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- Sep 26, 2010
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In my decades of reloading, I have tried every decapping die known to man--Dillon, Hornady, Lee, Lyman, RCBS, Redding, and Sinclair. They all have their strengths, but all of them have the same weakness. On a progressive press, the brass can tip just enough to enter the die mouth unevenly which causes the decapping pin to hit off center in the brass which may break it.
It certainly slows down the operation to adjust the brass and "hand guide" it into the die. It does not happen all the time, but it happens enough to be a nuisance. I have been decapping brass like a madman lately and running it through my new wet tumbler. I have brass that has both .060" and .080" flash holes. The .060" stuff is typically precision brass (.22PPC, 6MM BR, etc.), but I scarfed up a ton of Speer .357 SIG brass and they have the .060" flash holes. One has to be a little more careful with those because the decapping pins are thinner and more fragile.
I saw a new decapping system online in one of the forums and thought, what the heck--I will give it a try. It has a "follower" that auto guides the brass into the mouth of the die to prevent the aforementioned malady from occurring. It came in today and I plan to use it in the next few days and will report back on how it works.
A little .357 SIG bling:
The FW Arms (https://fwarms.com/shop/reloading/f-w-arms-auto-center-decapper/) decapper:
It certainly slows down the operation to adjust the brass and "hand guide" it into the die. It does not happen all the time, but it happens enough to be a nuisance. I have been decapping brass like a madman lately and running it through my new wet tumbler. I have brass that has both .060" and .080" flash holes. The .060" stuff is typically precision brass (.22PPC, 6MM BR, etc.), but I scarfed up a ton of Speer .357 SIG brass and they have the .060" flash holes. One has to be a little more careful with those because the decapping pins are thinner and more fragile.
I saw a new decapping system online in one of the forums and thought, what the heck--I will give it a try. It has a "follower" that auto guides the brass into the mouth of the die to prevent the aforementioned malady from occurring. It came in today and I plan to use it in the next few days and will report back on how it works.
A little .357 SIG bling:
The FW Arms (https://fwarms.com/shop/reloading/f-w-arms-auto-center-decapper/) decapper: