Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Deburring flash hole --- Necessary?

We all load "sub 1/2 moa" loads. Shouldn't even be brought up as a criteria. Just the funny thing is you all say it, but no one can prove it.. ha ha.. However, at least checking the flash hole should be a something a good handloader does.

Never had a critter stand there and laugh, "HaHa, you didn't deburr your flash hole!".

Why would anybody use "sub par brass" if they intend shooting big game past 500 yards?

i agree with what Mule Deer does , my bench rifles i always check new lapua brass , i do also check my long range hunting new brass i use on big game, not all of this brass is Lapua because Lapua does not always make what cartridge brass i need like 257 Weatherby brass so then i have to check and deal with each piece of brass and it can be very tedious and boring as heck. but doing this type of inspection and working with each brass case you decided to keep you can have some very good brass to use to hunt with confidence for that one shot. here is a short story about a buck antelope i shot ,i knew the distances of this big alfalfa field in Wyoming i crawled up this small hill and when i got to the top of this grassy hill , i could see at least 75 -100 antelope and one very nice antelope buck with big cutters standing at 625 - 650 yards so with my rifle laying down with my short Harris bi-pod i got ready for the shot with my rework silver plated Federal brass that was weighed and neck turned too. this rifle had a custom Lilja barrel with machining done by Jerry Siminson including the 257 Weatherby mag chambering , i did all the stock bedding work and trigger set at 1 1/2 lb. with a 6 1/2- 20 x50 leupold this Remington 700 shot very fine . i knew i only would get one decent shot , i had been practicing out to 700 yards . so i took the shot with this rifle this bullet was a 100 gr. Nosler Partition velocity was 4,000 + check with my conograph too. buck went down so fast and all the rest ran away very fast. this buck had 7 inch cutters and was 14 1/4 long best i ever have taken . so its possible to inspect regular brand brass and end up with some good brass but Lapua brass is still the very best made.

Vital if you just so happen to be OCD and A-R...

I have read that it is more important to deburr & uniform flash holes if you are using ball powder... So i now do it if ball powder will be used... Dunno if it makes a difference or not... But i at least check all flash holes for problems...

Yep! But I am OCD and A-R enough to have compared the results with the same big game loads, with and without deburring the flash holes, and never could find any difference, even in super-accurate rifles, whether factory or custom. The reason for that? I handload more than most hunters, and am very happy to save bench-time by NOT doing stuff that doesn't make any difference....

Agree on Lapua - also Nosler and Peterson

RP and Win definitely get deburred.

20 cases can be done in 10 minutes and it only needs to be done one time.

There ya go MD spouting logic and common sense. Out of the hundreds of millions factory big game ammo that’s produced and sold have the flash holes deburred? I am sure that Hornadys American Whitetail ammo which all laud as superbly accurate have to have each and every flash hole hand inspected and deburred.

🤣

Complete waste of time.

I do them for the hell of it, probably makes no difference at all.

When theres nothing else available thats why.
I started shooting 6.5x300wsm over 15 years ago and had to prep the crap out of Win. 300wsm brass to get rid of unexpected flyers.
Now that I shoot ADG 300wsm in it not a problem.
This is why my original statement was depending on brass and intended purpose.

Total waste of time. Rio7

It is a thing that bench rest shooters do and I believe it serves a purpose for that game. For anything else , no . If it were really needed it would be done at the factory. I do it on all of my bottle neck cartridges with the exception of Lapua, Sako, and Norma which are manufactured with no burr . I don't really need to do it but I have the tool and it is no big deal time or labor wise .

Peace of mind is why I do it too. I usually load 100 cartridges at a time, so it doesn't take long to debur those case and once done, it doesn't ever need to be done again. I don't know that doing this improves accuracy, but it doesn't seem to hurt accuracy, and it is part of my process, like trimming all cases to the same length. Being retired for almost 1/3 of my life has provided the time to over-do some things that a person with less free time might choose not to do.

When I get a new batch if brass, whether brand new or once fired I generally trim to the "trim to" length, chamfer the necks, ream the flash holes and uniform the primer pockets.The last two are a one time type of task so why not? Does it do any good? Damned if I know. I like to think it does, so I do it. It does eliminate some of the variables.
Paul B.

Yep, Johnny's right on again. I DID experiment with several uber-accurate varmint rifles and deburred flash holes made no difference at all ... at least, within statistical bounds.

Sometimes we work ourselves silly trying to achieve better results. Often it works, but almost as often, it doesn't.

Blessings to all,

Steve

PS. To those who care, I'm still fighting the bad stuff and apparently not winning. COVID-19 vaccine killed my auto-immune system and it's been the fourteen months from Hell. Honestly not sure I'm going to make it. S.

You said uber accurate varment rifles, ive got dozen or so varment rifles also that I dont deburr flasholes either.
But when you start in with LR hunting and BR rifles little things matter so there is a difference in rifles and intended purpose.

I do them, as I usually do them when the wife is watching something on tv I don’t like. Honestly as BSA mentioned good brass doesn’t need it.

I only do it for a couple of my most accurate rifles with small capacity cases such as a 22 Hornet and a 221 Fireball.

If you’re gonna do it you have to make sure you’ve got a good reference for the cutter. Mine is a Lyman and it has a cone shaped, length stop. With it, I do it right after trimming to uniform length. That way I have the cone bearing on a 90 degree edge on the inside of the case mouth as a reference.

I uniform one case to set the stop and then mount it the tool on my case prep machine along with in/out chamfer cutters and go to it. It only takes a couple of seconds and I’m not loading for a ground squirrel or PD shoot.

I don’t think that it makes enough difference but it makes me think I’ve eliminated all variables on the little ones

. Example of one…I did a test with one of my 308 40-XBs. I uniformed the flash holes of 5, uniformed the primer pocket of 5, uniformed both flash holes and primer pockets on 5 and five I loaded with no modification.

I marked each batch but for whatever reason, it was a while before I fired them so it was sorta like a “blind test”. The winning group (200 yds) was one with the “stock” brass. 😳 oh well….