Decapping hirtenburger brass?

[signal5]

I have about 500 rounds of spent HSM match ammo. It has HP stamped brass. I have found that it is hirtenburger brass. This brass is very difficult to decap. The flash hole is very small and seems to bee too small for the decap ping pin. Does anybody have any better ways to decap this brass? Is it even worth it? Should I just throw all this brass out?

 

[thefirm13]

You can send it to me.

 

[rjacobs]

Lee and I think RCBS both have small de-capping pins specially designed for brass with small flash holes.

 

[lightman]

I would deprime a few with a decapping assembly for a case using small primers. If you don't have a universal decapping die, this is a good excuse to buy one. Then I would enlarge the flash hole using a flash hole deburring tool. Maybe even with the correct size drill bit. Then I would prep a few cases and decide if the rest of them are worth it. With the current shortages, I would not toss them unless they proved to be problematic.

 

[signal5]

I have the RCBS decamping die but even that pin is too big. Is there a smaller pin I can replace it with?

 

[signal5]

I am still wondering what to do with all this brass, I would like to figure out how to decap it so I can use it.

 

[alpine44]

I have about 500 rounds of spent HSM match ammo. It has HP stamped brass. I have found that it is hirtenburger brass. This brass is very difficult to decap. The flash hole is very small and seems to bee too small for the decap ping pin. Does anybody have any better ways to decap this brass? Is it even worth it? Should I just throw all this brass out?

The brass is of great quality and worth keeping. You have several options to deal with the PITA flash holes:

- hydraulically decap (like Berdan cases) and then enlarge the flash holes
- grind a decapping pin down and hope it does not break.
- order a long drill to enlarge the flash holes while the old primers is still in place (then decap as usual)
- give up and send the brass to me ;-) either as donation or to trade for LC

 

[signal5]

Ok so I figured out that I could decap it by using a 1/16 punch and I opened up the flash hole with a 5/64 drill bit. I'm gonna load up a few of these and see how they work. Decapping it this way is a pain but I am gonna try to figure out a way to turn down a decapping pin in my decapping die.

 

[rduckwor]

Mine decapped fine with a Lee F/L sizing die.

Be careful, some HP brass is Berdan Primed.

RMD

 

[blackblue]

Lee Universal Depriming Decapping Die