Thread: What's everyone using to de cap brass without sizing for annealing ?

Hey team,
I will be soon able to anneal my own brass and I'm just wondering what people are using for decapping without sizing so the brass can be annealed before it's sized.
From what I can see there are 2 options
1.) Universal decapping die
These are cheap (around $30) but are there any cons ?
Do I need to remove the de capping pin from my sizing die if I go this way ? I currently use RCBS full length sizing and decapping die.

2.) stand alone decapping device like frankford arsenal universal depriming tool.
Not so cheap (around $130) and cant find any in stock in NZ not sure if there are other brands.

Aside from not having to change dies to decap brass is there anything I'm missing ?
Are the universal de capping dies just as effective ?

Thanks for your time

For boxer primers I just use a universal decap die & for Berdan primers I either use hydraulic, pick & pry or convert shells to boxer.

Lee press and lee decapping die. also, a set of lee shellholders is handy. saves having to pillage the one you keep with your set of dies.

Why don't you just set your decapping pin down lower to pop 'em out before the die sizes?? Most decap pins are long enough to do this.

I've never annealed but was planning on giving it a go prior to the next big round of sizing etc. Is it necessary to remove old primers prior to annealing?

Originally Posted by Mathias

Why don't you just set your decapping pin down lower to pop 'em out before the die sizes?? Most decap pins are long enough to do this.

The only problem I see with this is that I would then have to either remove the pin or reset it when I have to size the brass post annealing.

Originally Posted by Dama dama

I've never annealed but was planning on giving it a go prior to the next big round of sizing etc. Is it necessary to remove old primers prior to annealing?

It is Highly recommended for hot salt bath annealing which is what I'm doing, couldn't say about blow torch method

I used to just lower my decapping sharft lower so it doesn't size the case but pushes out the primer.
But I had to do alot of crimped primers so I brought a Lee universal decapping die either way will work.

Sent from my CPH1903 using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by 25 /08 IMP

I used to just lower my decapping sharft lower so it doesn't size the case but pushes out the primer.
But I had to do alot of crimped primers so I brought a Lee universal decapping die either way will work.

Sent from my CPH1903 using Tapatalk

Once it's been annealed do you remove the pin for full length sizing or just set it back ?

Originally Posted by dannyb

The only problem I see with this is that I would then have to either remove the pin or reset it when I have to size the brass post annealing.

Yep, not that hard to do

Originally Posted by dannyb

Once it's been annealed do you remove the pin for full length sizing or just set it back ?

Anyone ???

Originally Posted by dannyb

Anyone ???

The pin's just going to poke through the primer hole if the case is already de-primed. Though, if you don't set it back then the expander ball might hit the bottom of the case before you can raise the case up enough to size it.

Roger, I just thought I had heard of people removing the pin altogether. That makes sense with the expander ball though.
Cheers

To the first question, I use an RCBS universal decapping die which works awesome. I have a little bag of spare pins as well for when one breaks. Bear in mind if you are using brass with a reduced flashhole (e.g 1.5mm for Lapua) you will need to reduce the pin diameter for the RCBS die. I just spun them in sandpaper to achieve this purpose!

Next question, yes I would remove primers prior to annealing but more from the perspective of cleaning. I clean immediately after decapping and prior to annealing... so I remove the primers so that my primer pockets are also clean. I guess there is also a slight risk of any unburnt primer composition burning but I reckon having any residue is highly unlikely.

To your last question, yes just remove the pin out of the decapping stem and then refit the expander ball to it. Also because you don’t need the depth of the pin punching out the primer you can also raise the expander ball. I raised mine expander ball as much as possible so that the case is still partially supported as the expander ball draws back out the mouth (hopefully to reduce run out). Obviously if you raise too high the ball with try to expand the neck whilst it’s still compressed in the die and your case will get stuck...

I used to deprime everything with a universal die, tumble it then clean primer pockets, trim, chamfer etc.. for multiple cals all in one go. Didn't need pins in the sizing dies so I removed some of them. That meant if I made a cock up while loading, I could pull bullets, dump powder, and resize necks, without depriming live primers and re-priming the cases again.

But now I'm shooting less and making less cock ups, so I've left pins in.