Newbie question: Primer pocket cleaning/prepping

[Kaos116]

I am starting to read up on reloading. I have noticed that there are tools for cleaning and resizing(?) the primer pocket. I have read about the steps of reloading, but they never mention that procedure.

Is it one of those things that might not need to be done everytime you reload? Or is it done right after you deprime?

Thanks

 

[Gammon]

Don't bother. The only concern is crimped primer pockets which need to be swaged to remove the crimp. I have reloaded over 500,000 rounds of pistol, rifle and shotgun and have never cleaned a primer pocket. Just not worth the effort.

 

[Knuckle Dragger]

Don't bother. The only concern is crimped primer pockets which need to be swaged to remove the crimp. I have reloaded over 500,000 rounds of pistol, rifle and shotgun and have never cleaned a primer pocket. Just not worth the effort.

agreed!

 

[Adam_MA]

I agree also, unless of course you are shooting competition with military brass. In that case, using a primer pocket uniformer the first time you reload the case would be beneficial.

I deprime all of my brass as a first step. Even the brass that will be run through one of my progressive presses. I deprime, then tumble, that way the tumbling media takes care of cleaning my primer pockets. Is it a necessary step? Nope, but that's just the way I do it.

 

[Kaos116]

I deprime all of my brass as a first step. Even the brass that will be run through one of my progressive presses. I deprime, then tumble, that way the tumbling media takes care of cleaning my primer pockets. Is it a necessary step? Nope, but that's just the way I do it.

That brings up another question I have. Do you use a universal deprimer die?

Here is what I am wanting to do. I have the brass that I have shot from the past few years. Mainly 308,223,9mm,40SW. I would like to reload at some point in time. But right now, time is more abundant than money. So I wanted to start processing the brass. Mainly deprime and clean. Then as the funds allow, add another step to the process (resize and prime). And so on. Untill I have everything for the complete process.

Another question. Do you trim or debur the cases? Or is this another unnecessary step. If so, this step would fall between resizing and priming?

Thanks again

 

[EddieCoyle]

You need to trim and deburr rifle cases after you resize them. You don't have to trim pistol cases.

Like everybody else, I've never cleaned a primer pocket and probably never will.

If any of those .308, .223, or 9mm cases are military, they may have a crimped primer pocket. You'll notice that the primer pocket looks a little different, and you'll notice that it takes more force to deprime them. You will have to remove this crimp (by either reaming or swaging) before you reprime the cases.

 

[tele_mark]

I only clean the primer pocket on .223 because it's done by the chamfer tool. And I only chamfer the pocket on all my .223 brass because I've found that I have problems seating primers on a large percentage of them, so I do them all now. So in short, no, I don't clean primer pockets unless it's an ancillary function. And as far as chamfering pockets, if you need to do it you'll know.

 

[Dick]

Another question. Do you trim or debur the cases? Or is this another unnecessary step. If so, this step would fall between resizing and priming?

You don't necessarily need to trim if the cases don't exceed the SAAMI maximum length, which is given in all reloading manuals, but you must check every case with a go/no-go gauge or [better] a caliper to be sure. The reason is that a too-long case will be "crimped" by the end of the chamber, particularly in bolt-action rifles, and pressures could rise to unsafe levels. The manuals will also provide the trim-to length. You shouldn't need to trim after every firing - if I found that one of my guns was causing that I'd have it checked for excess headspace. For precision reloading it's not a bad idea to trim at least once even if you don't really need to because it makes the neck a bit more uniform.

Trimming should be done after resizing because cases can "grow" when resized, though I have to admit that I've done some careful measurements over the years and I don't see this happening much if at all. Deburring will be necessary if and only if you need to trim.

The need to trim is primarily for bottleneck rifle cartridges. As others have indicated, straight-sided pistol cartridges don't need it. I also don't bother cleaning primer pockets - I can't shoot well enough to benefit from whatever, if any, additional accuracy might be gained.

 

[RKG]

That brings up another question I have. Do you use a universal deprimer die?

Here is what I am wanting to do. I have the brass that I have shot from the past few years. Mainly 308,223,9mm,40SW. I would like to reload at some point in time. But right now, time is more abundant than money. So I wanted to start processing the brass. Mainly deprime and clean. Then as the funds allow, add another step to the process (resize and prime). And so on. Untill I have everything for the complete process.

Another question. Do you trim or debur the cases? Or is this another unnecessary step. If so, this step would fall between resizing and priming?

Thanks again

Hint: if you process groups of brass in batch, be sure to put a slip of paper in the bag or container noting what has been done and what the next step is. Otherwise, you'll either size a case twice or (worse) not at all.

 

[Adam_MA]

That brings up another question I have. Do you use a universal deprimer die?

Yes, I use aLee Universal Depriming and Decapping Die

 

[BIG GUN]

I agree that it is not important to uniform primer pockets unless you are into competative benchrest, but my normal procedure on rifle calibers is to either neck, or full length resize/decap a case, uniform the primer pocket which also cuts a little brass & cleans out the carbon. Most primer pockets are punched, not drilled, so they are a little concave. Then I trim to a uniform length and reprime using a Lee hand primer. I like to feel the primer seating.
I realize that this is overkill, but I have the time to do it.