Doing a run of my-cast 200 Grain SWC bullets in .44 S&W Special, I converted my Dillon 550b to this caliber. Initially, about every third primer would not get in little cup -- this, I noted after very few rounds. I stopped, and took all apart, cleaning and polishing both the primer slide piece as well as black plate underneath it. The problem persisted -- but, I wanted to load, so I installed the slide I had the small primer cup in -- swapping in the large one -- and, I had it fixed. WHY the "bum" slide will not always be pulled all the way out, still puzzles me -- I had Googled the problem, and tried pretty much all suggested fixes. I ended up thinking, perhaps, that particular slide has a curse on it .
BUT -- the "meat" of this post, is somehow, when doing my quality control of all loaded rounds (I did 383 at that point) -- I noted one was just about perfect -- except the primer (a CCI 300) was upside down. After a wee bit of thought, I donned "ears" and safety glasses, putting round in a kinetic bullet puller and whapping it on concrete floor to just about remove the bullet. I put the round, then, in a Wilson case-length gage, using a pair of pliers, wobbling to gently remove the bullet. I dumped the powder back in hopper, and... gently put round in a Redding single stage (Boss) press, with an RCBS universal decapper die in it. Verrrrry slowly I came down, and managed to pop out the primer with no detonation! .
How the primer got upside down, beats me; it's been said that God smiles on old men and fools.... which is moot. In either case -- I thought I'd share...
(lucky) geo