Hornady brass without flash holes
- Thread starter tangolima
- Start date
Marco Califo
New member
Ooohhh,
Those need Magnum Primers!
Those need Magnum Primers!
stagpanther
New member
Armor-piercing primers are what you need.
Brass has never been their strong suit IMO.
Brass has never been their strong suit IMO.
Looks like Hornady is going to do a recall on that batch. Dangerous.Brand new 50 pieces of .243 win brass. None has flash holes. How does it work? Did I just got the wrong batch that sneaked pass QC?
No new thing under the sun, said the wise man. But this is new to me.
-TL
Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
Marco Califo
New member
Does Hornady really make their own brass? Or, is it contracted out to Armscor or some other cheap vendor. I don't think Starline made that brass.
It's contracted, I believe. For example, Nosler Custom Competition brass is made by Norma. But who Hornady uses, I don't know.
I've had a few of those show up in a box of bulk Winchester 223 brass before.
If you have a lathe or know someone who does, I recommend you bore and turn a drill guide out of some scrap drill rod to keep your drill from walking. This paper is an interesting read and may change your mind about what size to drill them. It's a master's thesis done in cooperation with Fiocchi USA, which supplied brass with undrilled primer pockets to the author. In brief, he found centering the holes does affect precision and that holes drilled 3 mm (0.118 inches) in diameter cut variation in muzzle velocity and peak pressure by up to 28% as compared to the common 2 mm (0.079 inches) flash hole. This flies in the face of the small flash hole fans who have shown improvements using the littler 1.5 mm (0.059 inches) or 1.6 mm (0.063 inches) flash holes.
If you are feeling adventurous, drill ten of each out at 1.5 mm and 2.0 mm, and 3.0 mm and compare the velocity SDs you get using your components. I don't fully trust that any hard rule will necessarily behave well with all component combinations. If the 3.0 mm works best for you, you can always drill smaller ones out later.
I've had a few of those show up in a box of bulk Winchester 223 brass before.
If you have a lathe or know someone who does, I recommend you bore and turn a drill guide out of some scrap drill rod to keep your drill from walking. This paper is an interesting read and may change your mind about what size to drill them. It's a master's thesis done in cooperation with Fiocchi USA, which supplied brass with undrilled primer pockets to the author. In brief, he found centering the holes does affect precision and that holes drilled 3 mm (0.118 inches) in diameter cut variation in muzzle velocity and peak pressure by up to 28% as compared to the common 2 mm (0.079 inches) flash hole. This flies in the face of the small flash hole fans who have shown improvements using the littler 1.5 mm (0.059 inches) or 1.6 mm (0.063 inches) flash holes.
If you are feeling adventurous, drill ten of each out at 1.5 mm and 2.0 mm, and 3.0 mm and compare the velocity SDs you get using your components. I don't fully trust that any hard rule will necessarily behave well with all component combinations. If the 3.0 mm works best for you, you can always drill smaller ones out later.
Hornady replied. They are sending replacement.
They didn't ask to return the blind brass. I will do some tinkering with them. Tried drilling one with 2mm bit. Just eyeballed it and center punched. No guarantee on centering. Bigger diameter should help with improving variation.
-TL
Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
They didn't ask to return the blind brass. I will do some tinkering with them. Tried drilling one with 2mm bit. Just eyeballed it and center punched. No guarantee on centering. Bigger diameter should help with improving variation.
-TL
Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
A couple of tricks:
Even with the center punch, if you have some thin brass or steel shim stock, you can cut a strip to wrap around the punch to center it in the primer pockets. Even a strip of paper can work for a short time like this since nothing is spinning inside of it.
Once punched, use a really small drill, like 1/32", to drill a pilot hole. A toolmaker pointed out to me that the skinny drill will flex, so it tends to bend to stay centered in the punch mark while it drills the pilot hole, whereas a wider, more rigid bit can hog the punch mark sideways a little.
Even with the center punch, if you have some thin brass or steel shim stock, you can cut a strip to wrap around the punch to center it in the primer pockets. Even a strip of paper can work for a short time like this since nothing is spinning inside of it.
Once punched, use a really small drill, like 1/32", to drill a pilot hole. A toolmaker pointed out to me that the skinny drill will flex, so it tends to bend to stay centered in the punch mark while it drills the pilot hole, whereas a wider, more rigid bit can hog the punch mark sideways a little.
Smoke & Recoil
New member
Use a PILOT drill bit...no flexing and you can use a .243 resizing die as a holder clamped in a vise, lathe or drill press vise.
Smoke & Recoil
New member
Use a PILOT drill bit to start a dimple...same as you would use a center punch, then switch to a drill bit of your choosing.