Primer pocket cleaning...

[imp81318]

I have never reloaded, but I'm thinking about it. A big part of my decision of whether or not to reload will come down to the initial investment required to get started, and this is obviously driven by what equipment I want to purchase to get started. If/when I decide to take the plunge and start reloading, I would be reloading small pistol calibers (.380/9mm/.38sp and/or.357) and maybe getting into a couple of rifle calibers for hunting as well (.30-.30/.30-06) in time. For the rifle rounds I'd want to be using either single-stage press, or a turret press in single-stage mode for maximum accuracy, but it seems that for just plinking as long as I'm careful I might be able to get away with running a turret press once I get a bit more comfortable and get a few hundred rounds or so under my belt. The increased speed would be nice to have as an option, but it raises a question for me: When is it critical/important to clean primer pockets and when is it not?

I've seen this question raised and responded to several times, but it is always buried in another thread as a side point and only gets 1 or 2 responses to it at a time. So, I figured I"d start a thread dedicated to it in hopes of getting a better/more thorough answer or at least a couple of different people's thoughts.

[M&P Chris]

I always clean the primer pockets on my rifle or hollow point loads.

[DucatiRon]

Always clean on any round made. I would bet the people who do less prep work or use cheaper components have more misfires or more inaccurate rounds.

(Insert my sig line here)

[imp81318]

M&P Chris, can I take your response to mean that you do not always clean the primer pockets on your FMJ or cast lead rounds?

DucatiRon, do you use a single stage press?

[csmith]

I clean them for rifles. I tumble the fired brass, then lube/size/decap/swage/trim/etc, tumble and polish, then load.

I don't bother with pistols and to date have never had a problem that I can attribute to it. I have been thinking about following the above process for my 357 and 44 mag cases simply because I don't shoot a high volume of them and I tend to shoot those more for long range accuracy.

[ALS]

The basics you need.

A nice Stainless steel Caliper

Scale, balance or digital

Primer pocket cleaner, metal brush and or carbon scraper type looks like a tiny flat head screw driver.

Primer hole reamer. Makes all the primer holes uniform.

Tumbler to clean and polish the brass, media for the tumbler

Reloading manuals for both pistol and rifle

Kinetic bullet puller, plastic hammer that holds the shell that the bullet needs to come out of.

Case lube.

Case trimmer

An internal and external case lip trimmer. At least that is what I call it it takes off the burrs on the case mouth after trimming.

Small funnel to pour measured powder in to the cases if you're literally hand loading. I use this route when I'm loading for accuracy. The press is used like a single stage when I'm in this mode.

If I missed something for a basic set up please add to the list.

Be sure to go though your local Craigslist there always people with reloading set ups for sale on there. You can save a lot of money buying some of the items listed above used. The little $5 - $20 stuff adds up really quickly.

[bamboomaster]

When is it critical/important to clean primer pockets and when is it not?

There are certainly different points of view on this and what's most important is finding what works for you in your rifle/handgun and if you're doing everything else right where reloading and range performance is concerned.

Here are a few possible considerations:

1. Always tumble or otherwise clean your brass. With a good tumbling, most of the crud in the primer pockets will be removed.

2. If the brass was sourced from range pick-up, especially when you had to pry it out of the ground, cleaning the pockets may be more important because tumbling may not always remove the mud and other detritus (small pebbles, grass, etc).

3. I've never cleaned the primer pocket in a separate step for pistol brass after i did it the first time on quite a few rounds and determined that it didn't make a difference in my groups @ 15 - 25 yds.

4. Where rifle rounds are concerned for plinking purposes, have also not cleaned the primer pockets beyond the initial tumbling.

5. Where rifle rounds are concerned for uber-accuracy purposes, I do clean the primer pocket but that's just for cosmetic purposes so I can check a box off on my reloading procedures.

6. Assuming there's no mud/etc embedded in the pocket, what's more important (among a host of other things) is to debur the flash hole. That involves purchasing a flash hole deburring tool for your caliber (say a universal tool with a .30 cal pilot stop or a small tool with a .22 cal pilot stop). During the production process of your cartridge there are metal particles that have not been removed from the inside of the cartridge and the deburring tool allows you to remove them. Sort of like the "before" and "after" of using a new razor on stubble. This process insures a more uniform ignition of the cartridge's powder in the nano-seconds after the firing pin has struck the base of the primer. Assuming you've done everything else correctly for your particular round, this procedure has the potential to significantly increase your accuracy.

