Marlin Firearms Forum banner

Primer Pocket Cleaning....Ever? Never?

3K views 19 replies 11 participants last post by  papajohn 
#1 ·
I'm sitting at work on a gorgeous Saturday morning, another 12-hour shift, and I'm surrounded by empty brass, buckets of it, that has all been tumbled, and needs to be reprimed. Some of the primer pockets are pretty nasty, and I have my Dremel with me in case I decide to use it. But I wonder if I'm getting a little obsessive about clean primer pockets. I used to only clean them if I was testing loads or loading precision rifle ammo. Lately I've been cleaning ALL of them, just because most of them needed it. Last time it was several thousand pieces of brass I did over a weekend, and it was TEDIOUS.

Do you clean yours? Every time? Every third time? How do you justify it, and what do you use? This Dremel idea is working pretty good at low speed, I use a small stainless steel brush that just fits, and it cleans them pretty well.

My buddy thinks I'm nuts......as he said, "You'll clean primer pockets every time, but you NEVER trim? Explain that!"

Comments?

Papajohn
 
#3 ·
I love to do case prep (used to hate it)...but you need to know that I bought an RCBS TrimMate with my Cabela's Points. Made an adapter so I can use a Lee Case Length Guage and Cutter. Trims, cleans primer pockets, bevels, chamfers, brushes, deburrs flash holes etc., all in one handly little tool. :)

Dave 8)













This is the Lee Cutter Lock Stud ABOVE. Sorry about the poor pic.
 
#7 ·
I cleaned primer pockets when I was loading for match tuned PPC revolvers, very rarely since then. Residue in the pockets can cause misfires in guns that have been tuned for the lightest possible d/a pull with the most sensitive primers but does not seem to affect those with a normal hammerfall.
 
#9 ·
I'm doing it more these days because I have the time, I can bring all the stuff with me to work, and do it at the desk I inhabit most of the day. I decided that I'm going to spend a little more time on my reloads, and see if it helps. I shoot all my revolvers double-action only, and I demand absolute reliability from them. I've never had any real problems with bad ignition, but getting the primers seated consistently seems to help, so I decided to do it on everything.

Dave, I really like that setup, it looks like something I might want to invest in down the road. For now I'm using a Dremel with a thin bit, at low speed it makes short work of the ash deposits. I tried the brushes but they took too long, and didn't always dig out the harder residue. Now it's one second on the bit, and the pockets are shiny and clean.

I feel kind of anal doing each one, but some of this brass has NEVER been cleaned, except in the tumbler, and needed it badly. I guess it doesn't help a lot, but it doesn't hurt, either. It's not like I have anything better to do, the bad guys don't come around much anymore!

PJ
 
#10 ·
I clean them by hand when they are really dirty. If they are clean coming from the tumbler I don't see the point.
 
#11 ·
Papajohn,

If you've got a small drill press handy it'll work wonders for case prepping such as primer pockets, and inside neck brushing.

For the necks, simply chuck in the right sized cleaning brush, and run it into the case mouths at the lowest speed. This results in bright clean necks aiding in consistent bullet seating, and neck tension.

For primer pockets, chuck the primer brush in, and run the pockets up over the brush for a couple seconds. That's how I do it, and you can run through with a thousand cases in lightning fast time.

You know what they say. Give the most aggravating job to a lazy man, and he'll find a fast easy way to do it. :wink: :lol:
 
#12 ·
Jerry, you're cracking me up. My Company Commander in Basic Training used to give me jobs to do, and as long as I got it done right he made everyone else do it the same way. He figured I was the laziest Bastid in the company, and I would find the easiest, most efficient way to do it. He was right!

I like using the dremel because it's portable, and I can use it at work. My drill press weighs 85 pounds, but I might use it for case trimming, if I ever decide to actually DO that. :roll:

I haven't seen the need yet, but I'm still mulling it over.

My best idea for trimming so far is to put a trimming bit in the drill press, and then put the brass in an L.E. Wilson case gauge, and trim off everything that sticks out the top. It's hardened steel, so between the cutter and the gauge, the brass is the softest part there, and if the depth stop is set, it should go pretty quick. Then I just have to chamfer, and load!

Whaddya think of that idea?

Papajohn
 
#13 ·
The Lee trimming system works well for me, just chuck it up in a drill and gitrdone!! Trim, chamfer, deburr, brush and clean the lube off with a little alcohol on a paper towel wrapped around it while it spins. :wink: After that's done, chuck the RCBS primer pocket brush and hit each case for a couple seconds, and they're sparking clean. :lol: It can be done while you're sitting in the living room watching TV.....if the wife doesn't know or lets me, that is!! :oops:

 
#14 ·
Papajohn,

That sounds like a pretty good set up to me.

I have to say this though. If you're cleaning primer pockets looking to get better accuracy, and velocity consistency, I can't hardly believe you're not trimming your cases :shock: . Trimming, is definately critical to velocity variations even in bottle necked calibers, and you can times that by at least ten when it's a revolver caliber. I've experiemented a lot over the years with case prepping, and by the Chrono results, I can assure you that case uniformity is more critical than all the other variables combined with pistol calibers especially when they're fired through a longer rifle barrel.
 
