Deburring Flash Hole

D

Dawg_gone

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Just curious about experienced reloaders thoughts on deburring the flash hole on new brass. I was working up some new brass that I had rec'd and deburred the flash hole but I have always wondered just how important this step was. I can't imagine that factory loads get deburred and some of them shoot very well. Just wondering about it.
 
I personally feel that its one of the more important practices to use. Especially since the tool only costs a few bucks and its time well spent knowing its done.
 
I always Debur the Flash hole on New Brass, only need to be done one time but time well spent. Deburring the Flash hole leaves no chance but a good Flash when the Primer goes off.
 
Originally Posted By: Dawg_goneJust curious about experienced reloaders thoughts on deburring the flash hole on new brass. I was working up some new brass that I had rec'd and deburred the flash hole but I have always wondered just how important this step was. I can't imagine that factory loads get deburred and some of them shoot very well. Just wondering about it.

I do it.
It is one of the variables in the accuracy equation, so I do it, along with a whole lot more to new brass.
 
I do it. I de-burr the flash holes and uniform the primer pockets on all new brass. I use the Sinclair tool to de-burr and that tool indexes off of the case mouth so the brass should be trimmed to a uniform length before hand. It takes a while to prep new brass and its kind of a pain but I think its worth it. I use Remington brass and some individual pieces can have rather large burrs inside.
 
"some factory ammo shoots very well". That's a pretty loose standard. Those of us who reload for accuracy would be hard pressed (impossible) to find factory ammo that equals or beats our handloads.

If you're willing to spend $12 and a few minutes performing a very simple task with the possability of shrinking your 5-shot groups by 0.1" - 0.2" or reducing fliers then you should definately do it.

If you're satisfied with a 1" three-shot group, then you wouldn't notice the difference by deburring the flash hole.
 
I feel that flash hole beburing is one of the primary steps for precission reloading.Even Norma brass with the flash holes drilled rather than punched will,on occasion ,have a burr inside.This Sinclair,flash hole deburer/hole uniformer is easy to use,because it goes in from the primer pocket,and imediately tells you if the flash hole is off center.Something you may not pick up with beburing tools that go in the case mouth.

 
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I was loading for about 35+ yrs befor I ever deburred my first flash hole. Then I made my own tool to do it with a drill bit and a 1" dowel. If it really helps or not I could not tell you but I do feel better about it. Kinda like I feel I'm doing what I'm suppose to do even if it doesn't help. It can't hurt!

There are a good number of things you can do to tweek extra accuracy out of a load but the gains usually come in very small numbers and usually are not worth the trouble unless you have the rifle that can utilize the tweeks. And then if you don't have the shooting skills it's still for nothing.
 
I always deburr all of mine and probably always will.. Just got into that habbit and it is one more thing to make everything uniform..
 
I've done it, never noticed any difference so I quit doing it. It rates 1 step behind weight sorting for me, I never got great pay off for either, if I was bench rest shooting I might do it but I load ammo that is used for hunting and a 1" group is good enough, cutting another .05" off my group isn't going to cause me to hit a critter that I was about to miss. If it makes you feel good do it but I prefer to hunt instead of prepping brass so I skip those 2 steps now.
 
Turbo and Don seem to agree; and I've reloaded for years and never deburred a primer hole, and I get good results.

I do stick a toothpick through every primer hole to make sure I've not got a piece of tumbler media stuck in the hole.

But if your shooting a case that's >50% full of powder, and you can slide a toothpick through the hole, I doubt the primer fire is going to miss the powder.

Would be interesting to see a true test of the issue.
 
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I don't know if a "test" will ever be performed. But about every serious competition shooter or long range/precision shooter recognizes the benefits of it. That says something.
 
Originally Posted By: DiRTY DOGI don't know if a "test" will ever be performed. But about every serious competition shooter or long range/precision shooter recognizes the benefits of it. That says something.
There is some evidence that it may help slightly at longer range(500 yards and beyond). There is no testing I know of that suggests that it makes a measurable difference at less than 500 yards.

Jack
 
i would be curious if the primers themselves are consistantly the same as in; flame length (strength) and the flame being centered in the primer. if the primers arent perfect, then maybe the pocket work is a waste of time.
i guess prepping the primer pocket would remove 1 variable.
i have only been reloading a couple of years now and its mainly for hunting and something to do. im happy if i can get quarter sized groups at 100-200 yards.
 
The reason I asked the question is that I am fairly new to reloading and while I have been deburring I had always had questions about this step and a few others which I don't do such as neck turning. I am primarily a hunter but I do enjoy punching paper and getting small groups and working up different loads to see if I can improve. I am definitly not a benchrest shooter nor in their league as far as skills are concerned, either shooting or reloading.

"some factory ammo shoots very well". That's a pretty loose standard. Those of us who reload for accuracy would be hard pressed (impossible) to find factory ammo that equals or beats our handloads.

I have shot some great groups with Black Hills blue box reloads that I probably couldn't best with my reloads. .223 50 gr. vmax out of my Bushy varminter special measured at .275. Now I can't do that all the time and not even most of the time but I don't think that I can better that with my handloads but that is part of the challenge and never ending quest.
 
One of my proudest feats was a ruger 223 I bought at a pawn shop for 200 bucks. The rifle looked really nice and nearly unfired. I brought it home, threw a scope on it, and tried sighting it in. I couldn't get 3 shots to stay on a piece of notebook paper at 100! No wonder it was cheap. To make a long story short, the front ruger ring was machined too big letting the scope move around a tiny bit. I shimmed it with a business card and groups shrunk to around two inches. The rest of the winter I had fun shrinking the groups even more. Getting the groups to fall from around 1.25 inches to consistently less than a half required neck turning, primer pocket uniforming, and flash hole reaming. In my super accurate long range loads I always do it. In my big game hunting loads I usually don't as I seldom get to save the brass.
 
I deburr all my flash holes. I use an RCBS case prep center and it is just one step that takes maybe 10 seconds to do as you uniform the primer pocket. It is a one time thing. It was a pain in azz before the case prep center though.

PaPa 260
 
Flash hole deburing is one of those things that does help.
I notice that when deburing some cases seem fine then other cases have flash holes that are rough as a cob.
Lets put it this way,,, It wont do any Harm to deburr flash holes so why not do it.
When shooting new brass It might be helpful to set aside any brass that shoots a flier and keep it separate from those that don't. I have thought of doing that my self but always forget when at the range.

DAB
 
Quote:I have shot some great groups with Black Hills blue box reloads that I probably couldn't best with my reloads. I would suggest the opposite, that there isn't a factory load out there that can't be beat with handloads. Perhaps your particular reloading/shooting skills are not up to par yet or your load developement process is flawed. And perhaps that one small group you shot (3-shots?) with factory ammlo was a lucky one. With a good rifle and good ammo you should be able to get repeatable results. Handloads can be customized to your particular rifle, ensuring THE most accurate load possible. With the limited selection available for factory ammo, you may get lucky and find a load your rifle really likes but surely it can be improved upon.
 
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