Off Center Flash Hole

[Furncliff]

I have 700 M1 carbine cases that have flash holes that look like this:



Trash'em? Or what?...

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks
Tom

 

[Jesse Heywood]

They appear to have worked before. If you have a Lee decapper you should be able to move the hole over.

 

[Rule3]

They appear to have worked before. If you have a Lee decapper you should be able to move the hole over.

Hey that's my line.

Don't look at it and you will not know the difference

 

[ReloaderFred]

When I get a batch of relatively expensive brass, due to not being mainstream, that has off center flash holes, I just loosen the nut holding the decapping pin on my RCBS dies and let the pin self align with the holes. It also works with Lyman dies.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[Furncliff]

Thanks for the replies. I was skeptical that an ordinary de-capping pin would be able to go so far off center.

I have not bought .30 Carbine dies yet, should I get one brand over another? All the dies I have now (.380 38/357 9mm and 45acp) are all Hornady.

 

[hovercat]

Die brands, IMO, are like car brands. Many have a favorite, but they all get you to work.
I prefer RCBS.

 

[Jesse Heywood]

Buy the brand that fit your price range. I learned on Lee, now have RCBS. My last was Hornady, custom for 22 TCM. I love their alignment sleeve, helps a lot on the tiny bullets.

I do highly recommend the Lee decapper. I broke one stem, but it was on a berdan case. Works great on small or off-center holes.

 

[macgrumpy]

Take a closer look, it's probably Chinese made brass with berdan primers.

http://www.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=1733

 

[readyeddy]

That's one big primer pocket! Either that or that case is mighty small!

 

[Wildfire]

I agree. Berdan. I have seen flash holes off center before. But, not even close to that.
The photo is poor and does not show it well, but sure looks like a second hole in there to me.
Loose de-capping pins, expect to break it sooner or later. Never seen one self align that far off.

 

[jaguarxk120]

With a flash hole that far off center and that small, it is a Berdan primed case.

Take one case and with a small punch or awl pry the primer out. You will find the Berdan anvil formed into the bottom of the primer pocket.

Best thing is to put those case's in the scrap bucket and turn in to the scrap metals dealer.

 

[Grumulkin]

I don't see a second flash hole.

I would and have discarded cases with off center flash holes.

 

[Wildfire]

Regardless if it is berdan or not, it is clearly not much good for loading the way it is. Scrap prices will come up.

 

[joem1945]

Best place for it =scrap bucket.

 

[Reloadron]

The picture could have been much better. The angle is deceiving making it real difficult to really tell how far off center the flash hole actually is. I really do not think they are berdan primed and the reasoning is I don't see the second hole but also with berdan priming there would be a divot between the holes inside the case or a dimple between the holes on the outside.
You have some 700 of these things? I would attempt to decap maybe 10 or so and see how it goes. If you can decap and prime 10 rounds I would load them and shoot them and see what you get? I sure would not load 700 to see what happens. Try loading around 10 cases and see what you get.

Ron

 

[Dudedog]

Don't know the headstamp on these but I picked up some GFL .223 brass where the holes were way off center. PITA. Since I had more .223 I just tossed it.
(apparently a known issue with GFL brass)

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=748343

Some of them were not real bad some were terrible, almost to the edge of the primer pocket. (Bent Lee Universal decap pin, which by the way Lee replaced even though I told them what happened and it was my fault)

.30 carbine is not as easy to come by however.
Maybe sort them out in to batches if possible, not to bad, bad, and terrible.
Maybe the not to bads will deprime easy.