.308 Lapua Palma cases: Is primer-pocket uniforming necessary + ....

[Campbell]

Please can you advise me re the above-mentioned.

Also, is flash-hole reaming advised on the same cases?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[McHaggis]

I ran my primer pocket uniformed into several Palma cases and removed no brass from any of them and the general consensus is that flash hole reaming is not need on these cases. Therefore I’m voting no to both.

 

[spclark]

I don’t bother with uniforming pockets anymore, but I DO de-burr the flash holes when first prepping new cases. I use the depth-stopped, self-aligning trimmer from 21st Century chucked into a battery-powered drill.

Only needs to be done once; sometimes there’s almost no swarf cut away, sometimes there’s quite a bit.

 

[Laurie]

Same as spclark, in my case flash-hole uniforming with the Sinclair hand operated models that index in the pocket. My experience is that 90% plus of Lapua cases seem to have very close tolerances on the flash-hole, but maybe two or three in a 100-ct need a little more effort and a couple of extra turns of the tool to get them to uniform size.

Some years back, I found three really undersize flash-holes in a single 'gold' carton of Lapua .223 Rem brass, this being the 2mm 0.079" dia. version of course. The (0.081") reamer had to be worked very hard indeed on this trio instead of just needing two or three turns with little effort. (Hand operation is a bonus here - it gives feedback on how much cutting is being done.) I've never found this again with Lapua cases, but it shows that even this company can produce a very occasional 'rogue' example or three, and flash-hole diameter is so important to consistent performance that this tedious but one-off job is still worth doing IMO.

 

[Trevor60]

Ok i will be the contrarian on this.

Yes. the 308 SP Lapua pockets are PPC length if you run a standard 223 pocket tool in most cases you will not contact the bottom of the pocket. If you run a ppc length tool which is longer you will have complete clean up and more consistent depth

from Sinclair
The Small Rifle and PPC/BR uniformer are the same diameter, however the difference is in the depth of the cutting surface. The PPC will cut a few thousandths deeper, on average the small rifle will cut down to .120" and the PPC/BR will cut to .122" to accommodate the specifications on the PPC flash hole.

If you want to confirm the 223 tool is short run it through a couple of cases after firing with carbon build up; I suspect you will not remove any carbon.

I have found i have more consistent primer seating depth after running the PPC primer tool which resulted in more consistent ignition and numbers...YMMV

All the best
Trevor