To clean or not to clean......

[Bob Mc Alice]

After 40 plus years of handloading I should be embarrased to post this. But I thought it was worth passing on.

A couple of weeks ago I was discussing the merits of cleaning the residue out of primer pockets with someone here on SC. I used to be very dilligent , cleaning every time. Then I got a little lazy and decided to skip to every 2 - 3 times. Then every 6-8 times....etc. Never had any issues with seating or ignition.

Not long ago I posted of the excellent case life I was getting with a batch of 7-08 WW brass in my match guns.I am shooting a very mild CPT load using Varget. Today I was in the process of loading them for the 19th time.....yep, 19.(dont worry , I am keeping a close eye on them for imminent head failure). Not once had I cleaned out the pocket of any of this batch of 100. Up till just an hour ago, no problems with seating or ignition.

This time I could not seat a primer flush at all in the first few I tried. They were raised enough as to not wanting to slip out of the Auto Prime shellholder. So out comes my old Lee primitive pocket cleaner. Had a big pile of carbon and crap when I was done. Shame on me. No problems seating after cleaning them. I am sure that at sometime in the past during the seating process I was possibly pushing the anvil too deep into the cup, or the carbon was collasping some...but not once did my favorite CCI 200 fail to do its job. Moral to the story....back to cleaning every 2-3 times fired. No more being lazy. Period.

The photos are a bit shocking....dont tell anyone..I am ashamed enough already.

http://s190.photobucket.com/albums/z94/ ... C05774.jpg

[Bob259]

Wow.... I was visiting a bench rest shooter last week and he showed me his '22' step process he does to every case for reloading... but we all know Bench rest shooters are excessive compulsive.

[Jason]

Sinclair primer pocket uniformer and screwdriver/drill adapter make the problem go away.

[Joaquin B]

Bob,

Go forth and sin no more.

[Bob Mc Alice]

Jason....that $1.98 Lee tool works real good....if you use it. Cleaning primer pockets is one of those pesky loading chores that's kind of like vacuming your carpet at home. Yeah, you could do it every week and pick up some debris, but skipping to once every three weeks or better yet every other month looks like you acheived something! Two or three firings does not leave that much build up, IMO. But 18 times sure does !

I have seen the error of my ways and will return to every 2-3 times cleaning interval.

Thank you Father Joaquin....I will say ten Hail Marys and beg the loading Gods for forgiveness!

Now....any volunteers want to vaccum my house every week? There is lots of carbon in front of my loading bench.

[Bob259]

Bob, What I've been doing is depriming them in the first step then clean them in the vibrator/tumbler and that seems to do a fairly good job.

[malinois]

Cant help with the vacuming but I can bring my K9's over so they can leave some fur down for you to use as a indicator to help with the vacuming...works well here you can always tell where to go with the vacume head.

[Silo65]

Bob

You have proven that primer pocket cleaning is not necessary to the vast majority of shooters who discard thier cases after a few firings. Based on your "experiment", it probabbly isn't necessary until sometime after the 15th firing. Thanks for the info.

Rich

[Jerry G]

I'm with Bob259. De-prime and then polish. Som media gets stuck in the flash hole sometimes but the first stage on the blu press fixes that. You just end up with some media in your primer catch tray.

[Innocent]

McAlice, what happened? One you lost your OCD and didn't clean! and two you admit to being over 40?????


Innocent

[malinois]

Ocd and over 40, thats where I duck so I dont get hit with that flameing mess...I have OCD I keep bending my arm up to my face.....except theres a glass of something at the end of the arm.

[1armoured]

Mister McAlice.......you're probably a carbon footprint that can be seen from space !

I've never polished my brass. (always looks clean to me !)

but I clean the primer pockets, and the neck inside and outside, every reload !

cheers,
Sean
(well at least you came clean, and I must admit, you don't look a day over 60 !)

[Bob Mc Alice]

OCD..........Organic Carbon Deposit. I have carbon footprints all over my carpet.

SIXTEY !!!!!! Sean, you are now on my shit list for that comment. The very top Sir....

[kevinbear]

Whitetail mfg. makes a neat little primer pocket uniformer that cleans as well, if you have a few of the really dirty ones laying around I'd like to run a test on them to see if it really makes a difference. I've never been able to let them go that long to have that dirty of ones to test {obsessive compulsive disorder}. I should have time next week after I get all my SK 22 ammo weighed and sorted for the match this weekend!

[Innocent]

Sean....he's not a day over 29, trust me, I have an orange shirt.

Innocent