Breaking decapping pins!
 

RCBS gear. Brand new. I've broke 3 allready and have maybe had maybe 40 - 50 casings through it. The threads on the threaded rod are stripped now as well. I have a whole new assembly on order. What am I doing wrong?
I've had to cut open the casings with a dremmel to get the expander and broken pins out.

Holy cow, you got some probs that you can hang your hat onto.

I think I have only broke one pin and it was with a set of ancient dies. I use a hvy duty deprimer. I rarely use the one on the sizer. If your breaking pins, then the rod that connects to the sizer is not hitting the primer square. Only way it can happen.

Take out your sizer, and roll it in yourhands. Is the deprimer pin/threaded rod wobbling? Are you tightening down the deprime rod with the nut on top of the sizer? If its loose, its going to hit the primer not stright on and break the pin.

Another thing is the shell holder. If your using the wrong one, or a bad one, your pin will not be hitting the primer square and push it one way or the other.

Like BC said, you must be hitting the case. Make sure your expander/decapper assembly is tight in the die. It should line itself up to center. You may have bent the assembly from removing a stuck case, or not having a case all the way in the shellholder could have done it. The new assembly will probably solve your problems. I bent one once and rcbs sent me a new one for free.

With the die in your hand loosen the rod. Take a resized brass and slide it into the die ,insert the rod/decapping pin into the die. Work it around so the pin goes into the flash hole of the brass. Tighten the locking nut on the rod. You should be good to go.

I heard most dies and shell holders now come from the people's republic these days, and not Oroville,CA. Sad state of affairs.

...... Been reloading a LOOONG time... can't remember of ever breaking a pin. Something bent , I think... Not depriming crimped pocket brass are we??

Newbies break stuff
 

I broke one I recall as a newbie. You didn't think it was normal. But then, newbies don't know.

It appears you still are a newbie. I mean from your posts that is

.... I must have missed something... I didn't realize 338 Win Mag was the case at issue..??

RCBS, Lyman and Redding I have broken decapping pins on all 3!

The only one that has never given grief is Lee:confused0024:

.... Yep, You're absolutely right. My point was is or could that be the cause for all the pin breakage? Seems like a lot of people are having trouble with that now... just sayin'...

The only time I have broken a pin was when I found a berdan primed case mixed in with my other brass. I have also bent a rod when a stubborn primer in some lake city brass didn't want to come out. RCBS customer service is great and sent me everything free of charge when I called them.

I seem to go through binges of broken pins. Having 15 years of steady regular loading behind me w/1000s of gi cases preped I've broken plenty of pins. There was this batch of americ brass that a buddy brought me ,9mm,I broke 2 before I looked at the cases,every single flash hole was off center some at the edge of the pocket.

I even broke a pin in a set of LEE 308 dies. Sometimes you just get a bum part.

I've lost a couple of balls in cases too . With 30 cals I use my 32 cal expander ball to open the neck and shake the lost ball out ,then size the case again,I have to save all the brass I can. I started casting and now have a half a dozen expander rods I've turned on the drill press and threaded for the universal decapping die that are handy for opening a neck w/o going as far.

Are you lubing the case necks inside ? That'll pull that ball of in short order too.

Double check the flash hole's size. I got a bag of 9mm Dynamit Nobel that had flash holes that are way undersized. The case head has a DAG headstamp. At first I thought that I had super tight primers, but after a short while I knew that there had to be a problem. My decapping pin was turned into a punch that forced it's way through the hole. If I didn't figure out the problem as quickly as I did, my pin would have broken also.

Sounds like you have the decapping rod set too low in the die.
I do break them from time to time but very rarely.
Call RCBS, they will replace anything that is broken or stripped on that die free of charge. I love their customer support.

Bent/Broken decapping pins
 

My 1st thought is the lot of brass you have may not have the flash holes centered, 2nd the resizing die did not have the spindle assembly tightened in the die. 3rd the spindle assembly wasn't centered in your die and that can be checked with the eyeball test. For what it's worth bending or breaking a decapping pin is rare, I can recall only one pin in 45 years. One last thought look at your shell holder slot in your ram and see if there is a metal chip or some other crap preventing the shell holder from fully seating in place. You may also consider purchasing a universal decapping die to deprime cases and then toss them in your tumbler and clean them before resizing (dies are expensive and you don't want to scratch them)! William

What is the new style? I havn't got any new dies for a while. Is it still a collet compression type where you remove the knulled part, and drop in a decapper pin?

I've been reloading for 30 years now pretty steady and I never use the decapping pin in my dies.

I use the little punch that comes in a Lee Loader along with the little anvil that comes with it. I have no problem with crimped military primer pockets or anything else.

I do it this way so that I can have the primers removed from the case prior to vibrating them clean.

my process is

1. Sort
2. Punch primers
3. Chamfer military primer pockets (if needed)
4. Clean pocket with small wire brush in rechargeable drill
5. Vibrate in mixed Walnut/Corn media
6. Using a plastic freezer container with 1/4" holes punched in the bottom to separate the medium from the cases.
7. Sort checking the primer holes clear if needed.
8. Lube I use a RCBS pad and their water based lube
9. Size and Bell
10. Wash the cases in dish soap and HOT water rinsing very well
11. Place cases standing on their bases on a sheet of aluminum in the oven at 200 degrees for an hour.
12. When room temp Hand Prime them using a Lee Priming tool
13. Charge the cases with a weighed powder charge (moving to step 14 before charging the next case)
14. Seat and crimp the bullet

...... Now that's dedication to the art.......

The only time I broke a de-capping pin was on 1 brass casing that was defective with an off-center primer flash hole. I contacted Hornady, the die mfgr I use, and they sent a replacement pin and related assembly out that day to me no charge.
The other possibility of some (e.g. military .30-06 ammo) has Berdan (2 offset) flash holes. I don't know this is the case with the caliber you refer to though.

Oh by the way............... I think I've resolved the problem . . . just had it adjusted too far out! I have reloaded a couple hundred so far and not one problem.

Thanks all.