Primer pocket

[1911dude]

Is it necessary to clean these out every time or is tumbling enough? How does a dirty primer pocket affect the bullets performance?

[XDRoX]

I never clean my pockets. Just tumble and reload. I tumble with the used primers still in, if not the media can get stuck in there. I suppose if I was doing more accurate shooting then things like cleaning primer pockets might have an effect on things. But for what I do, I don't worry about it.

[joelogic]

Uniforming the flash hole is more important than cleaning the pocket. If you are going for 1/4 MOA then clean away. But I doubt that is any actual testing of clean pocket vs. not cleaned.

[bohoki]

ive seen no evidence it helps

but the act of cleaning the pocket may cause it wear and may enlarge it prematurely

[MG34]

In auto rifles (M1A M1 M1 Cabine) if you leave a primer seated to high because of a dirty primer pocket you can have a slam fire, and thats not good.

[Chief-7700]

Cleaning primer pockets on straight walled pistol brass rates right up with trimming them. Not needed, major waste of time.

[Hoop]

Very rarely, in fact almost never. I haven't noticed a difference in accuracy.

[Beelzy]

Don't clean pistol pockets, however I do clean the rifle ones. It does make a difference with rifle loads. IMHO

[RaymondMillbrae]

Pistols...naw.

Semi-Auto rifles (.223/5.56 or .308/7.62)...naw.

Precision/bolt action rifle...yepper-ee.

In Christ: Raymond

[Full Clip]

Hmmm, not sure my OCD will let me not clean the primer pocket...!

[1911dude]

Yeah, that's what I thought. I asked the question because at www.ammosmith.com they have a bunch of video's up including tips and tricks. One of them was about cleaning the primer pocket. I started to wonder why and then thought it would be hard to do when you load on a progressive press. I'm not going to worry about it.

[Enter_the_Dragon]

Yeah I was cleaning the primer pockets on the 45ACPs, man that was too much work. Read several forums re: cleaning primers, majority posted "not necessary/waste of time". So now I don't even bother, so far it has not caused any issues with misfires.

[xrMike]

I don't do it for pistol brass. I used to do it for precision rifle brass, but stopped with my last batch, just to see if it made a difference. My groups weren't any worse, so I will probably eliminate it from my case prep ritual. Maybe it DOES help, but I'm not a good enough shot to notice... ??? I'm SURE the hardcore bench-resters do it without fail.

One thing to say about cleaning primer pockets... In my opinion, you should be careful doing this. Wear gloves; don't do it in common areas of the house; do it over a paper plate or piece of newspaper that you can fold up and throw away when done; try not to touch/breathe/disturb/distribute the particles that come out of the primer pockets as you clean them.

Why? Because there's a lot of lead in that stuff! It's the combustion residue from the lead styphnate in the primers. I'm no expert but I'd bet you that this step actually has the single highest potential for lead exposure, even over tumbling.

[Chris M]

Hmmm, not sure my OCD will let me not clean the primer pocket...!

Ditto. My brass has to be nearly perfect and uniform before I'll load it. Probably won't see any real differences, but it gives me a reason to sit at the reloading bench for a couple extra hours, every once in a while.

[JC Smith]

Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't current primers lead-free... seems like I remember something about that? Maybe just some of them? (but you don't see them advertised one way or the other). If you really want to clean your primer pockets try compressed air. A quick shot from an air gun on a 125-PSI compressor does a pretty good job. It works even better if you are washing your cases with one of the brass cleaning recipes (water, vinegar, lemon juice, soap, salt, etc.) and you do it while the brass is still wet. It works better still if done on nickel-plated cases. That said, I agree, it won't make a hoot of difference with your pistol loads.