gamestalker
member
A friend of my Son who is rather new to reloading, is blowing primers one after the other, this is in two very nice AR builds, one is .223, the other is .308, and the charges he's having problems with should be just fine. We're talking about mid table if not just slightly below charges, various powders also. He isn't seated into or even close to the lands either. I reviewed his entire process from start to finish, including brass prep. As I said, all the powder charges are conservative, primers are CCI, Win brass, some Win. brass. One rifle and loads for it blowing primers is one thing, but two of them experiencing the same exact problem, well it's got to be an obvious reloading problem.
He's not entirely new to reloading, but he is by no stretch an experienced long timer. He has read and absorbed an enormous amount of information, which is possibly where the problem is originating, too much, too soon, if you know what I mean. He was rather reluctant, but agreed to let me observe him reloading a batch from start to finish, and for this operation he used new Win brass.
The first thing he did was uniform the pockets, no real concern there, though I couldn't personally see the need. It didn't appear he was taking off much if any material from the walls of the pocket, more so just uniforming the depth. But then he picked up a drill and began increasing the size of the flash holes, like really enlarged, something he just recently began doing, stating he picked up the tip from another reloading buddy, also rather new to the hobby. His reasoning here, was that by making the flash hole nice and big, powder charges would ignite more consistently, thus delivering more consistent velocities and claims that all the pros do it. When I tried to address this step, he got very defensive and said he knew what he was doing, so I walked away. His diagnosis is that CCI primers are the problem, that they have thin cups.
The rest of his process was actually very well done, he has good tools, spends time making sure they are concentric, I was actually impressed with how he performs the rest of the process, he certainly seems to have more in depth technological knowledge than I do, just not the flash hole thing.
Anyway, I've never altered flash holes, I've only fix those with half moon incomplete holes, minor defects in other words, nothing beyond that though.
So my question, wouldn't an excessively large flash hole increase the amount of pressure on the primer, thus blowing them out, or causing the seal between the cup & pocket to fail? I know there is a formula that applies to the physics involved here, so I think this is where he is in error. If I had to guess, I would say they are 20% - 30% larger after he performs this process.
BTW, this poor fellow has two really nice AR's with bolt faces that are a complete mess, and he has only been altering flash holes in this manner for a short time.
GS
He's not entirely new to reloading, but he is by no stretch an experienced long timer. He has read and absorbed an enormous amount of information, which is possibly where the problem is originating, too much, too soon, if you know what I mean. He was rather reluctant, but agreed to let me observe him reloading a batch from start to finish, and for this operation he used new Win brass.
The first thing he did was uniform the pockets, no real concern there, though I couldn't personally see the need. It didn't appear he was taking off much if any material from the walls of the pocket, more so just uniforming the depth. But then he picked up a drill and began increasing the size of the flash holes, like really enlarged, something he just recently began doing, stating he picked up the tip from another reloading buddy, also rather new to the hobby. His reasoning here, was that by making the flash hole nice and big, powder charges would ignite more consistently, thus delivering more consistent velocities and claims that all the pros do it. When I tried to address this step, he got very defensive and said he knew what he was doing, so I walked away. His diagnosis is that CCI primers are the problem, that they have thin cups.
The rest of his process was actually very well done, he has good tools, spends time making sure they are concentric, I was actually impressed with how he performs the rest of the process, he certainly seems to have more in depth technological knowledge than I do, just not the flash hole thing.
Anyway, I've never altered flash holes, I've only fix those with half moon incomplete holes, minor defects in other words, nothing beyond that though.
So my question, wouldn't an excessively large flash hole increase the amount of pressure on the primer, thus blowing them out, or causing the seal between the cup & pocket to fail? I know there is a formula that applies to the physics involved here, so I think this is where he is in error. If I had to guess, I would say they are 20% - 30% larger after he performs this process.
BTW, this poor fellow has two really nice AR's with bolt faces that are a complete mess, and he has only been altering flash holes in this manner for a short time.
GS
