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Busted decapping pin

memilanuk

Gold $$ Contributor
I've got a F/L bushing die with a decapping pin busted off and stuck in the collet fingers of the stem.

IMG_20231224_135747_507.jpg

Any suggestions for getting the dang thing out? My initial attempts to get under it with the tip of a razor knife were unsuccessful, so I'm open to suggestions.
 
Maybe take a screwdriver and lightly pry open two of the fingers of the collet just enough to relieve pressure on the pin and take fine point tweezers to try and grab the pin and pull it out.
 
Small screwdriver to gently pry the fingers open, and some needle nose pliers, or another small screwdriver/dental pick to remove the damaged goods.
 
hogpatrol said:
Lapua brass has a smaller flash hole and the pin can hang up if it's larger.
Click to expand...


Without getting into the details, this is a 'new to me' used die. Previous owner decapped separately and didn't even realize the decapping pin was missing, much less busted off. Whether it ran into some SRP brass with PPC/BR flash holes, dunno. The current batch of brass I'm playing with is Alpha OCD SRP, which has standard 0.080" holes. But I do still have a metric butt-load of Lapua Palma .308 brass around here with the 0.060" hole too, so it's something I'm well aware of. Thank you, though.
 
Last edited:
bozo699 said:
I thought so, I took mine apart years ago as I don’t like to decap on my press but I think if your careful you can do as others said pry two collets with small screwdriver then you should be able to pick it out
Click to expand...

Honestly, I got this mainly out of curiosity. I've got a collection of .308 Win dies, and wanted to compare this one with the rest. Eventually I'll be setting one of them up on my Dillon 550B again, and will probably be decapping on press in that situation.

My only concern with 'prying' on something as small / delicate as those collet fingers is that something will get bent beyond the point of returning to it's original state, even with the best of intentions.
 
You can gently pry one or two of the fingers of the collet, then grab it with a mini pair of needle nose pliers or use a super magnet to extract it. You just don't want to bend them back and forth to the point where there's metal fatigue and they break.
 
Set expander on bench with threads down and decap pin up take new pin and tap into the hole and push old broken pin out. Should loosen up quickly and at some point be grabbed with pliers from the threaded end.
 
Just a little tip based on an experience with a broken pin, de-burr your flash holes. That makes the pin go in a whole lot easier and is especially helpful on small size flash holes.
 
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