A maddening day

Reloading 9mm Luger on my old RL 550B. I usually load in lots of 300 rounds. Today was aggravating because every 5th case or so the resizing die would not decap and the old primer would still be fully seated or worse half unseated. That meant stop remove the offending case, index the plate then try to resize again. Everything seems tight and right. The sizing die is down full on the shell plate at the full stroke of the ram, the shell plate is screwed down tight enough to allow just a slight amount of friction when the plate is indexed and everything else is where it belongs.

BTW it doesn't matter what cases WIN, F.C. C.B.C. Speer, R-P they've all done it. Not too long ago I took the dies apart and cleaned everything since I was switching away from cast lead.

So how about it any suggestions?

Military crimp? Broken pin. That pin sticks out a good bit. No way primer still in there if pin is long enough.

Is the primer getting stuck to the pin and being pulled back into the case on the way back down?
Is the pin damaged?

Decapping pin broken or loose.

Check out the Brian Enos forum. This issue is discussed. There is a response from Dillon


https://forums.brianenos.com/topic/2...ng-die-issues/

If, as you say, the primers remain fully or partially seated, the decapping pin is likely not protruding far enough on the downstroke of the press. Primers pressed out but sticking to a sharp decapping pin is a different issue.

As others here have suggested:

1. Check your decapping pin. Instead of failing, it just may have backed out and all you need is a turn or two to get it to the correct position. Once you do, lock it down...

2. Review step one above....

3. The pin may have been buggered some way or another. Insert new pin and repeat.

You're gonna be fine...


Lots of great remarks from folks who may have experienced similar conditions.:cool:

Thanks to all for the suggestions. Today I removed the die from the press, disassembled the die found the decapping pin tight unbroken and straight. Cleaned everything up and reassembled, double checked to be sure the sizing die and decapping pin assembly were tight and test it on a few cases. No problems. We'll see what happens when I get into the next batch of 300.

Brick,

I've had this happen, too. On my 550. Was pretty sure the primers were being kind of pierced by the decapping pin, stuck on the then, then drawn back into the primer pocket as mentioned above. Perhaps it was the tough crimp that caused the pin to jam into the primer. Maybe it was the brand/design of primer. When you had the decapping pin out, did you inspect the business end? Any burrs? Touch the pin up with a file.

Good luck!

Ray

I haven't had problems decapping with my 550B but had a related problem when I was setting up the 223 die set. Snugging the resizing die to the faceplate when setting that dies position resulted in some cases that were bulged at the base after resizing and failed the case gauge test. I called Dillon and they said it was okay to add up to 1/4-1/2 turn to the die after it contacted the shellplate and that solved my problem. If yours comes back the tiny bit of extra travel you get from that may help.