Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles do you guys uniform your flash holes in brass before reloading?

Me neither.

My experience exactly.

Same here but the only reason I do that is it gives more accurate measurements of case neck concentricity. The Sinclair tool used for that has a pin that goes through the flash hole to keep the case centered and those burrs seem to make the needle indicator jump around more than it should. At least that unexplained jumping stops after deburring the flash holes.

To me it depends on what brass you may use. This is from my experience doing different kinds of brass. Lapua and nosler, I wouldn't bother. I have found a few rough ones in my 6.5 Grendel Hornady brass. If you are using Winchester and Remington brass I definitely would. I was amazed how rough the winchester flash holes were.

I was referring to debuting only.

I have both the flash hole tool and a primer pocket tool and use both, do they make much of a difference in how the brass shoots who knows. Neither removes that much brass, on some cases seems like nothing at all. Making them all uniform is probably not a bad thing, doesn't take that long to do and is a one time job.

discard them my way, off centered flash holes have no effect on accuracy at all, I tested this and couldnt prove either way.

Or clean brass until it is really bad and I need to trim.

Same

if you don't have a benchrest rifle....why bother?

There was an article years ago in “Handloader” or “Rifle” and the author tried all the tricks and and he found found that flash hole uniforming gave the best bang for the buck.

All that aside, sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. It depends on the capabilities of the individual rifle and its intended use.

Before I share my experience, I will admit that anything that gives you more confidence in your ammo will probably help you shoot better. Doubts always seem to effect your ability to relax and shoot your best groups. All the effort helps you understand the physics of your ammo better, and it's just plain fun.

I have had brass that the holes were visibly not uniform and I felt compelled to dress them up. I've seen brass with the knockout still hinged on the side of the hole. Or off centered or burred flash holes. I'm sure they would still go bang, but I cant tolerate that much visible error. I still pull out the tools for those reasons.

Today, I open a bag of brass, inspect every piece for anything obvious, and move on.

However, I did spend a few years feeding this accuracy fetish. I used to spend several hours a week at the range, Trying every little trick I heard of to shrink group size.

As for running the tool through every piece of brass that looks fine ... I never could produce a measurable advantage to uniforming the flash holes.

I have uniformed primer pockets. Although I think it can help produce a more uniform seating depth, I can't say I have seen smaller group sizes as a result.

Even neck turning had really been of debatable improvement. I've weighed brass and bullets, checked for run-out, measured case wall thickness, and confirmed case volume with water weight, etc. etc.

My only real comparative test effort has been to load 20 rounds with every detail paid, and another as they came out of the bag. Altering shot groups, cold and warm barrels ... I have found, one batch is as likely to produce the smallest group as the other. I've tried this with a number of different cartridges, brands of brass, and rifles.

For true bench rest shooters, maybe all this effort consistently makes their half inch group a quarter inch group. But for field use, I can't find a consistent advantage. A small gust of wind is more apt to have an effect than the hours spent on all those details.

I feel fully confident that I have never missed what I was aiming at, where it was the ammo's fault. No, I haven't stopped and said "Boy, I sure wish I would have uniformed those flash holes". The error has been all of my own.

But isn't it fun trying?

I use Lapua, Norma, Nosler, RWS when I can get it, Winchester if I can't then Remington. I find Federal in most calibers is too soft. I am going to try some Sig Sauer in my .243, I hear its made nice too. We'll see.

This is what I do

I prefer buying Lapua brass as it has all the prep already completed. When it isn't available, I'll run through the resizing, trimming, neck turning and flash hole duburring once for the batch then after that I'll just keep the cases trimmed and anneal the necks once in a while.

Me too.

Lapua brass in my 20-222 purty much ready to go..........