Igman 6.5x55 flash hole problem

[kjohn]

Mounted a cheap scout scope (actually a Cabela's pistol scope) on an M96 Swede and fired off some reloads I had, plus some Igman new ammo. I deprime with the little decapper tool from a Lee Loader kit. First one I tried, the pin stuck in the flash hole. Oh oh!

After some wrestling and some magic words, I finally had to drill the primer and managed to get the pin out. I had pulled out of the tool and was bent a wee bit. I got the primer out and drilled the flash hole to a better size. I ground the pin down to a size that would fit the Igman and deprimed the other 19 and drilled the hole out.

Lucky me, I have several boxes each of the stuff in various calibers

 

[tobaman45]

that's a brand of ammo I'll never buy again, I just scrapped all that brass cause of the neck splitting and cracks on the shoulder (222, 243 and 270) the 270 was the worst for it

 

[HIGHRPM]

Had that happen to me also. I reached out and it was a true unknown at the time. I since bought a universal Lee decapper which has a thin pin and popped all primers. Then I measured the flash hole from several other brands , researched the max hole size and preceded to drill out all the flash holes. (I have lots of time on my hands). No problem now, but at the beginning, holy #### it was frustrating !!

 

[Ganderite]

There are small pins available for the brass that uses a smaller flash hole (Like the Lapua Palma brass).

A smaller hole improves ignition and reduces ES, so drilling flash holes is not the best choice.

But Igman is not exactly match quality brass...

 

[kjohn]

I'll reload these 20 and maybe blow the others off or sell them at a gun show with a disclaimer regarding the flash hole. I'm not going to try to stick some unsuspecting fellow with those bleepin' things.

I have 100 Lapua new in the box brass. Surely these aren't odd flash holes. I'll be checking those today!

 

[liam747]

I wasn't impressed with ingman brass especially since I got a berdan case mixed in with my boxer. I just ended up scraping it got a hold of a bunch of Norma once fired and some ppu. both have been good

 

[Dake21]

I had Igman brass for my 7 rem mag. It was very bad and inconsistent. The internal volume was all over the place and the flash hole not always centered.

 

[HIGHRPM]

There are small pins available for the brass that uses a smaller flash hole (Like the Lapua Palma brass).

A smaller hole improves ignition and reduces ES, so drilling flash holes is not the best choice.

But Igman is not exactly match quality brass...

And yet their others shooting competition that say to enlarge flash hole but not beyond a certain size. Drilling out this brass for myself turned out great with zero conceived loss of performance. Lucky I guess, maybe ??

 

[bearhunter]

I've had other issues with Igman brass as well as the small flash holes.

Not all of their flash holes are small, some are the same as local commercial brass.

I had different rim thickness issues on both flanged cases and rimless. There were also issues with the extractor grooves being to large to fit into appropriate shell head holders.

I've never had any issues with split necks, but I have had issues with very large differences in case weight.

I don't think Igman intended their brass to be reloaded. It's fine, but not very accurate ammo, if you're just plinking and tossing the brass.

When I'm at the range and go through the scrap brass pail, most of the discarded brass is Igman (Privi)

 

[Longwalker]

I had a whole case of Igman .222 ammo that I bought primarily for the brass. What a mistake. Sold it all again after shooting only one box and trying to reload it. those tiny flash holes were a pain.

 

[Hitzy]

I still have some 30/06 from 20 years ago, reloaded it fine, slight catching of the decappping pin, but a bit of case lube helped that. I reamed them all with a Lyman flash hole tool. Brass is soft, but has lasted through several guns, even ran it through a Garand one loading.