Broke my first decapping pin

MG23

Well-Known Fanatic
Joined
May 21, 2013
Messages
258
Location
Montgomery, NY
So I broke my first decapping pin today resizing and decapping some 223 brass. Here are the pictures where it broke. It was a Lee Die, no problem, called them up and was told to email pictures. Not even an hour later got a response back for my address sending me a new pin.

View attachment 8648
View attachment 8649
View attachment 8650
 

Attachments

  • IMG_34791.JPG
    IMG_34791.JPG
    70.3 KB · Views: 39
  • IMG_34821.JPG
    IMG_34821.JPG
    65.8 KB · Views: 43
  • IMG_34841.JPG
    IMG_34841.JPG
    173.7 KB · Views: 40
Register to hide this ad
I have a bag of decapping pins.
Funny part is, that since I broke that first one, those spares just gather dust.
Broke mine on a .223 case as well. Some Hungarian junk with undersized flash holes.
 
I bet that was my problem. I was processing some range pickup brass which I will use for practice. That's ok by me if I have a couple extra pins sitting around they are cheap enough.
 
From many years of experience I've found that decapping pins break only when there is a time crunch on getting out some ammo (like the Thursday before the big match) and they usually break in groups of three. However the number of broken pins may differ depending on how many spare pins you have on hand.

You cannot argue with experience.
 
For spares, Lee pistol dies, the decapping pins interchange. Rifle pins have the expander built in so unless your loading on a 1050 you need the specific pin for the diameter.

expander.jpg
 
My solution was to get a Lee decapping die just for de-priming brass. They work with several calibers and the pins if broken are easy to change. The last decapper I bought was on eBay for 10 bucks.
 
Back
Top