Decapping

[cdschoonie]

I’m sure you experienced guys have seen this a million times. Being newer to reloading, I came across this and I’m just curious. I’m decapping some range brass, and had 2 out of a little over 1k that hung in the shell holder. The tops of them broke off causing me to do a little surgery to get them out. No big deal, I’ll just toss them in the scrap pile. But I am wondering, are there particulars that are prone to this, like brand of primer or brass, is it caused by a faulty loading method, over charge if they are reloaded maybe, or it just something that happens, luck of the draw type deal? As I said, I’m just curious, trying to learn all I can about reloading the right way.

 

[retrieverman]

I’ve never had that exact thing happen, but I have had similar problems. I hate to throw away brass but it’s just part of it.

 

[cdschoonie]

I’ve never had that exact thing happen, but I have had similar problems. I hate to throw away brass but it’s just part of it.

Agreed, but I’d rather trash them if they have issues. Especially with 45 acp, throwing away $0.15-$0.20, is way cheaper than a $600 firearm, or worse yet, $2000+ of medical bills! Lol

 

[Rez Exelon]

As many rounds as I've done I've not seen that. If they were both Winchester, it could be they might have come from the same lot (if a range pickup, that's still relatively likely) which had issues. Personally, as cheap as brass is I'm usually looking for any reason to toss something, rather than a reason to keep it if that makes sense. Let's say in 40. Last time I got brass was like-new cleaned stuff, 1k for $40. That's 4 cents each right? Now, if I'd bought that retail, that'd probably have been 3x that at least. So I have to think of it as "even if I toss out 2/3 of this I'm still below retail", and to be honest I don't think my cull rate is usually anywhere near 6 percent let alone 66.

 

[cdschoonie]

As many rounds as I've done I've not seen that. If they were both Winchester, it could be they might have come from the same lot (if a range pickup, that's still relatively likely) which had issues. Personally, as cheap as brass is I'm usually looking for any reason to toss something, rather than a reason to keep it if that makes sense. Let's say in 40. Last time I got brass was like-new cleaned stuff, 1k for $40. That's 4 cents each right? Now, if I'd bought that retail, that'd probably have been 3x that at least. So I have to think of it as "even if I toss out 2/3 of this I'm still below retail", and to be honest I don't think my cull rate is usually anywhere near 6 percent let alone 66.

One was Winchester brass, the other is headed stamped G.F.L., never heard of that one, but I’m sure y’all have.

 

[Rez Exelon]

I believe GFL is Fiocchi. Weird that two of them did it not being the same company. I don't think crimp would apply here to 45acp. What decapping setup are you using?

 

[cdschoonie]

I believe GFL is Fiocchi. Weird that two of them did it not being the same company. I don't think crimp would apply here to 45acp. What decapping setup are you using?

I use the Lee Universal Die for all my decapping sessions.
I can see it possible that they could be reloads from the same person. I bought these, as well as much more from time to time, from a member here and he’s solid, everything has, and I have no doubt will always be great. It has nothing to do with him, I only throw that info in so as to hopefully get the most on them as I can so one of y’all can give me as much info as possible. I am just assuming he could very well have got the brass at the same range. I know that’s a lot of assuming, but the possibilities are there nonetheless. HAHA

 

[Rez Exelon]

I use the Lee Universal Die for all my decapping sessions.
I can see it possible that they could be reloads from the same person. I bought these, as well as much more from time to time, from a member here and he’s solid, everything has, and I have no doubt will always be great. It has nothing to do with him, I only throw that info in so as to hopefully get the most on them as I can so one of y’all can give me as much info as possible. I am just assuming he could very well have got the brass at the same range. I know that’s a lot of assuming, but the possibilities are there nonetheless. HAHA

No worries --- I source most of my common caliber brass here as well. I just count that somewhere around 1-3% will get culled for whatever reason. Dents, dings, too dirty, corrosion, splits, nicks or just ugly. There's a LOT of margin buying it once-fired locally compared to once-fired (shipped) or new so I just try not to save everything.

Kind of the same thing I went through on my scrap brass adventure thread. In that case it was a little harder to decide since the brass has quality live primers in them but I still chucked a bunch even knowing they were ~5-6 cents each.

 

[swampratt]

You know I must try every method under the sun and I tried a method of cleaning cases that gave me those
hard to remove primers and primers with holes punched through them.

That method was cleaning in a liquid with primers still in the case, letting them dry and storing them until I needed them.

I had many primers in that stored batch that gave me fits.
Galvanic corrosion.
That is the only time I had that happen to me and now all my cases are deprimed before cleaning.

If you get cleaned cases from someone with primers in them you may experience a few hard to remove primers.

 

[Rez Exelon]

You know I must try every method under the sun and I tried a method of cleaning cases that gave me those
hard to remove primers and primers with holes punched through them.

That method was cleaning in a liquid with primers still in the case, letting them dry and storing them until I needed them.

I had many primers in that stored batch that gave me fits.
Galvanic corrosion.
That is the only time I had that happen to me and now all my cases are deprimed before cleaning.

If you get cleaned cases from someone with primers in them you may experience a few hard to remove primers.

That's a good point. Potentially the shinier the more likely too I wonder? Seems like liquid cleaning gets them shinier but could do this if primers were in like you said.