Odd question, removing a broken primer bit

[Mr_Sheesh]

Of all things, while depriming a .45ACP round the other day, I had the flat face of the primer detach from the cylinder so now I have a hull that's going to be a little hard to use.

Other than tossing the brass, anyone have a good way to remove those? (I don't think that's ever happened to me in quite a few thousands of deprimings, mainly curious on what people'd do if they really wanted to save that round.)

It's not like a steering wheel puller will fit :P

[JBinMN]

I had that happen last week or so, but I do not remember the caliber. I just tossed the case into the recycling pile. I thought about reaming it with my Lyman case tool, but then I said to myself, "Ya have enough brass that ya won't miss this one.", and into the container it went.

"If" i was to try it, that Lyman "prep" tool to ream the pocket would likely be the way I would try. But, as I said... I have enough brass to not even waste the time, except maybe as an experiment & to say i tried it once.
LOL
:)

G'luck! if ya try, but I would just toss it.
;)

[Mr_Sheesh]

Yep. Only reason I thought of it was that I'm rebuilding from scratch, easy solution's to buy 2500 more 45ACP hulls :) LOL

[Hickory]

I'm sure I know what you talking about but I don't know what a primer bit is.

[Mr_Sheesh]

Oh, sorry. I mean part of the primer as in a piece of it. The cylindrical part, not the anvil or the flat (struck) rearmost surface.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I don't know that anything you can do is worth doing, in order to wait for the next one. But it can happen with some kind of rare and precious brass too. I would get a pair of small round-nose or snipe-nosed pliers - the cheapest, so that they can be filed. Form a sort of tiny nail-head shape on the end of each point, and it will either go under the far edge of the tubular piece of primer, or dig into it. Either should be enough to pull it out.

[daboone]

Was this brass tarnished? I've seen this occur with some WWII/Korea vintage M1 Carbine brass. The primers were corrosion "welded" causing this to happen. Those cases were tossrd. With that much corrosion I figure the case isn't safe to reload and the effort require wasn't worth it anyway. From that batch I lost about 100 out of 1800 cases because of corroded primers. FYI no M1 Carbine brass was ever issued by US arsenals with corrosive primers.

[William Yanda]

I experienced this depriming some 9 mm brass which I purchased as "wet tumbled". I am watching, expecting that any solution will be satisfaction based rather than value based.

[jdfoxinc]

I have used the proper sized drill bit to thin the ring than pried it out with a dental tool. The old style RCBS primer pocket reamer would remove the ring with some patience.

[HeavyMetal]

A primer pocket reamer is the way to go but be careful as you get started in the pocket!

I have removed a broken primer once in awhile just for grins but honestly I'd just chuck the case these days unless it was some super rare case for a really nice European rifle of some type.

HM

[ReloaderFred]

This usually happens when the cases have gotten wet at some point. It's especially noticeable with PMC primed cases, with the white primer residue, after they've gotten wet.

I once lost over a 100 .38 Super brass that had been cleaned in citric acid and left for an unknown period of time. I had purchased the brass from someone, and they had owned it for a couple of years, after buying it from someone else. I've also seen it in PMC brass that has laid out in the weather, and older military brass.

It happens, and I just recycle the brass.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[JBinMN]

This is the tool I mentioned in my post if anyone is not aware of them. They are good tools, IMO.
206298

The reamers would do the job I bet. They work well with opening primer pockets. IIRC, one fella recently posted about someone using one to open the primer pocket of some cartridges from small to large primer.

LIke I said though. My boogered cartridge went into the recycle bin. If I was for some reason, to have a need to do more than one, I reckon I would mount the reamer in a drill chuck to speed up the process. I guess it depends on what one thinks is a good idea at the time. Everyone is different. Right?
:)

[DerekP Houston]

Hmm I have that happen every so often with my 45acp cases as well, I've just been tossing them in the recycle bin but maybe I'll try that tool.

[Bmi48219]

I had the same problem with Korean War era .30 carbine LC brass. Out of 500, I had 70 primers corroded solid in the primer pocket. Guy I purchased them from made good on my loss. I fiddled with them a while trying to remove the primer cup cylinder. Wound up giving them to a guy that was looking for .30 brass.
Unless it's a rare or hard to find cartridge I'd scrap it & move on.

[ioon44]

I call them ringers when the primer sides are left, I have used some small screwdrivers to pry out the broken primers.

I know it is not worth the effort but I do it just to see if I can.

[6bg6ga]

Might try an easy out to remove the portion that is left. My experience is sometimes primers like Tula go into the primer pocket very hard and removal can result in a piece of primer left in the pocket. My cases have never been wet or moist.

[Mr_Sheesh]

Yep it's more a "Oh now THAT is ANNOYING" thing, and stubborn me hates tossing otherwise "good" brass in the brass recycle bucket. I will amuse myself with it at some point, it's (IIRC) LC brass, didn't see too much corrosion on there but water could be involved. Mainly was just curious if that mode of failure was more common now (I had a hiatus for a while where I didn't reload for a while, and some things've changed - PID controllers are lots cheaper now, vs. not used at all in lead smelting, was wondering if primer metals had changed to maybe fail that way more often.) Being curious as heck is a mixed blessing but can result in good things when you're reloading, so long as you are cautious and methodical. The VLD reamer might do it; Used to have a fluted cutter that might have done it with the Dremel, but think it's gone.

