Resizing brass with new primer in place ???

Lightyear

Well-Known Member
Folks,

I have been given some cleaned and trimmed cases with new primers in place !

Is it possible to resize them without pushing the new primers out ???

Cheers + ATVB

Philip
 
You can remove the primer pin from your resizing die but from what I've heard it's not really to be recommended. The air pressure build up might force the primer out (less of an issue if only neck sizing?). Plus there is the chance of resizing lubricant contaminating the primer.

Also, if you do do it (as you should with all reloading stages where 'live' components are concerned) wear safety glasses!

Alex
 
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OK - thanks for that.

I might try one carefully and see what happens......As you say.....Safety glasses firmly in place !!

If it does not work would de-priming on the press be best or shooting off through the rifle ??

Cheers + ATVB

Philip
 
If it does not work would de-priming on the press be best or shooting off through the rifle ??

Thinking about it it's probably more likely to go off whilst depriming than if you resized without depriming!

It's risk of contamination vs risk of bang! :lol:

I've never had one go off depriming live ones (but then I have probably only done it a dozen times!). If you do, go carefully and with goggles!
 
It depends on what dies you have and whether or not you mind modifying them.

For example if you have a Lee collet neck sizing die you can grind the decapping ping off the end of the central mandrel. I'm sure other brands of neck sizer would allow you to do the same but Lee dies have the advantage of being cheap.

This only applies to neck sizing though, the lube needed for full-length resizing would probably kill the primer or do strange and bad things to the powder charge.

On the other hand if you just go nice and slow and smooth you can gently push the primer out and re-seat it again afterwards. Be careful and go slow but a few of us have found this to be the best way overall, especially if you need to FL size.

Regards,

A
 
How did the brass come to be primed without being neck sized in the first place?

I am assuming it was not checked/sized, and it was hand primed off the press. Which is not really good practice. Of course, if this was the case, you obviously had no control over that as you were given the brass by another party.

A bit of a bummer of a situation really, which will lead to a lot of extra time consuming work. The points mentioned above by various users are pretty much how it is.
 
...Is it possible to resize them without pushing the new primers out ???....

Philip. Yes, if you have a die that allows the expander ball and spindle to be removed. I have full length resized primed brass when I made the transition from one 260 to another with a slightly shorter chamber (~4 thou). In both my Redding and Hornady dies the central spindle can be removed completely. To be honest, it did take Muir to prompt me that this was possible.

I have since done it again when I found some necks with insufficient tension while loading. I took the batch to bits, recovered the powder and ran them through the full length bushing die with the next bushing down.

Regards JCS
 
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Philip. Yes, if you have a die that allows the expander ball and spindle to be removed. I have full length resized primed brass when I made the transition from one 260 to another with a slightly shorter chamber (~4 thou). In both my Forster and Hornady dies the central spindle can be removed completely. To be honest, it did take Muir to prompt me that this was possible.

I have since done it again when I found some necks with insufficient tension while loading. I took the batch to bits, recovered the powder and ran them through the full length bushing die with the next bushing down.

Regards JCS

This is interesting JC, in my Lee FL die the neck is sized down to less than .308 ID and the expander ball sizes it up on the up stroke.

Does this mean that in the forster and Hornady design the expander ball only is really used when necking up cases from a smaller calibre?

Regards,

Amir
 
Folks,

I have been given some cleaned and trimmed cases with new primers in place !

Is it possible to resize them without pushing the new primers out ???

Cheers + ATVB

Philip

To return to the question. As this doesn't give all the facts it's attracted some puzzling answers.

Although Philip doesn't say so, I'm assuming that these cases haven't been resized enough to chamber in his rifle.... so he wants to tweak them until they do. Nor has he said anything about the necks not being sized... or they surely wouldn't have been primed?

If in fact they do chamber the obvious answer is to fire the empty cases, then reprime them. If the decapping pin is extended to just ping out the spent primer these cases won't be resized at all apart from (possibly) the necks. There's usually enough adjustment to avoid this .... so no lubing .... no powder contamination ... job done.

If they don't chamber the only solution is to back up (retract) the decapping/expanding pin (no need to remove it or... heaven forbid... grind off the fixed pin found in Lee dies) and resize the oversize cases right down to the shell holder without faffing about. The advice to remove it leaves you with necks too tight to accept a bullet so the neck will have to be sized and resized again anyway. That's unavoidable.