To summarize, if after you've tumbled your brass and the choice is cleaning the outside of the primer pocket or the inside of the primer pocket and you could only do one, it's a no-brainer.

Take the inside route and debur the flash hole.

[DucatiRon]

DucatiRon, do you use a single stage press?

I have 6 different presses total all from the big 3 (red,blue,and green). I have single stages, turrents, and progressives. What I do is because I work in bulk. I won't switch out dies in a press untill I have minimum 1k to load. My methods are not for everyone. Everything I do is to minimize prep time while producing the highest quality ammo I feel that I can make. Cleaning primer pockets of 100 45 ACP isn't bad. Cleaning 5k primer pockets by hand or with a case prep station is still too time consuming.

All my brass gets a light tumble to remove range dirt before heading to the press (Dirt in a press makes for bad ammo). Then all brass is deprimed/resized. Then all brass heads to a wet stainless media tumble to be cleaned. Not only does this method provide like factory new cases all the primer pockets are cleaned almost perfectly. I might get 1 or 2 casings that need touched up out of a batch if 1000. Casings are then dried and loaded. Of course all the typical brass inspection steps are followed and repeated several times in the process.

I have lots of room and lots of brass. What I do isn't for everyone. I am also very OCD with loading. Something about making a small explosion right next to my face. Find what works best for you. Experiment Safely.

[imp81318]

There are certainly different points of view on this and what's most important is finding what works for you in your rifle/handgun and if you're doing everything else right where reloading and range performance is concerned.

Here are a few possible considerations:

1. Always tumble or otherwise clean your brass. With a good tumbling, most of the crud in the primer pockets will be removed.

2. If the brass was sourced from range pick-up, especially when you had to pry it out of the ground, cleaning the pockets may be more important because tumbling may not always remove the mud and other detritus (small pebbles, grass, etc).

3. I've never cleaned the primer pocket in a separate step for pistol brass after i did it the first time on quite a few rounds and determined that it didn't make a difference in my groups @ 15 - 25 yds.

4. Where rifle rounds are concerned for plinking purposes, have also not cleaned the primer pockets beyond the initial tumbling.

5. Where rifle rounds are concerned for uber-accuracy purposes, I do clean the primer pocket but that's just for cosmetic purposes so I can check a box off on my reloading procedures.

6. Assuming there's no mud/etc embedded in the pocket, what's more important (among a host of other things) is to debur the flash hole. That involves purchasing a flash hole deburring tool for your caliber (say a universal tool with a .30 cal pilot stop or a small tool with a .22 cal pilot stop). During the production process of your cartridge there are metal particles that have not been removed from the inside of the cartridge and the deburring tool allows you to remove them. Sort of like the "before" and "after" of using a new razor on stubble. This process insures a more uniform ignition of the cartridge's powder in the nano-seconds after the firing pin has struck the base of the primer. Assuming you've done everything else correctly for your particular round, this procedure has the potential to significantly increase your accuracy.

To summarize, if after you've tumbled your brass and the choice is cleaning the outside of the primer pocket or the inside of the primer pocket and you could only do one, it's a no-brainer.

Take the inside route and debur the flash hole.

I have 6 different presses total all from the big 3 (red,blue,and green). I have single stages, turrents, and progressives. What I do is because I work in bulk. I won't switch out dies in a press untill I have minimum 1k to load. My methods are not for everyone. Everything I do is to minimize prep time while producing the highest quality ammo I feel that I can make. Cleaning primer pockets of 100 45 ACP isn't bad. Cleaning 5k primer pockets by hand or with a case prep station is still too time consuming.

All my brass gets a light tumble to remove range dirt before heading to the press (Dirt in a press makes for bad ammo). Then all brass is deprimed/resized. Then all brass heads to a wet stainless media tumble to be cleaned. Not only does this method provide like factory new cases all the primer pockets are cleaned almost perfectly. I might get 1 or 2 casings that need touched up out of a batch if 1000. Casings are then dried and loaded. Of course all the typical brass inspection steps are followed and repeated several times in the process.

I have lots of room and lots of brass. What I do isn't for everyone. I am also very OCD with loading. Something about making a small explosion right next to my face. Find what works best for you. Experiment Safely.

Thanks for the clarification, DucatiRon. So, you basically sacrifice a little bit of the higher production rate of a turret or progressive press by interrupting the process after the first die to re-tumble the brass.

[Sparxfly72]

I've only cleaned the primer pockets when loading rifle rounds. I check the flash hole on everything I load, but don't bother with primer pockets for pistol rounds. As another posted, I've never encountered a problem attributed to this.