About those flash holes.

[ar10]

I've been preping a lot of brass lately, thousands of cases, and found some interesting problems. The majority of the brass I picked up was from the LE range and the other was from the range I work at. I kept them them separate so the thing I found came from LE range.
I just completed 5500 .45ACP cases and noticed I was coming across some Winchester cases that had flash holes almost 3 times the size of the others. I found 65 Winchester cases with the same wide flash holes. At first I thought it was an issue with Winchester, and later today I found out it wasn't. (actually it was mentioned on this forum earlier today). When I talked with the range officer this afternoon I found out they were doing some demo/training and had some of flash holes drilled out.

The second thing I found was with the PMC once fired brass. I had just finished running 10,000 9mm, 14,000 40SW and 5500 .45ACP's. Winchester was running about 10:1 with PMC behind Remington, CCI, and Blazer brass. While depriming the PMC's I was finding about every 30~50 cases the flash holes were off center. On 7 of them the depriming pin would get hung. I'm not sure if this affects igniting the powder, (I'm guessing it would), but I did find the problem across all the calibers I ran. All the other brand names were fine.

 

[bullseye308]

Demand goes up, production goes up, QC goes out the window. That's how they meet demand and production schedules.

 

[Eyesac]

Wow that's some concerning results.

 

[fguffey]

I use a flash hole micrometer/gage, the flash hole on NT Federal cases is larger than the gage, the last time this subject went around I said I purchased 1,000 30/06 LC Match unfired cases with flash holes off center, I have not had a problem, if I did I would leave them at the range.

F. Guffey

 

[ar10]

I don't have a gauge, wish I did sometimes. I guess what concerned me most was after all the work depriming thousands of cases is going back and having to check every one of them again. When I saw the huge flash holes in the .45ACP's I had finished 2/3 of them and had to stop to check the ones I thought were done, that's when I found the others. At first I thought I found defective Winchester cases and then I read the thread on THR where someone mentioned practice rounds. Glad I found them now.

 

[critter]

The large flash holes are for some of the newer 'clean' ammo rounds and can be used just as the others with no worry.

 

[moooose102]

The large flash holes are for some of the newer 'clean' ammo rounds and can be used just as the others with no worry.

i thought you had to back down the powder charge on those large holed cases. am i wrong?

 

[ar10]

The large flash holes are for some of the newer 'clean' ammo rounds and can be used just as the others with no worry.

The ones I found were not clean. I've seen the newer "clean" cases along with just about every other variation of head stamps. I even took pictures of some of them, if you want I would be more than happy to send them to you. I don't have the ability to post pictures yet or I would.
Things like enlarged or offset flash holes bother me. I'm not a ballistics expert but common sense tells me it does have an effect when firing a bullet. I don't know if it's detrimental or not but I'm not willing to take that chance or until someone can tell me it's not.

 

[fguffey]

ar10, 'clean' in your quote refers to primers without lead, in the old days mercury was used, that is where 'confusion' began, mercury was in the old, old days, mercury has an infinity to other metals, once fired in a brass case, the case was scrap before it was removed from the chamber, then came the corrosive primer, military 30/06 cases used the corrosive primer up to the early 50's, then switched to primers with lead, as to what we pick-up at the range?, at one time consideration was given to the number of times a tire could be recapped, the ideal was the investment was in the casing and the user got his moneys worth by capping, I will say some cases are expensive when purchased but in the long term and depending on the number of times the case can be reloaded, the initial expense is off set by the number of times the case is fired, case life depends on care and avoiding heavy loads.

I can say that, the manufacturer of the cases say you are on your own after the first firing. I acquired 22,000 cases by the pound, I sorted and prepped, I kept nothing that was not made in the USA, PMC, etc. went in to the split, collapsed and crushed case bucket.



I had a friend that was a commercial reloader, the small primer NT 45 ACP cases was a head ache, at one time he did not separate 45 cases then it got to the point he would not purchase cases unless they were separated, I have a few 38 Special cases that use large primers, those never leave the house.



One drills the flash hole as a part of case prep, one drill size size for all, if after a trip to the range he finds his test loads have opened up the flash hole, he considers the load is getting hot (without other signs), he uses the number drill system, when the next number drill passes through the flash hole he knows the flash hole has opened up, and the primer pocket as well, the rest shoot until the primer pocket expands until it will not hold a primer.



F. Guffey