Attempting to remove live primers in situ is not a good idea as the anvil assembly and styphnate underneath is compressed in doing so. You have a live cartridge here in what amounts to a 'monkey metal' rifle chamber.I have done this a few times to deactivate rare cartridge cases but only after soaking the embedded primer in WD40 for 24 hours to be safe.
 
You can remove the primer pin from your resizing die but from what I've heard it's not really to be recommended. The air pressure build up might force the primer out (less of an issue if only neck sizing?). Plus there is the chance of resizing lubricant contaminating the primer.

Also, if you do do it (as you should with all reloading stages where 'live' components are concerned) wear safety glasses!

Alex

If you remove the pin assembly where would the air pressure come from??

I have done this many times. Remove the PIN from the RCBS type expander and have at it. Be careful with the lube as was mentioned. With the Lee FL unit, simply loosen the collet that holds the rod in place and slied it up a tad so the pin doesn't enter the flash hole and tighten.~Muir
 
Philip ,
Try an empty case in your rifle first and see if it chambers, if it does just load them up and shoot them, then next time they will be fire formed to your chamber all you have to do is neck size them and check them for length. If they wont chamber you will have to try the above.
 
To return to the question. As this doesn't give all the facts it's attracted some puzzling answers.

Although Philip doesn't say so, I'm assuming that these cases haven't been resized enough to chamber in his rifle.... so he wants to tweak them until they do. Nor has he said anything about the necks not being sized... or they surely wouldn't have been primed?

If in fact they do chamber the obvious answer is to fire the empty cases, then reprime them. If the decapping pin is extended to just ping out the spent primer these cases won't be resized at all apart from (possibly) the necks. There's usually enough adjustment to avoid this .... so no lubing .... no powder contamination ... job done.

If they don't chamber the only solution is to back up (retract) the decapping/expanding pin (no need to remove it or... heaven forbid... grind off the fixed pin found in Lee dies) and resize the oversize cases right down to the shell holder without faffing about. The advice to remove it leaves you with necks too tight to accept a bullet so the neck will have to be sized and resized again anyway. That's unavoidable.

Attempting to remove live primers in situ is not a good idea as the anvil assembly and styphnate underneath is compressed in doing so. You have a live cartridge here in what amounts to a 'monkey metal' rifle chamber.I have done this a few times to deactivate rare cartridge cases but only after soaking the embedded primer in WD40 for 24 hours to be safe.

Best answer I have seen on this entire thread.
 
Op,
agree with Sinistral , kill those primers dead with WD-40 or RP7 , soak, leave for 24-48hours ( if you can get the spray can with the long nozzle it makes it easier to direct the spray to the primer) , then de-prime as normal. Always wear safety goggles or glasses when dealing with powder and primers.
Cheers,
Monkey
 
If you remove the decapping pin (leaving the expander ball in place)and hand lube the cases, what is the problem? Soaking the cases in rust penetrating oil is a little severe when there are several options that do not involve decapping live primers.~Muir
 
If you remove the pin assembly where would the air pressure come from??

I have done this many times. Remove the PIN from the RCBS type expander and have at it. Be careful with the lube as was mentioned. With the Lee FL unit, simply loosen the collet that holds the rod in place and slied it up a tad so the pin doesn't enter the flash hole and tighten.~Muir

=1 on this

To remove the old primers the brass would normally have been resized (or at least kneck sized.) Build a couple up and see if they cycle in your rifle. If they do whats the beef??

Why invent issues you do not know exist?

Just my tuppence worth.
 
Is this still going the rounds?

Muir,
You haven't read my post. Nobody's talking about squirting lubricant willy-nilly into cases to render live primers inert in cases you intend to fire. That'll screw them up for eternity.

I was referring to rare cartridges which you've err.... 'acquired'... and shouldn't really have. After using a bullet puller (or whatever) to leave a legal but live-primed case I make doubly bloody sure that this bomb won't go off when I deprime it with a suitable die. That is the only situation where there's a pressing need (sorry) to remove unfired primers.

Everyone has chipped in to try and help poster Philip but we still don't know what his real problem is..... like why he's thinking of decapping live cases. I think my best plan in future is to sit back and wait until there's a coherent question to answer before second guessing a poster.
 
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