357 Sig Decaping Problems... Again!

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Just started going through my 357 sig brass and decapping them and am having some problems with about 20% of them pushing the top of the primer off. What I mean is that it's actually ripping the top of the primer off of the body of the primer leaving the body intact in the case. I also noticed that the primers look like they are corroded or something. These are all head stamped R-P if that helps any. Here are a few pics showing the problem. Looking at the one case showing the popped top I see some green stuff, could this be some kind of sealant they are using and maybe causing this problem?


Top ripped off the body


The messed up primers


The body of the primer left intact after the top was ripped off.

Anyone ever see this before and if you have, do you know what's going on?

 

[KRP]

New ammo, or someone's handloads? It looks a lot like the green wicking loctite, as if someone was trying to "fix" some over pressured and expanded primer pockets.

 

[joshb]

Well, I've never seen that one before. I had a chance to buy a pistol in that cartridge, at a very good price. I declined because any time I heard about it some one was having problems reloading it. Maybe you could soak them in lacquer thinner or Break free, to soften "whatever that is". Good luck, Josh.

 

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These are suppose to be once fired brass that I got from Southern Belle. Guess I could call up Remington and ask them.

 

[FN in MT]

This was a dozen years back...but my agency went to the .357 SIG ctg and I reloaded almost 20K of them over a few year period as our budget for practice ammo was cut. Loading with Dillon dies on a 550 I NEVER saw what you are experiencing. I did do some RP brass but mostly Speer and WW brass. I think I busted ONE decapping pin the whole time.

Looks as if some sort of sealant was used around the primer and it was either applied too generously or the primer metal has some issue.

Could the brass have been cleaned some way with a chemical cleaner that then affected the sealant? Turning it into more of an epoxy or glue?

 

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I don't know what Southern Bell Brass uses to clean their brass, I guess I could get hold of them and ask.

 

[Ringostar]

I've never seen a sealant used on factory ammo like that, including Rem. I haven't bought any of their 357 Sig for many years though. Try searching some pistol forums to see if others have run into this. If you don't find anything, then I would believe that someone tried this because of loose pockets for a final firing then abandoned the brass.

 

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These cases are supposedly once fired right from Remington when they were new. I got a response from Remington but of course they got it all wrong by saying they don't supply any loading data and forwarded me links to all the powder companies. I replied back to them saying I didn't ask for data, I asked if they used some kind of sealant on their primers and they are falling apart when decapping them. Let's see if they get it right this time. I will do some more searching.

 

[ebb]

I don't think they were sealed. I had a bunch of 243 win brass that did the same thing, they also had the R-P headstamp. I was desperate to make some 260 brass so I took my primer pocket uniformer and eat the left overs from the old primer out. I have no idea what the green is mine didn't have any thing like that. Ive shot the brass about 4 times thus far and all seems OK. I am thinking that maybe in the ammo crunch they may have used some sub standard brass to make the primers?

 

[Ringostar]

If you look close at the 3rd pic, you can see the green stuff is in the lettering also. And the case heads look beat up to me. It might just be HD pics that bring it out, but I would question them being only once fired.

 

[wapiti25]

Sure looks like a type of "locktite" to me. you could machine the primers out as solvents will not release Locktite.

 

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SO far I have about 20 cases that have done this and if I only get a few more I just may toss them than waste time machining them out, unless someone here wants them.

 

[rogn]

VERY inclined to think you have some brittle primers. Ive decapped a lot of brass that had crimped primers and the worst case that Ive seen is primers that look like a "teepee" when they come out. The brass should be flexible and ductile enough to give before "tearing", a really bad case could even perforate, but again the anvil makes this unlikely.

 

[Thumb]

I did try something out that seemed to have worked better but then I just might have been lucky and grabbed some cases that were good. What I did was change the case holder to another one and I was only getting about 1% bad ones instead of 20%. The holder I replaced had a hole that measured .262" and the new one measured .277". I'm thinking that maybe the primer is catching on the side of the holder hole and keeping it from coming out and that's why it's pushing the tops off. I don't know, just a thought.

 

[243Mendoza]

I'm having the same problem with various 45 ACP cases where about 10% of the cases are not fully decapped. I have used these cases over 5 times before I had this problem. Have no solution or reason why this is happening. Do you now the brand of primers?

 

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Well, I would think since mine are suppose to be "once fired", that the primers are whatever Remington uses.

 

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OK, finished decapping all 1000 cases and have a whopping 75 cases that have the primer broke off in the case. I could see if there were 7 or 8 of them but 75 is just too much. I'll contact Southern Belle Brass again and ask them if they want me to send them the cases so they can see what they are selling. I have bought from them before but they were Speer cases that time and I didn't have this problem.

 

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One more pic of the green stuff whatever it is on a case that has been put through the sonic clean and tumbler. As you can see the green is still there and the corrosion at the bottom of the pocket is still there. Only way to get it off is to take a wire brush to it.

The picture isn't clear enough to show it but looking through a microscope you can see that the green stuff looks more like some kind of sealant, epoxy or whatever. You can actually see through it.

 

[TRG300WM]

Been reloading for 40 years, I've never seen that before, looks and sound a little suspect to me. i'm surprised you didn't break your decapping pin, some force would have been required to punch through the primer cap. id try warming the spent primer a little bit with a heat gun or a lighter before decapping it.

 

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They actually were easy to decap which I think was because that they were so corroded.