I've come into several hundred used .45 ACP cases. I'd rather not break my decapping pin. How do I tell which cases are of military origin? What's the best way to decap those that are ?

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"Don't let so much reality into your life that there's no room left for dreaming."

If your looking for berdan cases just look ing the case and you well see to holes instead of one. If they are milltary crimped cases look at the head stamp mill ones well just have date and maybe a couple of letters.

For what it's worth, I have reloaded thousands of mil spec .45's and have never even seen a berdan primed case. Cobalt

I should clarify my question. What I meant was, how do I identify and remove crimped military primers? Thanks.

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"Don't let so much reality into your life that there's no room left for dreaming."

Look for a noticable ring around the primer itself: its function as a crimp will be obvious.

You will not endanger your decapping pin if you deprime crimped primers, as long as you apply force steadily and not by "slam-banging" the case into the die.

The crimp, if any, can be removed with a sharp knife or similar tool, simply by paring it off until it no longer can interfere with the entrance of a new primer into the pocket.

People possessing large numbers of crimped-primer cases will buy a Primer Pocket Swaging Die set.

I've never broken a pin on .45ACP cases and I've never used any commercial cases. I have two headstamps (WCC 84 and TZZ 86, I think) that don't even have to be swaged to seat new primers. I broke down and bought the Dillon Super Swage. A bit on the expensive side, but a breeze to use.

Eddie

[This message has been edited by Eddie (edited 02-04-2002).]

The U.S. military .45ACP cases I have loaded don't seem to have as heavy a primer crimp as found on U.S. mil .30/06 or .308 cases. Have never even bothered to remove the crimp, and have had no trouble seating new primers :as-is".

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Larry

I've run into some military brass recently that really surprised me. I bought 500 fired mixed cases and tumbled them. I noticed that an occasional primer would not feel right when seating in my Dillon 550 press. The culprit was the brass. The bad stuff was headstamped E C 42. I checked and it was made during WWII in Evansville, IN in 1942-1944 for the military. The primer pocket is not deep enough for conventional primers.

You never know what you might run into out there. After sorting we found about 30 cases in the 500 used brass I bought. Oh well . . .

[This message has been edited by Trader Jack (edited 02-06-2002).]