Norma 9mm small flash hole

ericuda

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Ok, I have been beat up a couple times on the subject so I found my bag of culled Norma brass. Was scrounged maybe 5 or 6 months ago so no idea on what Norma flavor it is.

The flash hole in a couple random win brass best I can measure is around .075. A new Lee pistol decapping pin measures around .060 at the tip to .070 so it seems tapered. I chucked it in my drill and used a dremel with a small stone to turn it down to around .050.

I decapped a few Norma and used a normal toothpick to get a guesstimate measurement and best I can get is the flash hole is around .052 which is a large difference. Toothpick goes through flash hole of the win and some new starline 44 I had laying on bench with little drag.

I know with a fancy decapper or whatever you couple push through the small pocket I would figure that would extruder some brass maybe effecting how a new primer would seat.

I'll probly decap and load them all for woods walking and use the modified pin until it breaks if it ever does. 20230225_101237.jpg
 
I picked up some Norma. RCBS offers a variety of decapping pins for all reloading needs. Headed pins are for most current production expander-decapping and decapping rods. X-small pins are designed to use with undersized flash holes, and have a diameter of . 057 inch.

Matches my RCBS dies.
 
Ok, I have been beat up a couple times on the subject so I found my bag of culled Norma brass. Was scrounged maybe 5 or 6 months ago so no idea on what Norma flavor it is.

The flash hole in a couple random win brass best I can measure is around .075. A new Lee pistol decapping pin measures around .060 at the tip to .070 so it seems tapered. I chucked it in my drill and used a dremel with a small stone to turn it down to around .050.

I decapped a few Norma and used a normal toothpick to get a guesstimate measurement and best I can get is the flash hole is around .052 which is a large difference. Toothpick goes through flash hole of the win and some new starline 44 I had laying on bench with little drag.

I know with a fancy decapper or whatever you couple push through the small pocket I would figure that would extruder some brass maybe effecting how a new primer would seat.

I'll probly decap and load them all for woods walking and use the modified pin until it breaks if it ever does.View attachment 1135957
I know the feeling—can’t count the number of times a discussion on THR has caused me to start doing one thing or stop doing something else.

In this case (pun intended) I hope you’ll report back on progress/results. If you encounter more problems than the whole effort is worth that’ll be good to know also.

I drilled out a handful of Normas I found during our last thread. Wasn’t a big problem but didn’t have 500 to do either. (Not all we’re small hole)
12895313-679C-4176-86CF-CB8C67848104.jpeg
 
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I just checked my standard Lee decapping pin at .065 tapered to .071. I’ve processed over 1000 Norma 9mm cases with no problems. But, I’ve never actually checked any flash hole diameters before or after resizing and decapping. It’s been a while but some were tough, needing a good bit of force. I wonder if I was swaging the flash holes larger?

I’m going to go slower and check the flash holes before my next brass processing session.
 
Ok, I have been beat up a couple times on the subject so I found my bag of culled Norma brass. Was scrounged maybe 5 or 6 months ago so no idea on what Norma flavor it is.

The flash hole in a couple random win brass best I can measure is around .075. A new Lee pistol decapping pin measures around .060 at the tip to .070 so it seems tapered. I chucked it in my drill and used a dremel with a small stone to turn it down to around .050.

I decapped a few Norma and used a normal toothpick to get a guesstimate measurement and best I can get is the flash hole is around .052 which is a large difference. Toothpick goes through flash hole of the win and some new starline 44 I had laying on bench with little drag.

I know with a fancy decapper or whatever you couple push through the small pocket I would figure that would extruder some brass maybe effecting how a new primer would seat.

I'll probly decap and load them all for woods walking and use the modified pin until it breaks if it ever does.View attachment 1135957
Uniforming the flash holes to the same as the rest of your stash makes everything the same, and consistency is the name of the game. Doing so will have zero impact on seating primers.
 
In this case (pun intended) I hope you’ll report back on progress/results. If you encounter more problems than the whole effort is worth that’ll be good to know also.

