Question about decapping brass

[nightman89]

I started decapping some Nato brass today, and in the course of punching primers (which felt like they had pretty heavy crimps) I pierced a few primers and was unable to poke them out. So after gently filing the point of my decapping rod, I tried to figure out how to remove the pierced primers. For the life of me I could not determine how to get them out, and eventually just scrapped the 3 pieces of brass.

So my question is, have any of the veteran reloaders come across a way to remove a pierced primer when the decapping die won't?

 

[DMP]

I can't remember having that problem specifically, but when I encountered other problems with surplus brass I just scrapped them. Surplus brass is , well surplus.

 

[lightman]

Scrapping it is probably the best idea. You might get the remains of the primer out with a Berdan depriming tool although they are a little expensive. I've seen others that have ground on an Allen wrench making a tool to pry the remains out. I just scrap the few that do this. This happens to range brass sometimes when it gets wet and lays around for a while.

 

[nightman89]

Thanks for the replies. I figured it was easiest to scrap them and move on, but just in case someone had experienced this issue and figured out a quick solution I figured I would ask.

 

[Bullspotter]

I have had this happen with 556. Also have had the top of the primer pop off and leave the outer ring in the pocket, Always find those when priming, Spent a fair amount of time trying to get them out.... Then realized I could buy 1000 range pickup brass for 50 or so bucks..... it all got scrapped!

 

[nightman89]

I got this brass for 45 shipped per 500, so I figured losing 3 of them wasn't going to be a big deal. Thanks for the advice!