556 flash hole specs?

[markm]

When I was modifying some Lapua 6.5cm brass with the small flash hole, I used a nice brand new TiN drill bit to open the holes up from .060 to .065 or so. The flash holes did get cut nice and clean. But I was just doing that to accommodate the decap pins in almost all my dies.

But I really have no faith in primer pocket uniforming, flash hole deburring, etc. for the level we shoot.

[HKGuns]

I wonder if Sinister will reveal his source?

I checked all my reloading manuals prior to breaking out the Pin gauges and none of them had the flash hole documented.

[triggerjerk]

Allegedly smaller flash holes or primers (is/was it Lapua that made small rifle primer 308 cases?) Allowed more even progress of the powder burn. Allegedly, someone even installed a tube in the flash hole so the primer flame ignited the powder towards the front of the case for more efficient progress of powder burn/pressure curve. Maybe adopted from the artillery shell guys? Can't remember. Precision Shooting out of print for some time. Maybe all this does help some guys shoot .09in at 100 or sub 2in at 1000....

Oh, yeah: and now I don't feel so bad about my googliefie not revealing the requested specs above! Thanks yet again....

[anachronism]

When I was modifying some Lapua 6.5cm brass with the small flash hole, I used a nice brand new TiN drill bit to open the holes up from .060 to .065 or so. The flash holes did get cut nice and clean. But I was just doing that to accommodate the decap pins in almost all my dies.

But I really have no faith in primer pocket uniforming, flash hole deburring, etc. for the level we shoot.

For some reason I got it in my head that we may see greater consistency with deburred flash holes because some powders could potentially have issues from being inconsistently segregated by the burrs as they're different in all cases. Or maybe I should avoid spicy foods late in the day? I have a couple of different uniformers/deburrers because I load a fair amount of 357 SIG and also have a lot of Speer brass with the small flash holes that have trapped my decapping pins, sometimes pulling them out of the decapping stems. For 223/5.56, deburring is just something I do to make myself feel better.

I think my match shooting days are behind me now, so maybe I won't uniform primer pockets anymore. I never was a big fan.

[markm]

Consistency is always good in shooting/ammo. It's just a matter of picking your battles. If I shot lower volume, I could make room for more steps in the process. I just try to get away with the least amount of ass ache possible.

[triggerjerk]

I have to admit that loading 50 or 100 rounds at a time for a bolt gun was an intriguing challenge, but loading lots of 500 or 1,000 for the AR is a tedious pain in the ass (still on a 1974 model single stage rcbs...). Problem is I load bottle and can ammo like I'm loading it for a thousand yard shot at a high value target. Good thing I don't have a job (retired) and the kids are grown....

[anachronism]

Consistency is always good in shooting/ammo. It's just a matter of picking your battles. If I shot lower volume, I could make room for more steps in the process. I just try to get away with the least amount of ass ache possible.

No sense putting forth the effort if there isn't at least a little reward for it. Personally, I'm not at a proficiency level where I'd know the difference.

[markm]

I have to admit that loading 50 or 100 rounds at a time for a bolt gun was an intriguing challenge, but loading lots of 500 or 1,000 for the AR is a tedious pain in the ass (still on a 1974 model single stage rcbs...). Problem is I load bottle and can ammo like I'm loading it for a thousand yard shot at a high value target. Good thing I don't have a job (retired) and the kids are grown....

I've made attempts in the past to load the BEST little batch of .223 ammo I could... using the chargemaster, and Lapua brass, etc. Then the ammo didn't shoot a bit better than my blow an go stuff. I quit right there before I got sucked into driving myself nuts.

No sense putting forth the effort if there isn't at least a little reward for it. Personally, I'm not at a proficiency level where I'd know the difference.

Same here.

[triggerjerk]

What really has me messed up is the different components (due to availability ) I've been working with for 3 different rifles. A thou best for this one, a thou best for that one, but haven't worked towards a single across the board load. I do have a couple of loads pretty good in both of 2 rifles. Oh wait, even more loads fine for bottle blasting, and the Hanson barrel is just gonna be 2-3 minutes, regardless.....