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I am trying my hand at reloading. How clean do I need to get the primer pockets? Is it OK to leave the three "stripes" left where the mixture burned around the anvil? Do they need to be spotless?

Some advice please. I made my first 150 rounds shine in there, but it was a PITA.

Mike

like a Pita pit? That place has good pitas!!!

I used to use a primer pocket brush before I got my sonic cleaner

I used both a primer pocket uniformer and a primer pocket brush on my first 150 rounds. The brass comes out of the tumbler pretty clean, except for the "stripes" I mentioned above.

Does it affect performance or the life of the primer or powder if those stripes are left in there? It would sure make the process easier.

Mike

i only clean my primer pockets if they are really gummed up. I have never had a problem with the longevity of the primers as i have some that a reloaded a few years ago and they shoot perfect for me. I would not stress about it. You need to stress about more important things like brass trimming, case pressures, proper powder and over all length MKAY!!!

So far I have not trimmed any of my brass... but I am loading 45 ACP and 9mm. The fired cases are actually shorter than my reference cases (new Starline brass). I am using Bullseye powder in both and am using low to mid loads starting out. I plan to chrono some factory rounds and compare them to the rounds I have made. I want to work up to approximately the same velocity as factory ball ammo so they have the same "feel."

I bought a Lee primer pocket cleaning tool yesterday and tried that. It actually works really well, even though it is very simple. It does not cut into the pocket but rather lightly scrapes the bottom. I might just give each case a twist with this tool.

Mike

You need to resize and trim your brass because if you don't the case necks crack just saying. This round is not 45 acp or 9mm it is much different and harder. I hope you don't hurt yourself!!!

Brute, Vortec is talking about reloading those specific calibers. Of course, primer pocket cleanliness can apply to all reloads so it doesn't really matter which caliber one asks about.

But that's probably why this thread is in the general reloading forum instead of the 5.7x28 reloading forum.

bruteandbear1 wrote:You need to resize and trim your brass because if you don't the case necks crack just saying. This round is not 45 acp or 9mm it is much different and harder. I hope you don't hurt yourself!!!

Brute, as Rapier pointed out, I AM reloading 45 and 9mm. I AM NOT loading 5.7x28.

I checked the 45 and 9mm case lengths and determined that they do not need to be trimmed because they were all within spec. And I have already sized the rounds. I will flare the mouths during the same process in which I prime the cases.

My question was about the primer pockets specifically. I have decided to just give each pocket with any residue a twist with that LEE tool. It seems to work well without actually cutting brass out of the pocket.

Mike

I generally only clean my primer pockets if they look ultra nasty, sometimes more damage is done to the pockets by cleaning.

The reality of it all in the end. Unless you are a benchrest shooter in competitions or the primer pocket flash hole is plugged, you do not need to clean out the pocket at all. I have a friend who takes his fired brass runs them through a tumbler with the primer still in and then sizes and de-primes his cases. Not once has he done anything to the primer pockets other then to make sure the flash hole is open, and if it is not he pushes a pipe cleaner through the hole to open it back up. He has been reloading for over 40 years and says he has never had any issues from them still being dirty.

jmz5 wrote:I generally only clean my primer pockets if they look ultra nasty, sometimes more damage is done to the pockets by cleaning.

grimmond wrote:The reality of it all in the end. Unless you are a benchrest shooter in competitions or the primer pocket flash hole is plugged, you do not need to clean out the pocket at all. I have a friend who takes his fired brass runs them through a tumbler with the primer still in and then sizes and de-primes his cases. Not once has he done anything to the primer pockets other then to make sure the flash hole is open, and if it is not he pushes a pipe cleaner through the hole to open it back up. He has been reloading for over 40 years and says he has never had any issues from them still being dirty.

Good to know. I have been decapping in a separate process. That allows the tumbler to do some work in the primer pocket, but does not get them spotless. I was thinking along the same lines as jmz5 that getting too aggressive with the cleaning could do more harm than good. The Winchester brass seems to have the nastiest primer pockets, so I have been hitting them with the LEE tool or with an RCBS primer pocket brush. So far, my loads have worked fine. I was worried about long term storage, but someone else said that should not be an issue either.

Thanks for the responses. Happy reloading

Mike

Vortec MAX wrote:I used both a primer pocket uniformer and a primer pocket brush on my first 150 rounds. The brass comes out of the tumbler pretty clean, except for the "stripes" I mentioned above.

Does it affect performance or the life of the primer or powder if those stripes are left in there? It would sure make the process easier.

Mike

Assuming your reloading 5.7 then tumbling is not such a good idea, it removes the lacquer finish from the brass which is needed to ensure good feeding. At least that's what FN says

The question was about 45 ACP. I have been reloading for a while now and have bought a wet tumbling system that uses stainless steel pins. I decap the brass before tumbling and the pockets come out looking like new. I like that I don't have to clean them manually. I did quite a bit a looking into this and found that lots of folks don't clean them at all and don't seem to have any issues. Myself... I have a touch of the OCD and like shiny things, so you know how I like 'em.

Here is a photo of about 500 rounds of nasty range pickup brass that I cleaned this week:



Thanks for all your feedback.

Mike

Very pretty! When I was shooting Bulleye target, I tumbled with corn cob media with a dash of old Dupont 7 auto wax to slick 'em up. Absolutely de-cap before tumbling! Your brass looks better.

My brass never looks that good! I don't clean primer pockets anymore either, unless they area mess.

Stripes! Sorry, didn't notice because I was distracted by the shine. If it is just residual dirt, it doesn't matter at all, Mike.