30BR, Lapua brass - Flash hole prep?

[Gollum]

What does the 30BR like in the way of flash hole size, and what work do you do to the flash hole/primer pocket? Do you ream the flash holes? De-burr?

I've formed my 30BR cases from Lapua 6mmBR brass, outside neck turned to fit the chamber, and fireformed.

So far, I've left the primer pockets and flash hole alone.

I'm using CCI br2's, H4198 powder, and have some 118 BIB's on the way.

 

[dreever]

I would leave those flash holes alone, most have found that opening them up just kills the extreme spread and standard deviation over the chronograph. Cleaning the primer pockets is all I'd do after firing, and then I wouldn't obsess over even that.

 

[Aussie_bob]

I clean them if they need it otherwize i just leave them alone the Lapua Brass has been very good.

 

[Anmlsrdelicious]

You might want to pay attention to the burrs. Some boxes have quite a few pieces with burrs, while some boxes do not. Of the 5 boxes I have opened, 1 box was perfect, no burrs or defects. The other 4 boxes had about 1 in 4 or 5 pieces that had burrs. I look at every piece, and gently remove any burr very gently.

 

[AlNyhus]

Gollum: The flash holes do need to be deburred. I use both a Ron Hoehn deburring tool that indexes in the primer pocket and then put a light chamfer on the inside with a Sinclair tool.

As far as flash hole size, most guys shooting uncoated bullets leave them around .058-.062. With coated bullets,moly or tungsten disulfide) there can be gains made by opening up the flash hole size. Some coated bullet users are running cases with .075-ish hole sizes with excellent results.

In either case, I recommend starting with close to factory hole size as a baseline. If you want to tinker a bit, you can always take 5 cases and work with them. I always make up some extra cases when doing my case prep just so I'll have some 'test mules' to work with.

I usually don't square up the primer pockets for the first firing.

Hope this helps. -Al