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Hi. I am brand new to reloading and have discovered the first thing I've done wrong. I resized and removed the old primers of my .308's and I have just noticed that I couldn't have pressed hard enough during that process because the mouths aren't tight enough on the bullet and on some can fall right through. Unfortunately I have already primed about 20 of them. I can obviously resize the others properly but can I safely resize the ones with the new primers already in?

I have a Lyman setup. I have tried screwing the top of the die and removing the decaying tool but without the upper thicker part it closes the mouth too much as there is nothing on the inside shopping it closing too much. Any ideas? Can I remove the primer in any way? Its only about 20 so if I have to discard them its not a problem, but then where do I get rid of them? .

Thanks, Steve.

You can safely pop the primers with a full length resizing die if it has a de-capping pin, just remember to put your safety glasses on first. For what it is worth I have never heard of a primer going off when removed in such a manner and indeed can think of people who have even used the primers again!

Ovenpaa wrote:You can safely pop the primers with a full length resizing die if it has a de-capping pin, just remember to put your safety glasses on first. For what it is worth I have never heard of a primer going off when removed in such a manner and indeed can think of people who have even used the primers again!

Excellent thank you. Will give it a go. What happens if it does go off? Are they loud? Big flash? I've read that googles are needed i case something flies off of it but didn't mention any other factors.

Yes they go with a reasonable pop however it should not happen, just take your time :)

I have used a Lee universal de-capping die to carefully remove primers. They are not damaged in any way and can be used again.


Redcat

I've deprimed a few cases in my time. Wearing eye protection is wise, though I've never had one detonate.

When pulling down the press handle to deprime a case containing a live primer, do it SLOWLY -- you want to EASE the primer out, not poke it out. Done properly, the primer is indeed reusable, though if it is held tightly in the primer pocket, the act of pushing it out deforms it such that reuse might be difficult.

Don't forget to lube the cases first -- otherwise you may find a case stuck inside your die...

DavidRees wrote:

Don't forget to lube the cases first -- otherwise you may find a case stuck inside your die...

The universal die overcomes this - one die will de-cap (not size) any calibre.

Redcat

I made this mistake a good few months ago, die was also slightly loose, this was when I had batch sized and primed around 350 bits of brass. Ensure it is a slow movement when popping the primer out however I have not encountered any being damaged and preventing re-use. The accuracy of the round when fired also did not appear affected.
Also worth noting that I have had one in all the hundreds I have reloaded that has somehow had the primer installed upside down. This has been you popped out and re-used as a barrel warmer. That primer did have a light indentation on it.
I would echo the note to wear eye protection when doing this.

Or you could remove the decapping pin from the die and resize the cases. Quicker than trying to deprime live primers.

I don’t know the exact details but a friend of mine had a primer go off as he was depriming some cases. Unfortunately it set off a load of other primers as well the end result of which was that he nearly lost quite a few of his fingers. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was attempting something a bit daft but there you go!