I was working on prepping 50 empty cases out of an old stash of 45 acp I have had for several years. While priming them I found one that had a much larger flash hole than the others, went back and checked rest and found 5 of the 50 with the XL flash hole. All were stamped W-W, never noticed it in any other of the several hundred from that stash of mixed brass, but had never really looked before either. Since I had wet tumbled them they were nice and shiny and it was easy to see. Does anyone think it will cause a problem? I went ahead and primed them o n the basis that I am sure I have fired many just like it and never knew. Haven't loaded them yet just wondering about the much larger flash holes.
XL Flash Hole in .45 ACP
- Thread starter Panfisher
- Start date
mwells72774
New member
Never noticed oversize but have found off center. Shoost it.
Magnum Wheel Man
New member
wax, plastic or rubber bullets use a larger flash hole, also I think some nontoxic uses a bigger flash hole ( though those usually use different ( small ) primers also )
in theory, a larger flash hole would help keep the primer flat with pop gun loads ( or at least does in a revolver )
as low pressure as the 45 ACP is ( unless the flashhole is huge ) you could probably load it with a "normal" powder charge without issues...
in theory, a larger flash hole would help keep the primer flat with pop gun loads ( or at least does in a revolver )
as low pressure as the 45 ACP is ( unless the flashhole is huge ) you could probably load it with a "normal" powder charge without issues...
I have 45 ACP cases with large flash holes, all of my 45 ACP cases with large flash holes use small primers.
Others have claimed they did nothing different, they use small pistol primers and then loaded the cases with large flash holes with out problems. I do not load 45 ACP cases that use small pistol primers, I do have a flash hole gage. I was checking 45 ACP cases when the flash hole gage went to the bottom, as though it fell threw. All the large flash hole cases used small pistol primers.
Just for a moment I thought about orifices in welding equipment, stoves and flow meters, then I thought about the flash hole being an orifices, and then I thought: It is another one of those things I can do nothing about or change.
A local reloader that purchased cases for reloading was presented with a another set of problems, separating small primer cases from large primer cases. He decided not to purchases the cases unless the seller separated them.
F. Guffey
Others have claimed they did nothing different, they use small pistol primers and then loaded the cases with large flash holes with out problems. I do not load 45 ACP cases that use small pistol primers, I do have a flash hole gage. I was checking 45 ACP cases when the flash hole gage went to the bottom, as though it fell threw. All the large flash hole cases used small pistol primers.
Just for a moment I thought about orifices in welding equipment, stoves and flow meters, then I thought about the flash hole being an orifices, and then I thought: It is another one of those things I can do nothing about or change.
A local reloader that purchased cases for reloading was presented with a another set of problems, separating small primer cases from large primer cases. He decided not to purchases the cases unless the seller separated them.
F. Guffey
Panfisher,
If you look at the headstamp you should find the letters NT on them somewhere. NT stands for "non-toxic", meaning the primer used DDNT instead of lead styphnate as the sensitizer to make the propellant gases lead-free. DDNT has higher brissance (sharpness of explosion) than lead styphnate, so they had to open the flash hole up to vent gas fast enough to prevent the priming mix ignition from blowing the primer cup out.
If there is no NT label and the headstamp looks ordinary, someone may have fired wax bullets in it, for which flash holes are also opened up.
In any event, I've never heard of a problem using standard primers with the large flash holes.
If you look at the headstamp you should find the letters NT on them somewhere. NT stands for "non-toxic", meaning the primer used DDNT instead of lead styphnate as the sensitizer to make the propellant gases lead-free. DDNT has higher brissance (sharpness of explosion) than lead styphnate, so they had to open the flash hole up to vent gas fast enough to prevent the priming mix ignition from blowing the primer cup out.
If there is no NT label and the headstamp looks ordinary, someone may have fired wax bullets in it, for which flash holes are also opened up.
In any event, I've never heard of a problem using standard primers with the large flash holes.
Since I had nothing better to do I went and looked the suspect cased over closer. No additional markings. I did pull out another bag of empties and looked through them. Found that the Speer cases had a noticeably larger flash hole, and the W-W ones had a huge hole. The Speer flash hole had tell tale "lip" on the inside from the punching process but the W-W ones had a small chamfer on the outside and clean on inside, looked to have been drilled. Not worried though, 5 grains of Universal and a cast lead bullet for plinking. The cases will become part of my yard once fired. Good info guys. Thanks.
I'm surprised you didn't find "NT", but I suppose it's still possible they were made to accommodate that application, but subsequently assembled into another load they needed cases for instead. More recently (last few years) makers have switched to small primers for NT applications because the flash hole in a small primer pocket is proportionally larger already, and doesn't have to be modified to work with NT primers. They same makers seem to have simultaneously decided switch all .45 Auto to small primers to keep the case tooling consistent and costs down.
IIRC there have been warnings about using cases with enlarged flash holes for normal reloads. The reason given was that the large hole allowed more of the powder to be ignited at the same time, with a resultant increase in pressure. The cases involved were those to be used with wax bullets and primers only; those flash holes are only slightly smaller than the primer. There were also warnings about drilling or reaming out the anvils in Berdan type cases to load with Boxer primers for the same reason, since the total flash hole area would then be too large for safety.
I do recall that the caution on Berdan cases was with rifle cases, so that might not apply to handgun cases. This is an area I have not experimented with, but the concerns seem logical.
Jim
I do recall that the caution on Berdan cases was with rifle cases, so that might not apply to handgun cases. This is an area I have not experimented with, but the concerns seem logical.
Jim