Today is a Murkan holiday, so I was at home trying to reload a bunch of 22 hornet. Our rod and gun club sells 22 hornet from the chech company of Sellier and Bellot, so I have a ton of good, once fired 22 hornet brass that is always left at the range.

As I was sizing and depriming, the decapping pin from my lee sizer was constantly being pulled out of the stem, and would get stuck in the flash hole of the brass. Needless to say, this is irritating enough to piss off the pope, so I decided to look into matters a little further.

It seems that the flash hole is really undersized on this brass, in every piece, so I decided to go to the lathe and turn a smaller pin for the die, but either my cutting steel is too broad, or the metal is too soft, because I just can´t seem to get a round pin that small, as it flares out at the end under pressure at the opposite end of the chuck, leaving a cone shaped pin that also doesn´t work.

Now normally, I wouldn´t pester anyone with such a problem, but since I´m now at the computer I thought I´d ask and see if anyone else had a quick solution.

I hate to toss the brass, but this is getting tiresome, always removing the die, going into the garage to manhandle the pin out of the brass, getting it back in the stem and starting all over.

By the way, when I changed over from the Lee full length sizer to the RCBS neck sizer die with the ´button´ headed decapping pin, it just broke off the rim of the case in the shell holder and was an even bigger pain in the butt to correct.

Once I can get all of this brass deprimed, I can drill a bigger flash hole (to correct size) and not be bothered with this problem again.

I´ll go back down to the basement, open up a cold bitburger beer, and meditate on the solution if no body has a quick answer.

Has anyone else experienced this, or am I the first?

One option I can think of is using a file to get your new pin down to diameter instead of a lathe-type cutting tool.

Why did the RCBS neck sizer break the rim of the case off in the shellholder? Not enough lube? What shellholder are you using (brand and size)? I got a Hornady shellholder because the Lee and RCBS shellholders I had didn't impress me with how the brass fit and I thought the rims were at risk of pulling "through" rather than "off".

Ahhhhhh, a file! that´s a good idea.

The brass was pulled off of the shellholder because it was speared in the flashole by the decapping pin, and jammed pretty good too. it only did it twice before I gave up. I just unscrewed the whole stem, and worked it out that way. the second time I bent the stem, and screwed it up royally, trying to use the stem to screw the case out of the die.

File the pin, I´ll give it a try!

MM. How about getting a smaller pin, such as one used w/ Lapua BR brass... Maybe your die maker can provide you w/ such a pin.
Gary T.

poor mans lathe - chuck the decap pin into a drill and sping it while holding apiece of emery cloth against it. only takes a second

If all you need to do is remove the existing fired factory primers before re-drilling the flash holes, then you can do that easily with a tool similar to what many Americans used in the 50's and 60's to remove berdan primers from their metric caliber cases....

It's called an "ice pick". ('Cause it really IS an ice pick...) Just file a little flat chisel edge on the tip of the 'pick. Then shove (or tap) it through the primer and lever the primer out of the primer pocket. To hold a case while you are doing that, a drill hole into a chunk of wood 4x4 works fine.

Pretty primitive tools by today's standards, but work well.....

In Sweden it´s a known fact that the S&B brass has some seriously undersized primer holes.


I quit trying to reload those cases all together cause of that and the owersized and rounded rins of the cases.

I use Rem for plinking and RWS for game, get a 100 RWS cases and you will marwel at the quality..

Ohh and if my advice isn´t what you like, well then please note that some, not all S&B brass is soft in the webb causing all kind of trouble from hard extraction to pressure signs and ewen with 6,5x55 cases blown cases at the webb.



Best regards Chris

I cut the head off a hex head bolt put the bolt in drill press . I then used a file to reduce the dia so that it fit into the flash hole. Worked like the old Lee depriming tool. Get a drill bit the next size bigger than the depriming pin in you resizeing die and drill out the flash holes.

Go to any center fire rifle range of a Jaegervereinigung. You will find tons of good RWS Hornet brass for free.

No need to stick with S&B if this gives you trouble.

Would you consider scooping up a few, say at least 50 cases for me, I live in the EU so postage shouldn´t be a problem, If you could i would be a very happy reloader...

Best regards Christian..

quote:

Originally posted by DUK:
Go to any center fire rifle range of a Jaegervereinigung. You will find tons of good RWS Hornet brass for free.

No need to stick with S&B if this gives you trouble.

Sure, no problem, it might take however some weeks before I go to the range again. Just PM me a shipping adress.