Lee Loader

I had some spare time on Sunday, so I decided to sort and decap my collection of mixed brass from this years competitions.

Usually I sort by caliber first, and then go to my mancave and decap on my rapid decapper (shown somewhere else in this forum) before wet tumbling.

But this time I decided to do that with my Harvey deprimer in the living room, so I could talk with my girlfriend while decapping.

I was busy the whole morning, but didn't actually pay attention to the amount of cases I handled.

This is what I counted (by weight) afterwards:
.44-40: 2200
.38spl: 800
.45ACP: 600

Now my hand is still sore...

that is a whole lot of brass to deprime in one session.

And, I know for a fact that my wife would really be ticked if she caught me talking to my girlfriend that long.


jd

I ran some 380 , 223 and 45-70 over the last week or so .

mr surveyor wrote:that is a whole lot of brass to deprime in one session.

Yes, it was. Won't do that again... my usual process with pre-sorting and decapping on the press is way faster and less uncomfortable.

mr surveyor wrote:my wife would really be ticked if she caught me talking to my girlfriend that long

What is better, having a wife or having a girlfriend?

The Frenchman: Having a Girlfriend is better, all the romance, small secrets and such...
The American: Having a wife is better, it's a stable, secure partnership.
The German: Having both is best, so each of them thinks you are out meeting with the other, while you can go to your workshop and get something done without distraction.

I did about 100 of 5.56 I had sorted.

Did a box of 358 .
60 223 run through the new Savage .

A couple days ago I deprimed 140, 45 ACP cases for a test I'm gonna do. Fifty Blazer cases for small primers, 50 for Blazer large primed, 20 Federal small primed and 20 Federal large primed...

My Lee sizing die from '85 still working quite well!

be sure and post the test results. From what I've heard (read), there isn't really a measurable difference between the large and small. I pick up so few of the small primer rounds, and so far have enough standard large primer rounds anyway, I don't even keep the smalls. I do check them (using a large primer cleaning tool) to sort them out. It's not much fun trying to stick a square plug into a round hole


jd

I de-capped, wet washed and dried 120 .357 Magnum, 40 .45 ACP and 60 9MM. I say "wet washed' because I do them by hand in small tubs and don't have a tumbler. The drying is done in an oven at 150 F on disposable cookie sheets that I reuse. Later I will resize them and sort by head stamp.

I have both the Harvey and the FA hand held deprimers. I like both of them but the FA is (IMO) easier to use and control the exiting primer's flight path. The Harvey is a simpler design and less likely to deteriorate over time but I have as yet broken the FA tool. I also found after trial and error how to contain the spent primers with the Harvey. They both like to irritate my finger's arthritis.

Depriming off press keeps my presses cleaner and allows me to enjoy a movie in my recliner. The latter being the honest reason why I do it off press.