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221FB Flash Hole Weirdness

martini

So I'm deburring flash holes on some once fired 221 FB brass for my custom Martini and something doesn't feel right with the deburr tool. I don't work as an engineer since I retired but I don't think that flash hole is located where it needs to be. 122 pieces of brass and this was the only one that was off center.

I remember testing some Vietnam era military 223 that had off center flash holes and having to toss 60-70 cases with off center flash holes because accuracy certainly deteriorated in my custom AR. However, this one is much worse than I recall those being.221FB Off Center Flash Hole.JPG
 
martini said:
I remember testing some Vietnam era military 223 that had off center flash holes
Click to expand...
Try some recent production by GFL (Fiocchi) in 204 Ruger. Just as bad. And on top of that, the shoulder is so far back that even after firing, the primer is hanging half way out of the case and the length is still at least 0.008" short of bolt contact. But they shoot pretty good (not to be confused with great).
 
+1 on the Fiocchi. I also have seen hundreds of GFL 204 cases with exactly same thing, primer hole far off-center. Strangely enough, couldn’t tell the difference in group sizes when comparing with Hornady or RP brass.
 
chuckshooter said:
yes, ^^

and what kind of extractor are you using?
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My action is a rimfire and thus has a rimfire extractor. Works fine as long as I don't run hot. Are you having extractor issues? If so you can make 221 rimmed Fireball brass from Dominion 222 R (immed). dedogs
 
dedogs said:
My action is a rimfire and thus has a rimfire extractor. Works fine as long as I don't run hot. Are you having extractor issues? If so you can make 221 rimmed Fireball brass from Dominion 222 R (immed). dedogs
Click to expand...
all mine are rimmed cases, I was just curious about Martini's 221fb case and what his final cartridge is? Fireball or ? I had a bob snab extractor that I never used, finally sold it off.
 
My 221 FB was built by Jack Millar in Australia using an extractor of his own design. I don't have a picture handy but it's very nice.
 
jepp2 said:
Try some recent production by GFL (Fiocchi) in 204 Ruger. Just as bad. And on top of that, the shoulder is so far back that even after firing, the primer is hanging half way out of the case and the length is still at least 0.008" short of bolt contact. But they shoot pretty good (not to be confused with great).
Click to expand...
1raggedhole said:
+1 on the Fiocchi. I also have seen hundreds of GFL 204 cases with exactly same thing, primer hole far off-center. Strangely enough, couldn’t tell the difference in group sizes when comparing with Hornady or RP brass.
Click to expand...

GFL head stamped brass from Fiochi is exactly what I thought of when I saw the OP’s pic. I haven’t tried reloading any of it yet, but it shoots as well as any factory rounds that I’ve tried in my .223.
 
That kind of garbage right there is why I don't even consider Remington brass or reloading components. I've seen too much of that from them over the last 50 years.
 
Jack Millar built this rifle for himself but lost interest and sold to me. The extractor was of his own design. He was a Martini gunsmith in Australia since the early 1950's. He said the extractor was similar to Bob Snapps but with his improvements. I've never had a Snapps extractor so I can't comment. It works pretty well. Given that my prairie dog shooting these day is largely longer distance, I haven't shot it in a number of years. However, I have a possibility of a ground squirrel shoot this year so I'm trying to get my shorter range Martini's (22/256, 218M Bee, 221FB, and possibly 22 KHornet) ready to go. Previously, I shot my 17 Ackley Bee but am having trouble with pressure jamming up primer right now with my standard load so I'm working mostly with my other Martini's and one M43 in 22 Khornet.
17ab bench setup.jpg
 
My own fault, I switched to CCI 400's from Winchester Small Rifle and the CCI's will not take the AA2200/20g Vmax load I worked up for the 17 AB. Most of my brass is primed with CCI and I work on and off trying to find how how much I have to go down in powder. After I use the two bricks of CCI-400's I have I'll never buy another CCI-400 primer.
 
I had to switch all my martinis to the thicker cup cci450's and back the loads down.
in my 20ackleybee's, I'm using 1680. 16.3/ 16.9 and a fire form load of 15.3 for the third. in my vartargs I use 2200. at one time I was at 20.8, but now 20.3, 20.0 and 19.7. all 32gr vmax, all cci450 primers.
also all firing pins are at .061 thous. I have also found a small base die helped with most of the hard extraction. kinda like the benchrest guys and the clickers. anyway they are both fun and challenging. good luck
 
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