Lapua 6.5 creedmoor using small primers - ok to drill out flash hole to help with removal?

LostInTranslation

Sergeant of the Hide
Full Member
Minuteman
Jul 16, 2020
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10
My current primer removal pin (Lee) does not fit through small Lapua's flash hole. Somebody suggested drilling it out a bit. I prefer to have similar setup for all brass. I read about making primer removal pin smaller as well.

Thoughts?
 
Put it in a drill, lay a flat file on the pin as you rotate, file carefully until it’s the right diameter, 0.057” ish.

way easier than modifying all the cases.
+1 to this, mostly; I used sandpaper and pinched the pin between my fingers while I spun it in the drill.

Don’t ream out the flash holes, absolutely just sand down the pin.
 
Not trying to be free w other’s money, but buying a small pins are rather inexpensive, no?
Sandpaper is faster and even cheaper, FWIW.

ETA: Still, it’s absolutely worth having a spare pin around. Real bummer to have your whole reloading session grind to a halt due to a $10 part with a lead time in days or weeks. Many LGS’s don’t carry spare pins, esp for whatever specific die you have.
 
Sandpaper is faster and even cheaper, FWIW.

ETA: Still, it’s absolutely worth having a spare pin around. Real bummer to have your whole reloading session grind to a halt due to a $10 part with a lead time in days or weeks. Many LGS’s don’t carry spare pins, esp for whatever specific die you have.
Exactly! Nothing more frustrating then a having to stop loading because you are out decap pins. Or waiting for them to deliver.🤮
 
I just barely reduced the size of my lee decapping pin last week for my 6 creedmoor lapua brass (small flash hole) using my hand drill and a file. It was really easy and not counting the time it took to look at the thing as the progress was made it took all of 20 minutes. 40 minutes if your overly cautious like I was. The only thing was I needed to use filing motions as it spun on the drill to get it to move along. If I set the file on the rotating pin without filing as I spun it didnt hardly do anything. Get some metal off the pin by filing/spinning and then get something to smooth the rough scrapes from the file down. I just used my same file with varying (reduced) pressure on the pin with more movement up and down the length of the business end of the pin and it smoothed the file marks right out with no issues whatsoever. It was super easy. Don't bore out your flash holes!
 
I went through the process to get a Redding decapping die with the small decapping pin. Just for giggles, I tried my Redding FL resizing die, and the pin went though the Lapua flash hole and never touched. go figure