Tumbling media in flash hole?

[wasa43]

OK, here is a question. My case prep workflow is to do a short tumble to make sure that there is no grit that might scratch the sizing die, then lube and resize, and then tumble again to get the case lube off.

So, some cases have a piece of tumbling media stuck in the flash hole. I always inspect the cases and remove the stuck media before I prime. Begging the whole question of wether or not I am too anal about this, does anybody know what the consequences would be if there was a piece of walnut shell, corn cob, or the like stuck in the flash hole?

My quess is that it would not be dangerous, but would likely decrease accuracy.
What do you think? anybody have experience with this?

[Another Dang 9]

I use the same method you do but I always blow mine off with an air hose that gets 90% of the flash holes clean,then I hold them up to the light to be sure and poke out the stuborn ones with a small finish nail. No problems yet.

[Jerry G]

You should use a universal primer punch after you tumble a case without a primer in it. There is always some media stuck in many of the cases and I think it will screw up powder ignition if it is left in the flash hole. A friend of mine has about 5% misfires because of poor ignition with small rifle primers in a 6.5x47. I haven't had any problems at all with mine.

[Jason]

I hand prime all my cases to actually inspect them and look in the flash hole. If there's anything there, I poke it out with a small punch. Yes, it would affect ignition. It could be dangerous if it caused a hangfire, but I expect that that would be very rare. The primer has a fair a mount of force once it's fired. I've seen primers push bullets out of the case and a couple inches up a barrel when powder was forgotten during loading. The primer definitely wouldn't have much trouble blowing a little piece of media out of the flash hole.

[BCloninger]

I've seen primers push bullets out of the case and a couple inches up a barrel when powder was forgotten during loading.

Sounds like some of my "custom" loads...

[wasa43]

Hi Guys

Yep, I hand prime too, and inspect every flash hole, and use a small punch to remove any clinging media (hanging chads?)

What got me thining about this is the existance of 'Flash hole uniformers", which operate under the theory that accuracy is increased if flash holes are a uniform size, and don't have any flash from being punched.

So, if having uniform flash holes in good, having a few plugged (even for a milisecond or whatever) can't be good for accuracy.

I'm not going to run any experiments, though!!

[Jerry G]

I'm not going to run any experiments, though!!

That's funny Chris.

Keep thoes flash holes clean. I sepnt many hours de-buring mine a few years ago so I realy don't need them plugged with a piece of corn cob. There are too many variables so eliminating as many as we can is a good idea.

[Jim Beckley]

I tumble all of my cases after I resize them also. When I pull the case from the media, I hold the case against the side of the tumbler to make sure that there is no media stuck in the case and then I check the flash hole, if there is anything in it, it is removed with a paperclip that I use for that reason. My thought is that the probablity of the primer still ingiting the power with a little bit of media in the flash hole is pretty good, but would the ignition be uniform?

[Jerry G]

I think it would give erradic ignition. I don't know how much that would affect your group size. I'm with Chris, in the fact I don't want to expermint. I realy don't want to know.