheap and well worth the small price if you ever need them.I don't have any good advice on depriming them,other than it will take extra force and expect a broke pin ever so often.I assume you're FL sizing.The LC's are alot thicker than commercial brass,so it's going to take more force than usual just to size them.That might be part of the resistance you're feeling.

Like RugerNiner mentioned,a universal depriming die might work better.I hear alot of people who really like them.I'm going to get one of the RCBS ones and try it myself.

I use a Lee universal decapper, they work slick!
Have yet to break the pin.

I don't know if Lee still makes/sells it, but they used to make a darned strong
"Hammer-type" decapping rod which was sold as a set with a base to put the case(s) on when hammering out the primer(s). Insert rod, with tip in flash hole. Put case on base, smack decapping rod with hammer, as hard and as often as necessary. They had one for .223 head size, and one for .308 head size cases. I bought them both (in the late '60's I think) and am still using them. Never broken one yet.

Once I get the crimped in stuff de-capped, I use a Dillon primer-pocket swager to reform the primer pockets so I can just use any regular decapping die afterward. Have done many thousands of military cases of .223, 7.62, and '06 sizes, and it works for me.

If you use the LC "Match" brass, the primers are not crimped in all the later stuff, and I find that it is great brass once "match-prepped".


For me, match prep includes decapping, tumble cleaning, washing, drying, cutting primer pockets uniform, reaming flash holes uniform and deburring them, full-length sizing, trimming to uniform length, & chamfering necks inside and outside.

Yes it's a lot of work, but most of it only has to be done once. I do the same exact steps with all my commercial brass the first time I load it too...

(I do NOT sort unloaded cases by weight, but I do sort loaded rounds by weight...a little trick I picked up from watching the British National Palma Teams....)