Lee Loader

As I was accumulating my reloading equipment I got my hand primer first. I wanted to try it out and had 40 rounds primed and then realized the new brass had not been sized or flared. I put it into a little box and forgot about it. I discovered it yesterday. My question is.... can I flare this brass and load it for a revolver or will it cause problems/be dangerous?

Try seating a bullet in the case by hand. You should see pretty quickly if cases need sizing. Put a case in the cylinder. If it fits, flare and load a round. Try it in the cylinder again. Worse that can happen is you have to go back and size the lot and pull the bullet out of the loaded round. BTW I deprime live primers with a single stage press. Just don't jerk the handle. Alternatively you can remove the decapping pin in your sizer and size brass.

Thanks!

Take the depriming pin out of the sizing die and size them. Then flare the case mouth whenever you want.

I've done both of the above depending on the situation.

I'm in the "pull the decapping stem and resize" camp. I would want to know the condition of the case (proper size/neck tension) and it's really no big deal, and a positive step for a new reloader. While you could just resize carefully punching out primers, you'd have to reprime them. Priming 40 cases may be fun, more experience for you so either way is OK...

These days I tend to take a batch of one caliber, wipe off any loose debris, then use a TC FL die to decap and size simultaneously. If I somehow found myself in thOP’s situation, I would do as others have advised, remove the decapping stem from my FL die and run them through. No harm, no foul, and the primers won’t care. From there on, I’m back in my normal routine of bell, charge, insert bullet, seat, and crimp (roll or taper). Easy peasy!

Froggie

Anyway, don't fret about a minor mistake. You caught the faux pas. I reloaded my first 38 Special in 1969, and over the years I have primed unsized brass and even charged cases that had no primer (OOPS!!). But the important thing is not perfection, but establishing consistent safery measure from the start (double check everything (components and methods)...

Go slow. Double check everything. Most important, have fun...

y'all just made me realize .... I don't even need the de-capping pins in my sizing dies. I de-prime everything with a Lee Universal de-priming die before soaking and then running through the little antique (1983) ultrasonic cleaner.

jd