Yeah I had to measure and while not a calibrated toothpick it gives folks a good visual.

Will do but as long as my decapper pin doesn't break I am good. First time I encountered Norma it broke and of course I had no spares but had plenty of other Lee dies so nbd. Now I got spares.

One other thing too is that the inside of the Norma is that they are very clean without much if any powder residue.
 
Uniforming the flash holes to the same as the rest of your stash makes everything the same, and consistency is the name of the game. Doing so will have zero impact on seating primers.

Yes but if I just cranked down the die and just pushed the primer out thus enlarging the hole wouldn't that kinda extrude some brass out. I got what you are saying but I have never uniformed more or less even cleaned 9mm pockets. I try to sort by headstamp which may help having more uniformity.
 
I just checked my standard Lee decapping pin at .065 tapered to .071. I’ve processed over 1000 Norma 9mm cases with no problems. But, I’ve never actually checked any flash hole diameters before or after resizing and decapping. It’s been a while but some were tough, needing a good bit of force. I wonder if I was swaging the flash holes larger?

I’m going to go slower and check the flash holes before my next brass processing session.
I just measured mine too and it’s about the same. I use the Lee only for 9mm and have never had a pin break. And, only once or twice several years ago, have I ever had the pin “push out” of the collet.

Once I figured out how to do it slow & easy when I feel greater than normal resistance, I haven’t had a problem. But I’m not an aggressive decapper either.

I only found my 20ish Normas (some with small hole) after they were decapped so obviously I didn’t have a problem. But I also don’t know how small the small ones were. Wish I hadn’t uniformed them after all.

For fun, just also measured a Redding pin I use for 45acp only and it’s not tapered at all and is slightly larger.
 
Yes but if I just cranked down the die and just pushed the primer out thus enlarging the hole wouldn't that kinda extrude some brass out. I got what you are saying but I have never uniformed more or less even cleaned 9mm pockets. I try to sort by headstamp which may help having more uniformity.
I envisioned you drilling them out, when I say uniform I imagine a tool not brute force like swaging with the decapping pin. I should have been more clear.
 
Yes but if I just cranked down the die and just pushed the primer out thus enlarging the hole wouldn't that kinda extrude some brass out. I got what you are saying but I have never uniformed more or less even cleaned 9mm pockets. I try to sort by headstamp which may help having more uniformity.
Just to be clear, I’m deburring/uniforming the hole from INSIDE the case, not from the pocket.
 
Yes but if I just cranked down the die and just pushed the primer out thus enlarging the hole wouldn't that kinda extrude some brass out. I got what you are saying but I have never uniformed more or less even cleaned 9mm pockets. I try to sort by headstamp which may help having more uniformity.
Never tried it myself but I don’t know of a pin that could survive such pressure and enlarge a hole in a uniform way. More likely to deform something badly if the pin didn’t break.
 
After breaking Lee decapping pins on Norma brass these have become my go to pins. 3 Heat Treated decapping pin upgrade for Lee 90783 / 90292 (squirreldaddy.com) Absolutely no problems since going to them.

I have a Lee universal depriming die and a 9MM die that the Norma cases did push out a couple of times, but luckily, didn't break when I first encountered the Norma 9MM small flash hole cases.

I probably don't really need them but, I went on the web and looked for the Squirrel Daddy Lee pins and found that ordering direct from Squirrel Daddy, you get a 3 pack of their hardened pins for $11.00 shipped to your door. I ordered a pack and they are on their way to be delivered this Tuesday. Can't beat it for the price.
 
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I deprimed about a dozen Norma 9mm about a month ago and didn't have any problem. I did notice it took more effort and I went slow and easy. I just now dug them out for a look. Where the depriming pin exited the case in the primer pocket it created a burr in the primer pocket much like what you see inside the case. Not a problem, a primer pocket uniformer will remove it.
 
I guess this difference is why I sort range brass to headstamp. Besides small hole, you find stepped brass and other oddities. I figure the sorting at least gives me a bit of uniformity.
 
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