Solveing an old 310 problem

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I could never understand why Lyman made the 310 depriming pin so small. They seem to break or bend with the slightest resistance. I often use the 310 tool to deprime even if I don't load with it. I came across some pins with a head that resembled the 310 pin but they were slightly larger. I decided to make them work anyway. I put the pin in a drill motor which was held in my vice. I turned it at high speed and held a sharping stone to the head until it would fit in the pin holder of the 310. That solved one problem but the pin was still too large in diameter. Then the light bulb turned on. Since the flash hole in cartridge cases was already much larger than the Lyman pin,why not drill out the pin holder. I looked thru my collection of 310 depriming dies and found one that would accept the pin as it was. I deprimed a 45-70 case fist. Worked like a champ. My idea may have occurred to others but I had never read or heard about it. I have attached a picture of the pins I have written about. The pin on the left is the Lyman. The second one is the pin I modified. The others are as I found them. I don't know from where.

[Green Frog]

Sounds like you have found a great solution to a dilemma I've never experienced... whenever I've broken a Lyman decapping pin it has come as a result of bending it from careless use, followed by using it until it breaks anyway. I try to always keep a goodly supply of spare pins (that I find cheaply from time to time and keep in stock until needed) and changing them out is a very quick and easy process.

I'll keep your suggestion on hand, and if I start having trouble finding replacement pins or experience an unusual level of breakage, I'll have a new strategy to try. I would like to know a source for your improved pins so I can file it away until needed.

Regards,
Froggie

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Froggie, I cannot remember where I got those pins. I am sure it was something I took apart, maybe one of my wife's broken paper shredders. I just don't know.

[Green Frog]

It may well be that your added success with those pins is more a function of them being made from a tougher steel than the original. I'm not sure what Lyman uses, but I think it must have been engineered to break before something else (more important or difficult to replace) breaks.

Now that we're talking about it, I remember that I saw the Lyman display at a meeting of the NRA about 35-40 years ago demonstrating punching holes in copper pennies with their then-latest O-frame press and universal decapping die. I don't know what they used for those pins! I'd be more than satisfied if I could just count on them decapping Mil Spec crimped primers. :wink:

Froggie

[too many things]

Lyman used a small size. best way to stop the bend/break is to set the punch just deep enough to go to head of case.
take a deprimed case and run it up to stop and then back the punch off so the pin is even with the head

[skeettx]

Dillion decapping pins are what they look like

https://www.dillonprecision.com/spare-pistol-decapping-pins-package-of-10_8_4_24493.html

[3006guns]

Lyman used a small size. best way to stop the bend/break is to set the punch just deep enough to go to head of case.
take a deprimed case and run it up to stop and then back the punch off so the pin is even with the head

^^ THIS. Take a look at how the 310 functions. It's basically like any other tool with a hinge point, and that hinge point makes the tool describe an arc as it is opened and closed. Okay, now place a straight pin in that arc and try to keep it straight. You can't do it. As the tool is operated, the pin is bent back and forth with every primer punched out and even the toughest steel will finally surrender to such treatment. The solution is too extend the pin (via die adjustment) so that it barely pushes out the old primer. This reduces the amount of bending and the pins last much longer.

Also, don't drop the case in the die and close the handles........PLACE the case in the die until you feel the pin enter the flash hole, THEN close the handles. It's a good tool, but it's no speed demon.

I probably went through ten decapping pins before I realized what was happening!

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I don't know the diameter of the Dillon decapping pins, never having seen one but they appear to be much larger than the Lyman. I will check them out. I learned fifty years ago to adjust the 310 pin the just clear the bottom of the case. I will let you know if one of my new pins breaks.

[44magLeo]

The way the handles open and close has little to do with the de-capping pin. With a case in the tool the case fits closely in the hole When you close the handle to de-cap the case gets pushed straight over the pin.
How can it bend the pin?
Leo

[Walks]

Never busted a 310 decapping pin in almost 60yrs.

Busted a lot of RCBS, Redding, old Hornady/Pacific & Lyman in standard press mounted dies.

My dies are always adjusted down to decap level and no further.
Broke just about all those decapping pins on foreign made brass, eastern bloc or asian.

[uscra112]

The small pin makes it easier to assure that it is in the flash hole before you close the handles. Especially true if the flash holes haven't been deburred.

I once did what the O.P. did. It slowed down the decapping operation noticeably.

The business about the arc of the handle motion is hooey. The total travel of the handles (and hence the case) from contact to "primer loose" is what...1/8 inch?