?? Werid Lee / RCBS hand depriming widget thing ??

[Ziptar]

My turn for a "weird tool?" post.

I saw this on eBay, looked interesting and I bid on it figuring worst case scenario If I won it, I'd have a extra Lee Auto Prime around for $20.00 shipped. No one else bid....



Its a Lee hand primer with some sort of RCBS die and linkage to deprime brass. I tried it out on with some .30-06, .308, .45 ACP, .45 Colt, .38 Special, and .357 Magnum and it works good. You drop the brass in the hole, close the cover and squeeze the lever and the primer pops out.

There is a second die that works the same way but it is machined so it fits a standard snap in shell holder instead of a Lee Auto Prime. The only thing I can figure is that it was made to use with another brand of hand primer.

Thing is I've never seen anything like them, I'd swear they were home built but they are stamped RCBS and the workmanship is very precise and clean as if they were factory made.

Any thoughts on this one??

More Pictures:

[cheese1566]

There was the same question a few weeks back.
I looked but cannot find it.
If I recall, it was exactly what you have...an old RCBS deprime tool made to go on the lee priming tool.

[downwind]

If it fits a 45-70, that would be great for depriming brass for black powder cartridge rifles while at the range!

Currently I use a Lee hand press with a universal decapping die.

Works good, but is bulky.

Buffalo Arms sold a similar unit, but doesn't seem as Heavy duty

Nice SCORE!

DOWNWIND

[boltons75]

I actually use the Harvey hand depriming tool.

Always carry, never tell.

[BCall]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=148641

This was a recent post about them. RCBS made long and short ones for the Lee priming tool and ones to fit the RCBS posi-prime tool, which uses standard shellholders. If you have the decapping pins for them, they do work fine, if a tad slow. Unfortunately, they will not fit a rim much larger than 30-06 size, so 45-70 and even 30-30 do not fit.

[Ziptar]

Thanks everybody! Mystery solved.

BCall, thanks for the link.

Looks like pin is the same for both the Posi-Prime and the Auto prime. I'll contact RCBS and ask.

Downwind, I don't have any to try but, I'd say a .45-70 isn't going to fit in them. A .45 Colt is the limit I think. Anything even slightly larger is going to get stuck.

[Doc_Stihl]

I found one in a big box of misc a little while back. Mine didn't have a decapping rod but I made one from a lee universal decapping die. What is the OAL of your decapping pin?

[Ziptar]

Doc_Stihl,
I'll measure it for you after I get home from work today.

[Ziptar]

Doc_Stihl,
I measured the pin last light, it's 4.5", 4.573" to be exact.


I had a little more time to play with it last night. The Lee primer needed attention so I cleaned it up and lubed it with some fresh grease. Works much easier now.

I also grabed an assortment of brass from range brass pickups and tried a whole bunch. It decapped pistol calibers from .32 SC up through .45 Colt and Rifle Calibers .223 up through .30-06. I tried a .300 Weatherby Magnum too big, and would only fit up to the neck.

A couple of interesting things. Both the .30-30 and .32 Winchester Special fit without getting stuck and dropped out easily but, the rim of a .30-40 Krag and 7.62x54r won't fit. The amount of rim that overlaps the opening is tiny.

Just for grins I tried it on some crimped Lake City NATO 7.62x51 and 5.56x45. It was a tad tougher then non crimped cases but, not that much though and they still popped out easily enough.

It's not the fastest way to deprime for sure but it is versatile. For the price it'll be handy to keep with the rest of the reloading tools should I ever need it.

[Hardcast416taylor]

Had one of these units back in the 70`s, I believe. Worked pretty good for was about as high tech as posssible for the time. I finally sold it to a collector on this site about a year back. RCBS quit making these little hand tools at least 10 years or more back.Robert

[W.R.Buchanan]

Zip: actually your calipers read 4.673. This is the problem with calipers that have .200 per revolution. It is easy misread the dial as you have to look at the scale before you read the dial to verify the first digit to the right of the . .

Got rid of mine 30 years ago for this exact reason, except I was being yelled at for scrapping parts that were .100 off on several dimensions. OOPS?

Randy

[Ziptar]

Well I'll be! It doesn't help not having a straight edge across the scale either I suppose.

I've only ever used them to spot check COL. I have yet to run into that (that I am aware of).


Thanks for the heads up! As usual with this forum I learned something new today.

Thanks!

[john hayslip]

This thread got me to looking in my shooting box and low and behold I have a similar one .Mine has a brass body and a steel part that swings on a pin to hold the shell in. Works just fine. I'll try to figure out how to do the pictures and if I can I'll add one.