I recently inherited a large box of random brass. After sorting it out I went to load up some .45 ACP.

About 10 rounds in I had a stoppage. Felt like the primer pin was getting blocked or it was flipping a primer.

Stop, remove all 3 cases, empty them and toss them back in bucket, clear the machine and start over.
Make it about 5 more cases in and, same thing!

Hmm....

Repeat again ....then, boink. It stops again!

Grrrrrrrrrrrr.... there must be a kernel of powder somewhere in the carrier I can't clear.

Take the machine down, all the way, blast with compressed air, clean my work station, yada yada yada, check some brass. Nothing.

5 more rounds and doink! Ahhhhhhh!

What am I missing? Brass looks good, machine is spotless....tear it all apart again and start moving stuff by hand, blah blah... nothing.

What am I missing?

I start going through the brass again.....I noticed a case that has an odd head stamp...it also looks like the primer hole was staked or crimped. And, it was.

I failed to catch this during inspection. There were 7 or 8 of these in the batch I was loading and they kept getting tossed back into the batch when I was clearing the machine!

Got all these removed from the small batch I was loading and had no more stoppages. I think these are military cases or something.

Is there a tool I can use to remove the stake or ?... now I gotta go through about 12 lbs. of brass and see how many of these things are lurking in there.

Really had me pulling my hair out for a while! I knew there was .50 and .223 staked primer pockets, but .45? Hmm...who knew.

stovepipe wrote:

Is there a tool I can use to remove the stake or ?... now I gotta go through about 12 lbs. of brass and see how many of these things are lurking in there.

Yeah, a few

the best one ($$$$) Dillon Primer Pocket swage tool.
The cheap one, is a primer crimp reamer - I use one made by Lyman.

Copy that.

Gonna see how many of these are in the box first, make it worth my while.

I've got 12 or more pounds of brass to sift through. Hopefully there aint many of these in there. Pop's told me he'd ream them if nothing else. He's nutty like that about reloading.

I use an RCBS swager to remove crimps. In the past, I used a Lee cutter, but that was too slow. All the best...
Gil

Yep- Pop's just told me that what he has.

Sure was a hair puller for a while....till I figured out I kept tossing the bad brass back in with the good ones....as I'm tearing apart and inspecting my shell plate, carrier etc.

I said a few bad words.

stovey, what make of case trimmer do you have ? Lyman makes a kit for their trimmer to use it as a pocket reamer.

Lyman Univ. case trimmer + power adapter.

www.cabelas.com/cabela...hasJS=true

Did not know they had a kit for that...I'll check into it, thanks!

www.lymanproducts.com/...sories.php

4th down on page !!!

I have the RCBS case prep with the primer pocket reamers. works alomost too good. you can over do it and get loose pockets.

I have a heap of .223 brass that is ex military so is crimped at the primer. I found I was bending primers till I started to use my lee deburing tool on both ends of the case. I now dont have any problems. just stick the outside end in the cordless drill and give a wee buzz. works for me may work for you too.

Thanks guys.

Went through it all last night, aint reloading chores ther perfect thing for a rainy day? Got about two boxes only out of a big batch of brass to ream. Not so bad.

Do they crimp the primers to keep them from coming loose or to prevent reloading by the enemy or? Never seen a headstamp like that.

I think its so they cant rattle out when used in full autos but I guess someone will correct me if thats not right.

That makes sense. Never thought of that.