Opening Flashholes to 3/32 inch in BP loads

[Familydoc]

Gents:

Several PM's have suggested that I open the flashholes on my 45 Colt to 3/32 inch to promote Cleaner more complete cumbustion of compressed charges of Black Powder. One even stated that the old BP loads had hotter Primers with larger flashholes.

Any comments would be welcomed.

Familydoc

[Mad Mucus]

I too am interested in the benifits of this case mod for .45Colt.
I have noticed Grapeshot recommends this procedure.

Thanks,
Mucus

[Fox Creek Kid]

1. Old West primers were not as hot as today's primer.
2. Drilling out the primer holes will do nothing but make the primer holes larger and your local hardware store owner richer for selling you a drill bit.

Many serious long range BP shooters have experimented with drilling out the flash holes larger and it does absolutely nothing. If you want to be a better shot practice more. 

[Dick Dastardly]

I can see a benefit in making the flash holes uniform.  Most modern brass is quite uniform, but long range shootn' demands the ultimate in consistancy.  Making flash holes uniform does have a positive effect on getting small standard deviations in velocity.  The exact size is something of a contention, but my feeling is that the manufacturer probably makes flash holes the optimum size in the manufacturing process.

I do ream/de-burr flash holes to make them uniform.  I've not been able to gain any appreciable increase in performance or consistancy from drilling the flash holes out larger.  If the flash holes are drilled larger I'd be very careful to not load them with a high pressure smokeyless load.  The increased size could cause the primer to fail and gas to escape backward toward the shooters face.  Probably black powder wouldn't cause a problem, but I tend to error on the side of safety where my handsome face is concerned. . . .

DD-DLoS

[hellgate]

The drilling of flash holes comes from (dang! can't remember his name!!) ?'s book on the 45-70 Trapdoor rifle. He argues that the use of magnum primers and larger flash holes in the brass gives significan't increase in accuracy for BP TD 45-70 rifle loads. This is the first time I have heard of doing it in the 45LC.

[Jubal Starbuck]

    Hellgate:

    Spence Wolf is the name of the gentleman you are trying to think of.  He talks about it in his book,"Loading Cartridges for the Original .45-70 Springfield Rifles and Carbines".  I have found that using Magnum primers under a casefull of black powder works well enough for all of my .45 Colt applications.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I know you probably read my reply to your question over on the SASS Wire, but for the benefit of those who don't venture there, I am repeating my reply here.

I've read all the stuff about using magnum primers, opening flash holes, cleaning primer pockets, and using drop tubes for BP in CAS. For long range with 45-70, I do some of those things. For CAS, I don't.

Will doing those things make my ammo more accurate, make my powder burn cleaner, and leave less fouling in the bore? Possibly, I really don't know. I do know that using standard primers, standard flash holes, not cleaning primer pockets, and not using a drop tube, my cartridges fire each and every time. I have never had a hangfire or any other more subtle ignition problems that I am aware of. As for reducing fouling, today's Big Lube bullets have largely eliminated the problem, so I don't really care how clean my powder burns. It may sound heretical, but there you have it. As for accuracy, my ammo is accurate enough that I know if I missed, it's because I was not paying attention to the front sight. I cannot blame my ammo.

I subscribe to the KISS principal for loading BP for CAS. Keep It Simple Stupid. All I shoot in CAS is BP. I don't shoot Smokeless anymore. I go through a lot of BP ammo in CAS and I need to make it as simply as possible. Loading ammo for long range is one thing. It takes me about 2 hours to load up 50 rounds of 45-70. If I took that kind of time with my CAS ammo I would never shoot BP. I load my CAS BP ammo on a progressive machine. Even working on a progressive machine, it takes me longer to load BP than Smokeless. Working on my progressive machine, I can probably only turn out 200 45 Colt or 44-40 rounds per hour. Drop tubes and cleaning primer pockets do not fit in very well in the operation of a progressive machine. Other added tasks such as lube cookies, wads, and drilling out flash holes, to me, are just adding unnecessary extra steps to an already complicated, but perfectly satisfactory process. The key is lube. I go through enough extra effort casting and lubing my own Big Lube bullets. I am getting perfectly acceptable results without the extra added steps, so why in the world would I add them?

One parting thought. Flash holes are designed the size they are for a reason. Increasing the diameter of the flash hole will allow more back pressure into the primer pocket. That is a simple law of physics. While this is probably not a problem at BP pressures, do not ever use brass that has had the flash holes opened up with Smokeless ammo. You are risking punctured primers.

[Howdy Doody]

BUTI did find before my chrony got shot up a few years back, that the exact same loads and bullets over the chrony yielded high velocities with magnum (federal) primers than the standards.
For CAS there doesn't seem to be any good reason to open flash holes unless you are into having primers back out and jam your six shooter. I understand the need to open the flash hole for blanks however.
All mileages vary of course, but keeping things simple does seem the best route. It could be that there are some advantages for BPCR, I can't comment on that, since I haven't tried it.

[Delmonico]

Myself for BPCR I debur the flash hole and put a fair amount of a funnel on it, basic physics says this should even be better than a plain large flash hole.

[Grapeshot]

I've read Wolf's book and applied his practices to my Armi-Sport Military Sharps Rifle.  All Things considered, my groups shank from shot gun style patterns to a more manageable 4-6 inches at 75 yards.  I still have some tweeking to do with this rifle, but Using Mr Wolf's book made a believer out of me.

His son-in-law did have an article in the latest version of that book that postulates the same practices of opening up the flash-hole, using a magnum primer, and using a 230 grain hollow based bullet over 32 grains of Black Powder in the .45 Colt Case to duplicate the Armory Load.

As for the primer strength issue.   Yes the early primers were not as strong as the ones we have today, and according to Mr Wolf, the burned longer.  We're talking miliseconds here, but the flame lasted longer than any of the primers we have today with the exception of maybe the Winchester Large Rifle Magnum Primers or the Federal # 215 Magnum Rifle Primers.

As for Pistol primers, I've used both and seem to have better results with the magnum pistol primers, especially with the substitutes.  Black Bowder seems to ignite as easily with or without magnum primers in a pistol case.

To bad some one doesn't have access to a balistics lab that could shed some light on this subject and end this debate.  I'd like to know wether I really need to use the more expensive Magnum Primers or not.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

As I said before, keeping my flash holes the standard size and using regular strength primers has worked fine for me for a bunch of years now. No misfires or hangfires. No drop tube either for CAS. Long range 45-70 is a different story. Keeping the process as simple as possible is what allows me to make enough ammo to keep up with the demands of the sport. Add extra steps if you feel the need.