Well that sucked for a while.

[TheOtherZilla]

Reloading some 223 today.. I was sizing cases and de-priming. ABout half way it it got real easy to lower the ram.. A few cases later I am thinkin "Sumpin aint right" I check a primer because I didn't see one drop into the catch. Case still has spent primer in it.. WTF? I look up the die and.... No de-priming pin. Well I have spares. So I remove the sizing ball stem and...... There is no sizing ball or pin present. I look in the primer catch, the floor ebbery where. Nope, nada.. So I am looking in the cases and there it is. Stuck in the top of a brass.. Out to the garage to extract. Cut the case in half and extract. Get a new pin and... Damn the threads on the rod are stripped.. Luckily I have another sizing die in 223.. Have no idea why I have two but I do.. swapped dies and rolling again. Now 3 hours later I am wondering where the pin went? Damn I guess I am going to have to toss those 20 rds I made.. Sux to be me..

 

[Bill Norris]

WOW Not good Bro.

 

[Cecil S.]

Maybe the good side is you caught it early. Just sayin.

 

[Forum Boss]

I broke a pin using a Lee Decapping die that did NOT like Lapua small flash holes. Check the primer hole diameter vs. the diameter of your decapping pin.

You can also have problems if the decapping pin is set too LONG in the sizing die so it is bottoming out on the brass.

Adjust Your Decapping Dies to Avoid Primer Pocket Problems « Daily Bulletin

One of our Forum members complained that he wasn't able to set his primers flush to the rim. He tried a variety of primer tools, yet no matter what he used, the primers still didn't seat deep enough. He measured his primers, and they were the right thickness, but it seemed like his primer...

bulletin.accurateshooter.com

Quote (by me):

Decapping Dies for Cases with Smaller Flashholes​

TAKE NOTE: Some Euro Small Flash Holes are spec’d at 1.5mm or 0.059″, and max out at about .062″, so these need a smaller die pin.

The low-cost Lee Universal Decapping Die will work with cartridges from 17 Fireball all the way up to big Magnums. However, NOTE that the decapping pin supplied with this Lee die is TOO LARGE for LAPUA 220 Russian, 6mmBR, 6.5×47, 6.5 Creedmoor, .308 Win (Palma) and Norma 6 PPC flash holes. Because the pin diameter is too large for these brass types, you must either turn down the pin, or decap with a different tool for cases with .059-.062″ flash-holes.

 

[JohnKielly]

Lost a Hornady carbide expander, pin and rod when I was doing some catch up while on vacation with my press clamped to the internal stairs. Seems my 3 year old found just the small piece of gravel that went down the neck of a .308 case and turned the priming pin into a U that wouldn't come out of the case.

 

[Rustytigwire]

Damn I guess I am going to have to toss those 20 rds I made..

Go thru those 20 with a good magnet? Find suspect case, pull bullet maybe find the pin?

 

[Erud]

If you have a good scale, just weigh those 20 and look for the oddball.

 

[TheOtherZilla]

I thought about all that stuff. I shoulda turned all the cases upside down. Just didn't think about it.. It's only 20. Brass was LC once fired that I picked up from the range.. Bullets were some Hornadays that I got a deal on $10/100. I don't need some steel parts flyin up the barrel. Might just pull em and Start over.

 

[Mouse-Gunner]

Been there done that.

I think I am up to 5 different sets of 223 dies, different dies for different reloading projects, and they come from three different manufacturers. The only thing to do is to make sure I have an inventory of die parts for when something on the dies breaks, falls off, just plain gets lost.