deprime fired blanks?

[oddball]

Hello all, I find myself needing to deprime some fired blanks to make some key fobs
as a remembrance. The cases were used by a firing party as part of a 21 gun salute at a funeral so there is no option of substituting some regular .30-06 casings. The cases are of course star-crimped and I would prefer the fob be mounted to the case through the primer hole. So I need to deprime without dismembering the case mouth. Would it be feasible to start with a smaller expander plug to work through the star? Sorry if this seems a little off the wall but in all my years of reloading I've never been hit with a request like this one.

THX,

Will

 

[gundummy911]

Find a dowel rod with an outside diameter as close to the inside diameter of the neck as possible, and about 4" long, you can use a couple wraps of black tape to upsize a bit if needed.
Set case in a shell holder, or I have used a 7/16" or 1/2" 1/4" drive socket,
WITH THE DRIVE END UP ON A SOLID SURFACE.
Fill the case with tap water up to the neck,
Insert the dowel rod
Making sure the case is centered with the primer well center in the drive hole of the socket,
From her ir get a little messy, but not to bad.
Rap the end of the dowel rod sharply with a plastic mallet or small hammer.
Hydraulic pressure will force out the primer! viola!
NOW to keep from getting too wet, do NOT immeaditly remove the dowel, but place the whole shebang over a small bowl or sink, remove dowel,
Water drains and there you are.
A bit time consuming, and if it was me, I'd just drill the whole thing out,
JMHO
BT

 

[tyromeo55]

Drill a small hole in the used primer cup and then use an AWL to pry it out.

 

[mr ed]

can't you use a lee 223 decapper and a hammer?

 

[oddball]

Thanks for the input to each of you. I came closest to Mr. Ed's suggestion on the first case while driving to Enid this morning. Actually used a spare .25-20 decapper sans expander ball and being careful to center the pin to the flash hole. Again, many thanks, this will mean a lot to the family.

 

[okietom]

Just use a drill. You don't need the flash hole. The firing pin dent would help start the drill. You could even tap the hole and attach with a screw.

 

[criticalbass]

Lee makes a universal deprimer die that should work fine. It's inexpensive. CB