[Bmi48219]

If I ever run into that issue again with a large quantity of brass AND realize the problem early on I would try soaking the bases in penetrating oil for a week first.

I had the same problem with Korean War era .30 carbine LC brass. Out of 500, I had 70 primers corroded solid in the primer pocket. Guy I purchased them from made good on my loss. I fiddled with them a while trying to remove the primer cup cylinder. Wound up giving them to a guy that was looking for .30 brass.
Unless it's a rare or hard to find cartridge I'd scrap it & move on.

[vzerone]

It's caused by corrosion. Either the corner or the primer cup corroded and weakened it or the sides of the cup wall corroded to the primer pocket. Not worth it to mess with them. If you score or in another way ruin the pocket it is very possible you'll get a gas leak. You all know what a gas leak can do especially if it is high pressure. Better safe then sorry, but you may try this:
Find a fine thread machine screw bottoming tap that is just a little bit larger then the inside diameter of the cup ring left in the primer pocket and tap into it. Then you can either try pulling it out with the tap or better yet punching it out with a decaping rod from inside the case.

[6bg6ga]

It's caused by corrosion. Either the corner or the primer cup corroded and weakened it or the sides of the cup wall corroded to the primer pocket. Not worth it to mess with them. If you score or in another way ruin the pocket it is very possible you'll get a gas leak. You all know what a gas leak can do especially if it is high pressure. Better safe then sorry, but you may try this:
Find a fine thread machine screw bottoming tap that is just a little bit larger then the inside diameter of the cup ring left in the primer pocket and tap into it. Then you can either try pulling it out with the tap or better yet punching it out with a decaping rod from inside the case.

No, its not all the time caused by corrosion. Like I mentioned mine were never wet and were in a closed container and not exposed to anything.

[jetinteriorguy]

I had the same thing happen a while ago on some .38 brass. This was on my progressive press and caused two primers to pop while seating. Now I just deprime everything off the progressive and inspect for both bad primer removal and any crimped pockets in both .38 and 9mm. My wife was not impressed with things exploding while I'm loading.

[renegade99]

I was given a lot of Lake City brass that someone had drilled a 1/8 inch hole into the primer for some stupid reason. I used a fine thread tap that fit the ID of the primer cup after opening the small hole to the same as the ID of the remaining potion of the primer. I ran the tap in and then just used a universal decap die to push out the remains, worked good. Amazing what a person will do when somebody gives you 10K of LC once fired brass and you'r cheap.

[David2011]

I was going to suggest putting a tap in the primer 'bit' as well but using it as a puller. Renegade's answer sounds better.

[lightman]

I've spent the whole day today and part of yesterday washing, resizing and tumbling 9mm brass. I have had this happen a few times and just scrap the case. Even though 9mm is very plentiful I hate to junk an otherwise good case. This is mostly range brass and I expect some of it had gotten wet at some time.

[Thin Man]

I had this exact same experience about a month ago. The flat rear face of the primer, also the anvil. came out of the primer pocket. The side body of the primer that holds the primer inside the pocket remained inside the pocket. My first reaction was to consider that the trouble in getting the trash out of the pocket would not justify the effort in working to remove the obstruction. I tossed the case into the trash bucket.

In a few minutes I realized I had an opportunity to learn how to get this job completed. The case with the debris in the primer pocket was a common caliber and I didn't really need that single case. Looking ahead, I considered the day may come when I would have the same challenge with a rare or expensive case and no experience in correcting the problem. OK, let's see what will or will not work to clean out that primer pocket.

I tried driving a tiny screw driver between the wall of the pocket and the debris ring, but the driver was too fragile to hold up without bending. Next I tried various pointed tools, even sewing needles, but they were too blunt to get between the old primer ring and the the wall. Then I found a box of tiny wire brads (nails) I had bought at a hobby shop. These are marked #18 x 3/4 inch (diameter x length) THIS was the answer! While not really strong, these wire brads have a head for driving them between the pocket and ring, the strength to hold up to move to the bottom of the pocket without bending, and the strength to allow me to "lever" them to create a bit of "air" between the pocket and ring. I got one seated, then a second one directly across from the first. Gave both nails a slight "wiggle" toward and away from each other, and could then remove these nails by hand. After that I got a pointed probe into one of the cavities thus formed a lifted the debris our of the pocket. Bingo. When the debris was out of the primer pocket I have a close inspection of the pocket. There were only very slight indications that something had made contact with the sides of the pocket, but not enough to suggest and damage to the strength of the pocket. I hope this process works out for you.

[Geezer in NH]

I just flatten the case with a pair of pliers and toss in brass scrap pail. I or no one else will have to deal with that one again.

9's 38's 357's 40's or 45's are to cheap to worry about.