308 palma brass flash hole question

[BradY]

Ive been told to open up the flash hole to normal size to allow the decapping pin to run through these cases (assuming this is 80 thou?)

Is there any merit in this or is it better polishing down the decapping pin to suit. Looking at shooting varget and using CCI450 primers with 155gr bullets.

 

[watercam]

Personally, I did a little of both. Made sure the pin in my Redding die was polished and opened up the flash hole to a #51 drill bit (about .070"?). Even then once in a while the pin would be pulled out of the die when decapping fired cases so at the suggestion on Michael Tuck I used Blue Lok-Tite to hold the pin in place. No problems and still have terrific ES/SD with the Palma brass.
Mike T.

 

[KevinThomas]

BradY,

Absolutely not! The cases were made with a small flash hole as an aid to accuracy, and it seems to be working very well so far. Very positive feedback from the Palma team members who promoted the idea to begin with. I've used them muyself in competition and have been very pleased with them. If decapping is a problem, there's a better solution; You need to get some of the small decapping pins (1.5mm or about .057") and that will take care of the problem completely. We use the small (1.5mm) flash hole in a very limited number of cases designed around top accuracy (220 Russian, 6mm BR, 6.5x47, etc.), so these pins are readily available from almost all the reloading die makers.

 

[Steve Blair]

Kevin is absolutely right about this. Small decapping pins are available from your die vendor and will work fine in the standard rod. I took the spare pin from a Redding Type S 6BR die and replaced the pin in my Redding .308 sizing die. It works equally well for large and small flash holes. I am loading a full charge of Reloder 17 behind Berger 230 Hybrids and have no ignition problems, single-digit SD and excellent accuracy.

The only caveat is; if decapping crimped military brass, then you should use a dedicated decapping tool.

 

[KevinThomas]

Steve,

The dedicated decap die is always good advice, and I've always had great results with Lee's. No way to say how many 5.56 and 7.62 I've done with that combo.

As for the small (1.5mm) flash holes, Redding makes a dedicated decap die using the small pins. Need to specify when ordering, as they make a standard 2mm die as well. Don't believe Lee does a small flash hole version of their die, but I haven't checked to be certain.

 

[BradY]

Thanks Kevin

I have polished the decapping in on my collet die to suit. FWIW they are 0.062" so not much polishing required.

Have loaded the rounds and will get to try them at 800 metres this weekend.