17HH flash holes; culprit?

[MarinePMI]

In my haze of making coffee this morning, after waking up pissed off about an idiot I'm dealing with at work, I had an interesting thought/realization...

When the 17HH ammo first came out there were issues with the primers not being seated all the way down.

Then there were issues with the flash holes being obscured by the flashing made when the holes were punched during case manufacture.

As I was making my coffee this morning, I had to push a zip lock bag of LC .308 cases out of the way. I had put them there after swaging the crimps out of the pockets using a Dillion 600 "Superswager". Beside it sits a 40-90 shell that is half manufactured, that I pulled from a case forming machine a few years ago from a manufacturer's bone yard. I leave it on the counter as a conversation piece and an odd bit of memorabilia. Of note, the primer pocket is formed and case drawn to rough dimension, but the flash hole is not present yet; flash holes are punched later in the process.

As I was spooning coffee grounds into the filter I looked over, thinking to myself, "Yep, glad I remembered to debur the flash holes before swaging this time, it was throwing the crimp removal off and flattening the flashing from the flash holes..."; egads! That's it! Hornady tried a band-aid fix on the lot of screwed up brass with shallow primer pockets!

I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts, the obscured flash holes seen in the 17HH ammo is a result of Hornady trying to salvage that bad lot of brass by swaging the pockets deeper...but without cleaning the flashing off the holes first. I'm not disparaging Hornady, as a manufacturer, I'd probably try to do the same thing with a bad lot and salvage it if possible.

At any rate, so go the ramblings of a half awake shooter, making coffee in the morning with his noodle turning over random bits of shooting hubris in the fog of the early morning waking...

[Eagle_view]

Very good thoughts, and I think you are right on the money with your thought process. I hope that you got a decent cup of coffee after being distracted with such profound thoughts so early in the morning. I usually forget to pour the water into the reservoir and have to start over when these thing happen. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Lowell

[Larry in VA]

Sounds very reasonable to me…
The obscured flash holes would be a moot point to me since my anal-ness won’t allow me to let a flash hole go un-deburred. Yes whether they need it or not. Bought a 100 Lapua 223R brass (just for fun to see if they made a difference in my rifles accuracy – they didn't) and swore I wasn't going to de-burr the FH’s but alas I couldn't stand the pressure and gave in…

[Alex]

... what goes on in the mind after a good nights sleep. Best reason to "sleep on it" when making decisions. Usually happens while showering.

As for this particular "ah-ha" moment, I'd bet you were spot on!

Unfortunately, sitting here drinking my second cup of java, I've not had such a great leap of mind in a long time.

Alex

[wally bennett]

I honistly think the bad flash holes in my 200 batch of Privy brass caused
the variation in my group size that made me scrap all the brass.
wally

[Bayou City Boy]

You might be spot ion........... For grins, you might run your theory in front of one of Hornady's phone ready "tech specialists" to see if he'll verify it.......

Then call back the next day and tell them you think the tooth fairy caused the problems, and they'll probably confirm that too......

Any company can have problems, but for me the real issue with this 17 HH brass issue is how Hornady has mismanaged the flow of information getting out. Its resulted in a lot of speculation all over the internet, and none of it is good for the longevity of the cartridge. They lose and we lose too..........

-BCB

[Alan in GA]

don't forget while sipping a cup if coffee to also consider the 'cup' or 'dish' formed in some of the Hornady hornet case heads. In some, not all.

[Daryl]

That dished case head came to mind as I read the first post, too, Alan.

[Bayou City Boy]

Originally Posted by Alan in GA

don't forget while sipping a cup if coffee to also consider the 'cup' or 'dish' formed in some of the Hornady hornet case heads. In some, not all.

Very true...........

-BCB

[dungheap]

All of this makes me glad I chose to NOT mess with the .17HH cartridge in any shape or form.

The first lines of the first post raise a question that has bugged me for years and years, though: Why are there always more horses' asses than there are horses?

Good luck at work, MarinePMI!