Lee 9mm die not depriming

[Tennjed]

I have only been reloading for about 1.5 years now. tonight I ran into a problem and was wondering if I could get some help.

After loading about 50 rounds of 9mm, the resizing/depriming die on my Lee 9mm die quit depriming. As far as I can tell it is still resizing correctly.

It is one of the lee 4 carbide dies. Looking at the instruction booklet, it seems that it might have been pushed up to protect it from breaking and I need to loosen the collet at the top. The pin does not seem to be sticking out as far on the die as my other calibers. I wanted to double check before I did anything.

do I just need to loosen the collet and have the pin fall out? How easy is it to put back and in the right position? What would be the most likely cause of this?

[Guest Lester Weevils]

They may be extremely rare in the USA, but I was sorting thru some fairly old brass the other day and noticed a few of what may be berdan primed cases. Looking down into the case, there wasn't a flash hole, but instead there were two tiny holes on each side of the center, and solid brass where the flash hole should have been. If I'd tried to deprime those guys and pushed hard enough, then it would have either broken or pushed up the deprime pin, because there wasn't any hole for the pin to fall thru--

Maybe something else. Sometimes cases will have an off-center flash hole and might keep the pin from hitting the hole.

Or something else entirely. Dunno about re-adjusting the deprime pin, never had to do that. I've removed the pin to avoid decapping on pre-primed unsized cases, which was easy on the dillon die, just loosen the knurled nut and the pin drops right out.

Edited June 21, 2012 by Lester Weevils

[Raoul]

Sounds like the pin has just been pushed up a bit. It happens, that's why they sell the pins. Just loosen it and lower it a little.

[Jonnin]

it takes a *great deal* of force to get it loose, but yes, you just unscrew it, reseat it, and screw it back together. It takes me 2 wrenches and most of my body weight to get them loose and to get them tight again (If not just as tight as before, it will slip again!).

The cause is likely a foreign case --- they have 2 primer holes off center instead of 1 in the center, so the die deprimer pin just hits solid brass when you try to deprime those cases and gets pushed back. It takes *excessive* force to do this. You should never have to push hard to size and deprime a 9mm, and if it feels like you are trying too hard, stop and look at the case to see that it actually does have a primer hole where it should such that the tool will work. Discard the offending case if you find some --- its possible to use them but way too much trouble.

[East_TN_Patriot]

Either the depriming pin has pushed up, or it's broken off. I broke on of the pins on one of my Lee dies. I called them up and ordered a new one. I had it in my hand in less than a week.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Think I've read about people using certain sized finish nails (with the head and tip clipped square) to replace broken decap pins.

The steel stem that "breaks off" a pop rivet also looks about the right size as best I recall, haven't sat down to see if something like that would really fit.

[mikegideon]

They may be extremely rare in the USA, but I was sorting thru some fairly old brass the other day and noticed a few of what may be berdan primed cases. Looking down into the case, there wasn't a flash hole, but instead there were two tiny holes on each side of the center, and solid brass where the flash hole should have been. If I'd tried to deprime those guys and pushed hard enough, then it would have either broken or pushed up the deprime pin, because there wasn't any hole for the pin to fall thru--

Maybe something else. Sometimes cases will have an off-center flash hole and might keep the pin from hitting the hole.

Or something else entirely. Dunno about re-adjusting the deprime pin, never had to do that. I've removed the pin to avoid decapping on pre-primed unsized cases, which was easy on the dillon die, just loosen the knurled nut and the pin drops right out.

I had some S&B .45 brass push mine up. They're boxer primed, but the primers were glued in with red laquer. I wound up putting them in a shell holder and knocking them out with a 1/16" punch.

To the OP. Just loosten the collet and push it down until it's flush. You probably need two wrenches. Mine was pretty tight.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

They may be extremely rare in the USA, but I was sorting thru some fairly old brass the other day and noticed a few of what may be berdan primed cases. Looking down into the case, there wasn't a flash hole, but instead there were two tiny holes on each side of the center, and solid brass where the flash hole should have been. If I'd tried to deprime those guys and pushed hard enough, then it would have either broken or pushed up the deprime pin, because there wasn't any hole for the pin to fall thru--

Maybe something else. Sometimes cases will have an off-center flash hole and might keep the pin from hitting the hole.

Or something else entirely. Dunno about re-adjusting the deprime pin, never had to do that. I've removed the pin to avoid decapping on pre-primed unsized cases, which was easy on the dillon die, just loosen the knurled nut and the pin drops right out.

I've found a bunch of those, also, Lester. I threw them away.

You should adjust the deprime pin to just get the job done. I've bent and broke them. Lyman sent me a bunch

for free, several years ago when I couldn't find them locally, and were very prompt.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I've found a bunch of those, also, Lester. I threw them away.

Yep, dunno how common they are. I didn't remember ever seeing any berdan primed 9mm and only recently saw some after reloading over a decade (but some years kinda spotty activity). Since last christmas had cleaned and primed what I thought was all the 9mm brass thats been building up, a few thousand, then was hunting for a for a "lost" tool down in the basement and came across another bin of dirty range brass sitting on a shelf. No telling how long its been sitting there. Found quite a few of those berdan rounds in that one old plastic bin..

Edited June 22, 2012 by Lester Weevils

[dlm37015]

gheck the nut holding the decapping pin

[Tennjed]

Thanks for all the help. I got it working tonight and loaded another 200 rounds