Primer pockets - How "clean" do they really need to be?

[RVTECH]

RVTech, What is your method?

I have a small rectangular plastic pan that fits in my sink and a plastic colander that fits inside the pan.
When the brass is done I dump the brass into the colander and shake it a bit to dump the pins out and into the pan.
I let the pan fill with water and as it rises up into the colander I start adjitating the colander to wash the rest of the pins out and remaining dirty water off.
I take a SS baking pan and line it with a hand towel and dump the brass into it. I pick up the corners of the towel and kind of roll the brass around to get most of the water off then flatten the brass on the towel and set the pan on the edge of the wood stove to dry.
IF the water is still running it should have displaced the dirty water and rinsed the pins. Turn off the water and pick up the end of the pan to pour most of the water out. Take a 6" strainer (the type with a handle and two 'ears' on the rim) and line with a coffee filter. Rest the strainer on some sort of bowl and take the pan with the pins out of the sink and not unlike 'panning for gold' swirl the pins into a corner of the pan and pour the pins and remaining water into the coffee filter. Let them sit and drip dry. Pick up the coffee filter with the pins in it and set in a dry bowl and these too go on the wood stove to dry. Substitute the oven if no wood stove. Rinse your tumbler cup and lid.
Results may vary but this works very well for me.

 

[MrElectric03]

I use a home built tumbler with pins. My mixture is a 9mm case each of dawn, lemishine, and purple power degreaser. I can't remember exactly how much liquid my tumbler holds but I'd say close to 2 gal.

As for needing to clean the pockets, if you are a good enough shot that some carbon cause issues then teach me your Jedi ways. I don't think it would ever matter. That said I deprime all of my brass before tumbling because it's quick and easy on a Dillon 650. If I had to handle each case by hand I wouldn't bother.

For separating I use a cabelas (rebranded rcbs with the lid) separator and I cut the bottom out of it so I set it on a 5 gal bucket and the water and pins fall into the bucket. I added a couple thin pieces of felt where the handles meet to form a better seal and that keeps most of the pins from wandering out. I still go around the bucket with a telescoping magnet after each use to pick the the few that have dropped.

 

[TheGameMaster]

To answer your original question: For low pressure or light bullet weight rounds (most pistols, older rifle calibers, 223, etc.) you don't need to worry about it. It will not effect accuracy or performance. For high pressure or heavier bullet weight rounds, like higher pressure pistol cartridges like 357 (sig or mag), 10mm, 40 S&W, 327 mag, etc., and most "newer" rifle cartridges it may have an impact on performance; as it can help facilitate primer back out and firing pin drag. In most sub-compact or smaller pistols, you'll get some primer drag so don't let that freak you out. That's normal because of the smaller springs used just aren't as quick as the pressure curve for the weight needed to cycle the firearm. But if your getting primer drag or push out on other platforms, then I'd start with clean primer pockets first. That little bit of carbon can cause problems in higher pressure cartridges. But for 223, 30-06 M1 loads, 7.62x39, most pistols, 30-30, etc., its not an issue. But full house 30-06 hunting rounds, 270, 300 blk, and on up it can be a problem.

Rodney

 

[Certaindeaf]

I once read an article by an accomplished bench-rest shooter that did an experiment on the primer pocket cleaning or not issue.. After exhaustive research he found that the average shooter would never be able to tell the difference between cleaned and not.

My bench gun is a Browning Hi Power so I clean my pockets real good.
not really

 

[ferret427]

If you wet tumble...use water, citric acid and dawn soap, with a touch of simple green. Brass will come out factory new.

Yep. Spot on. I buy once fired LC brass that is absolutely filthy. Dawn and Lemishine (citric acid) makes that brass like new. Wet tumbling with steel media is very nice. You do have the dry time, but no dust, so for me it's a wash.
With nasty brass, deprime, swag, tumble, resize trim etc, tumble and them prime powder and seat.

 

[Cerberus Group]

Get an old dryer, drop one of the electric legs so it runs off 110, and dry away

 

[AMT]

And get some GOOD hearing protection!

And set the machine FAR WAY from where the spouse can hear it. Preferably the next block over.....

 

[Caveman Jim]

I use my Lyman case prep center to prep my rifle brass which includes cleaning the primer pockets.
No they are not pristine like the wet case cleaning method but most of the crusty gunk is gone...
You can see what came out of 150 cases (edit, I found out this was more like 400 cases)
(top center).... Yeah, I don't cut the crimps out anymore either.

 

[gmerkt]

As long as the flash hole is clear, and anything that would prevent the primer from seating to proper depth is cleaned out, you're good. Anything past that is a plus, but have never seen it as a performance problem.

This is pretty much my criterion. Trying to get that primer pocket as clean as unfired, new brass is a waste of time. Every once in a while, I see a pocket that has enough carbon in it to make me scrape it out but that's not usual. A bench rest shooter may argue this point and they may be right. The average shooter will never know the difference.

I like clean brass, cleanliness is functional in that you don't want to scratch your steel dies. And if you get it clean enough to avoid this, you probably won't have dirty ammo going into your firearm chamber. Unless you drop ammo in the dirt, of course.

Having said that I like clean brass, let me hasten to add I'm not anal about it. Military clean is good enough for me, it doesn't have to be Nosler-like, looking like it's just been polished with Brasso.

Sometimes, dry media tumbling won't take off all the carbon at the mouth of the case. For this, I've used Iosso liquid case cleaner. Before that, I used Birchwood-Casey liquid case cleaner but in my experience the Iosso works better. But be prepared to thoroughly rinse with clear water after using Isosso. And when you think it's rinsed enough, do it a couple more times.

These days, I'm more back to dry tumbling. The modern IMR powders seem to burn cleaner and leave less carbon on case mouths.

Yes, it is possible to over-tumble. A batch of 7.62mm NATO cases came my way once that were way over-tumbled. The edge of the rims were worn off and the case mouths was razor thin.

Worrying about how clean the inside of the case is, stop. If it doesn't have mud or debris in it, it's clean enough. If the inside of your case mouth is gritty and the resizing button goes through too hard, lube it with mica or similar. If it really bugs you use a bore rush to clean the inside of the neck but worrying about the rest of the surface inside the case is really beyond reason.

Having written the previous paragraph, it's probably in order to mention that you don't want to leave anything inside the case that would reduce its capacity. Another point of inspection.

I spend less time on primer pockets and more time on cartridge headspace measurement and case length. If you don't have cartridge headspace gauges for rounds that you are loading, they are a good investment. Especially for rifle.

I haven't gotten into wet media tumbling with pins, etc., yet. Maybe some day, like when I go to progressive. But I'm not running a factory so I'm still using single stage after 45 years.

 

[6gunslinger]

I am VERY new to reloading but I think I can safely say that the primer pockets don't really need to be that clean. From my limited understanding the main reason for cleaning the brass is to prevent gunk from getting every where on you, your tools, and your gun, and to insure that the little explosion happens safely and properly. Exterior cleaning helps to spot defects in the cases and eases cycling. As long as the flash hole is open for the flame to pass through and there's not so much gunk that the primer cant be seated I think it's OK. a spotless primer pocket, while desirable, may be unnecessary.

Again, I am VERY new to reloading