#15 ·
Thanks, Jerry. My revolver loads are shot double-action, and trimming would be a waste of time, but in the magnum loads I put through my rifle, I can see how it could help. I don't have a chronograph, so the only indicator I have is the holes in the paper. Sounds like I need another case gauge!

Papajohn
 
#16 ·
I have never cleaned a primer pocket nor have I ever trimmed a case. I have loaded for .270, 30-30, 243, 223 and other bottle necked cartridges and .40, 45acp, 41, 45 Colt and 45-70 and have never done any of them either. I have used some brass for over 20 loadings so far and have not had a problem.
 
#18 ·
jengel said:
I have never cleaned a primer pocket nor have I ever trimmed a case. I have loaded for .270, 30-30, 243, 223 and other bottle necked cartridges and .40, 45acp, 41, 45 Colt and 45-70 and have never done any of them either. I have used some brass for over 20 loadings so far and have not had a problem.
You're headed for a problem. You can get away with not trimming straight wall cases at modest pressures, but not bottleneck cartidges at rifle pressures. They stretch, and when they stretch too long for the chamber, they hold the bullet like a collet and send pressure skyward.

Skip trimming the pistol cases if you like, but at least measure the bottleneck rifle cartridges every couple of firings.
 
#19 ·
papajohn said:
Jerry, you're cracking me up. My Company Commander in Basic Training used to give me jobs to do, and as long as I got it done right he made everyone else do it the same way. He figured I was the laziest Bastid in the company, and I would find the easiest, most efficient way to do it. He was right!

I like using the dremel because it's portable, and I can use it at work. My drill press weighs 85 pounds, but I might use it for case trimming, if I ever decide to actually DO that. :roll:

I haven't seen the need yet, but I'm still mulling it over.

My best idea for trimming so far is to put a trimming bit in the drill press, and then put the brass in an L.E. Wilson case gauge, and trim off everything that sticks out the top. It's hardened steel, so between the cutter and the gauge, the brass is the softest part there, and if the depth stop is set, it should go pretty quick. Then I just have to chamfer, and load!

Whaddya think of that idea?

Papajohn
I think you should at least measure your cases to avoid danger as suggested above. If you neck size rather than full length then trimming becomes less frequent, but I'd still measure from time to time.

As for the method you suggest, it's good. To simplify it a bit you could use the lee case length guage/trimmer in the press. Just put the cutter with guage in the drill press and stand the casing up on the bench below it with one hand. Lower the drill press so the guage goes into the case neck and the bench will stop it when it is cut to the correct length. Raise the press as you grab a new piece of brass then repeat...

Changing calibers is just a matter of unscrewing the guage and screwing in the correct one for the new caliber, or just keeping a separate cutter with guage (they are cheap) for each caliber.

It is also a good idea to put a piece of metal on the bench to stand the casing on so the end of the guage doesn't eventually wear a divot into the wooden bench and cause the case length to be cut shorter than intended.

I consider myself an accomplished lazy bastid as well, and I don't have a drill press (okay - I'm a cheap bugger too!) so I use a cordless screwdriver for most of my case prep. My drill is pretty heavy so I find this is more convenient. When doing large volumes a faster tool would be better. After reading this thread I will use the dremel next time to see how that works, I expect it will be much faster.

I use the base of the lee case length guage (the portion with the shellholder) inserted in the screwdriver. I insert the brass in the shellholder and give it a quick twist to tighten, run a brush inside the case neck with the driver doing the work, set down the brush and run the lee trimmer in, then debur/chamfer with the combo tool. Done, onto the next piece.

I don't have a tumbler yet, so if I'm feeling particularly energetic that day I'll run an old facecloth (don't get caught if you steal this from the wife!) over the case neck on bottle neck cartridges to remove fouling, or over the whole case to remove sizing lube before I remove the brass from the driver. Stubborn fouling can be removed with fine steel wool. Of course being a lazy bugger I use a collet neck sizing die whenever possible, so I don't have to deal with lubing cases in the first place. ;)

As for the primer pockets, I currently just use the lee tool stuck in my drill and set the drill on my thigh with my weak hand operating it. Grab brass from one bucket, slide it onto the cleaner and squeeze the trigger on the drill once or twice, check that it's clean enough as I drop it into another bucket, and repeat...

I will change to using a brush or other tool for primer pockets as I feel the lee tool leaves a bit to be desired for this operation. I just keep forgetting when I'm at the gunstore. This step will also be using the dremel from now on thanks to this thread. The only advantage I can see that the drill and screwdriver have over the dremel (other than being cordless) is that you just need to push and release a button to operate them.
 
#20 ·
Sounds like several variations on a theme, cordless drill, dremel, or drill press, all basically doing the same thing. When I clean primer pockets I turn the dremel on the lowest speed, and just leave it on until I'm done. 700 cases took me about an hour. I wish all the other prep jobs went that fast!

Papajohn
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top