reloading dies for the 6mmBR QUESTION

[acemisser]

I have heard that the decaping pin in the dies is too big
for the flash hole in the 6br brass..Is this true?

If so where does one get the smaller pins to fit the dies.
I guess the standard pin will work,but from what I have
read it will break in time..Thanks John

[memilanuk]

Lapua 6mm BR brass comes with PPC-sized flash holes - they measure 0.058-0.059".

Regular brass, like .223, .308, .22-250, etc. comes with 0.080" flash holes.

IIRC 'regular' decapping pins measure something like 0.060" - I don't recall what size PPC decapping pins are.

Obviously, sticking a 0.060" pin in a 0.058" hole isn't going to work very well ;)

My PPC flash-hole deburring tool / reamer (from Russ Haydon's Shooters Supply, great folks) opens them up just a fuzz, to ~0.062".

While technically a 'regular' pin should now fit (and usually does), the least little bit of carbon buildup in there will bind things up. On Redding dies like their Type 'S' F/L bushing die (highly recommended), it will pull the pin right out of its little collet holder in the decapping stem as it does not have a shoulder on it like other brands do.

Extra decapping pins - including 0.057" 'undersized' ones - are available in packs of 10 from places like Midway USA.

HTH,

Monte

[Skunce]

My Redding BR dies came with the correct small decapping pin for Lapua brass.

[memilanuk]

Honestly, I don't recall if mine did or not. Might have, and when I replaced it at some point I probably inadvertently used a 'regular' sized one by mistake. Thats probably the one thing I don't like about Redding dies - their decapping pins have no retaining shouder on them, so they pull right out of the collet on the mandrel if they stick in the flash hole at all. Normally not an issue, but every once in a while I'll be loading along and find out the hard way that cases I thought were already decapped aren't, because somewhere along the line the pin got stuck in one case and all the subsequent cases didn't get the primers punched out. Less of an issue when loading single stage, vs. on a progressive.

Wilson neck dies can be had with either a regular or PPC sized decapping pin rod as well, as can Forster Precision Bump dies.