Anyone have experience with off center flash holes?

Dimner

Named Man
Pre-covid, I bought a bunch of used (possibly) once fired 7x57 brass on the other forum. Just like anything, those kinds of transactions are a bit of a gamble. Well, projects get delayed and forgotten so here I am years later processing the brass for the first time.

Looks like some of this brass is atleast a decade, possibly three old. At least half of the brass has what I would consider way off center flash holes.

Has anyone had any experience with off center holes? What can I expect with using them? Velocity swings? Bad accuracy? Pressure problems?

I'd rather know what I'm getting into before I go ahead and test them. Also, if it's just gonna be a headache, I'd rather save the primers/powder/lead and use good brass. Or perhaps these can be relegated to iron sight low velocity loads?

20221129_143154.jpg
 

KeithB

Resident Half Fast Machinist
I bet flash hole diameter is way more important than flash hole location, but I have no facts or experience to back that up.
 

quicksylver

Well-Known Member
WOW ! That's FC brass never, seen that on FC, 308 . .30'06..30-30. Right now i'm sitting on about 250 Agullia .308 1x that's about that bad and heard of others who have Agullia in pistol and rifle brass that was that bad or worse. I found it when i had problem decapping , but it looks like you made it through that.Never did reload them.
 
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Joshua

Taco Aficionado/Salish Sea Pirate/Part-Time Dragon
I have a batch of Korean Military 30-06 that has some off center holes. I didn’t see any difference accuracy wise. I’m just an average shot, and the rifle is 105 years old, so take that answer with a grain of salt.
They all went bang, and grouped about the same as my other 311291, 16gr 2400 loads did at 100 yards.

If I was loading for a long range competition I’d probably not use those cases.

Edit: I do remember decapping being a bit annoying.
 
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RBHarter

West Central AR
I had a bunch of cheap seats 9mm that was pretty ugly that way . A meric . I loaded some of it 20 yr ago . I don't recall any problems but my QC guy didn't like the aesthetics .

I've seen it more with the new high demand brass than we used to see it . Fortunately it's been mostly a half dia off thing unlike the A meric where the flash hole was in the pocket ....... somewhere in the pocket .
 

JustJim

Well-Known Member
I have a batch of Korean Military 30-06 that has some off center holes. I didn’t see any difference accuracy wise. I’m just an average shot, and the rifle is 105 years old, so take that answer with a grain of salt.
They all went bang, and grouped about the same as my other 311291, 16gr 2400 loads did at 100 yards.

If I was loading for a long range competition I’d probably not use those cases.

Edit: I do remember decapping being a bit annoying.
I'm in the same boat with about 500 Korean mil cases for the 30-06. Crimped primers, so I decapped them with a punch. Didn't notice the flash holes were off-center until I was reaming the primer pockets. Seems to be decent brass otherwise.
 

Jeff H

NW Ohio
I have occasionally encountered the errant off-center flash-hole and have scrapped the offending case.

I have punched NEW flash-holes alongside off-center flash holes with LEE depriming pins. Not on purpose, of course. On one occasion, I bent one right over at 90 degrees, so I have NO LOVE for off-center flash holes. I'm not so desperate for brass yet that I have to worry about ditching the few little buggers which cause me consternation.

I once traded into a substantial quantity of Bregman(?) commercial loads for the 6.5x55 and the flash holes were so small that they ripped the depriming pin out of my LEE deprimer die. That stuff got traded off.
 

KeithB

Resident Half Fast Machinist
If I had some in a revolver type cartridge I might be tempted to center up the hole and enlarge it and use it for primer-only wax/plastic bullet loads.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
Bergman.
i'd have just cut those holes open with my flash hole uniforming tool. [after i ground my pin smaller]
waay prefer small than off center.
i can fix small, i can only make the off center ones bigger.
 

BudHyett

Active Member
There's too much good brass to waste time with this. The time spent orienting the case, feeling the depriming pin find the hole, then slowly push out the primer is not worth the effort.

I've messed with off-center holes when I first had a 6.6X55 a half-century ago when the brass was scarce. Never again.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I've never seen any that bad. As others noted, I'd be worried about decapping pins but otherwise I bet you don't notice any difference.
 

JonB

Halcyon member
I've never seen any that bad. As others noted, I'd be worried about decapping pins but otherwise I bet you don't notice any difference.
SAME HERE !

add to that, if I had access to other brass that is good, I'd just recycle those off-center dogs.
 

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
Just when depriming, the pin would have a hard time finding the hole as I said I didn't reload them because I had another 250 IMI cases.So can't comment on accuracy
I changed to a Mighty Armory decapping die some years ago and its design allows the decap pin to "float" I havent looked at a flash hole in many years.