Heavy Duty Universal Depriming Die

[JEBar]

does anyone have any experience using an RCBS Heavy Duty Universal Depriming Die ===> https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1011420955/ .... these dies do not resize, they simply remove the primer .... back in the mid to late 60's I bought a LEE PRECISION 90685 Reloading Hand Press ====> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000NOQIFO/re ... UTF8&psc=1 .... its not been heavily used and I can see it finally coming in handy as part of our portable loading station for depriming cases while seated at a campsite ....

[BigAl52]

I have one Jim and have for years. I used it alot when shooting BPCR. I would decap the 45-100 brass and drop it into a bucket of solution we used to clean the brass after firing it with black powder. It work great in a lee hand press.

[JEBar]

info appreciated .... 45-70 would be the largest caliber case I anticipate using it with .... don't really anticipate doing a great many of them but do anticipate heavy use with 44 Mags .... its rated for use from 27 - 45 caliber so I'll be pushing the upper end of its range .... figured it should work well with a Lee Hand Press, confirmation appreciate

[Cofisher]

Ditto Al. I use the Lee Hand press with a Lee universal decapper die. Handy as can be. Punch primers while doing anything. Fortunately, not a high risk operation. Don’t know about RCBS. Let us know how you do.

[JEBar]

Don’t know about RCBS. Let us know how you do.

I'm sure both companies' dies are very much alike .... I bought RCBS simply because (other than Lee's crimp dies) they are the only brand of dies I've ever bought

[clovishound]

Why deprime without resizing at the same time? I have one of the Lee hand presses. It got me started in reloading, and might be handy for doing some experimental reloading at a range, but would never use it in place of my mounted press at home. If you use a deprime only die, you will have to resize it before moving on to the next operation. Why not just do both at once with dies you already have on hand, on a press that is easier to use?

OK, I can understand some folks depriming, and resizing with one while watching TV, or perhaps their favorite cat videos on youtube. That does make a certain amount of sense. Full disclosure, I have a turret press, so I have to pull the handle 4 times to complete a round, so anything done to the cartridge, besides cleaning, doesn't really save me any time on the press. However, even with a single stage press, depriming without resizing will result in a case that requires the same amount of work on the press.

The deprime/resizing dies have always worked fine for me. The only exception has been when trying to punch out a particularly solidly crimped primer. This has only been an issue with 5.56 brass. That stuff is so plentiful, I would just toss the ones that won't deprime with the normal dies and use the stuff that hasn't been crimped. I use Lee dies, so the depriming rod will slip before bending or breaking in almost all situations.

[leverjc]

I have a Lee Hand Press that I use all the time. I have a progressive that I seldom use. For me it is just easier when I am working up loads.

[clovishound]

Yes, setup for a progressive would make using the hand press for small batches a no brainer.

My turret press allows me to make caliber changes in seconds.

[JEBar]

Why deprime without resizing at the same time?

keeping in mind that I will be using the Universal Depriming die in connection with using our portable reloading station while we are traveling .... simply depriming requires much less physical effort than resizing .... the less physical effort is the key for me .... I will use mine while sitting around and not have to put much work into it

[brettitt41]

I de-prime then clean and or tumble then resize and tumble again. I have a single stage press set up just for de-priming. Don't want the primer debris getting on my clean cases and into my sizing dies. Makes a difference in my long range loads. My pistol loads get tumbled then into the progressive for everything. De-primed, resized, primed, filled, topped and down the chute ready to go.

[JEBar]

a few pictures of our RCBS Universal Depriming Die mounted in a Lee Hand Press ... while adjusting it, I used it to deprime 4 44 Mag cases .... it works and works well

[JEBar]

just got through depriming and cleaning the primer pockets of a bucket of 44 Mags .... once I got the Lee Hand Press and RCBS Universal Depriming Die adjusted, the process went smoothly .... as a tip for anyone thinking about using a Lee Hand Press for depriming, it works much better with Hornady shell holders than it does with RCBS shell holders .... Hornady puts a larger diameter hole in theirs .... that comes in handy with dumping old primers collected in the piston of the Lee Press

[Grunt67]

I use a Lee Universal De-primer. I've had some tough ones, but never broke or bent a pin yet. Lee claims it to be the toughest one around, but then, so does everyone else. They're also cheaper somewhat than others. FWIW.

[brettitt41]

I use a Lee Universal De-primer. I've had some tough ones, but never broke or bent a pin yet. Lee claims it to be the toughest one around, but then, so does everyone else. They're also cheaper somewhat than others. FWIW.

I broke my first Lee Universal De-primer pin a couple of weeks ago. A buddy has been saving up his .308 brass for me and gave me about a 1000 to use. Some were NATO spec with crimped primers but most were commercial and decapped easily. So I was just well into the zone of place pull replace when I had a stoppage. Hmm maybe just a little out of place adjusted the case and tried again. Nope no good. Looked down into the case and it was berdan primed. Dang thats all I need. Chunked the case and started back up got into some NATO spec cases and they were noticeably harder to decap but doable with some effort. Then it happened another berdan primed case snuck in and I was thinking crimped case and gave it some more effort and plink there it went. Put my spare in and went through the rest of the cases and tossed all of that head stamp. Still haven't finished decapping the box he gave me.

[clovishound]

I bought a spare decapping pin for my Lee dies a couple years ago. Haven't used it for anything other than a handy disassembly tool to push small pins out when cleaning my guns. Works great to remove the firing pin on a 1911.

Couple years ago I started having a problem with primers not coming completely out of the pocket. Readjusted the pin, still no joy. Disassembled the die and found a .22 lr case was still in one of the cases I had deprimed and the pin had gone right down into the .22 and speared the head. The .22 was stuck fast on the end of the pin, with the end of the pin sticking out of the base of the .22 case which kept it from bottoming out. It was stuck so hard I had to chuck up in my lathe and cut it off the pin. Pin was just fine.

[Travlin]

I always use the carbide sizing die that knocks out the primers at the same time.