prefered method of cleaning primer pocket/flash hole??

T

Trapper Luke

New member
Been looking at different tools to clean the primer pocket and flash hole, noticed theres a few different ways of cleaning them. Seen some that are hand held tools others that attach to a trimmer or some you can use in a cordless drill.

Which method or way do you prefer to use to get the best results?

Thanks,
Luke
 
For cleaning primer pockets I use my RCBS case prep center. It works nicely. For flash holes I use the Redding deburring hand-tools. They both work nicely as well.
 
If you can get something that you can use power to would be the easiest. Especially if you are doing a lot of cases at a time. I have a hand held flash tool that I can chuck in a drill and a Possum Hollow Kwik Case Trimmer.
 
Trapper Luke,
I use the handy little Lee Hand Primer Pocket Cleaner, the RCBS Primer Pocket Brushes (small & large) and have a series of Forster Deburring Tool Bases attached to the side of my reloading bench, each having a deburring or champfering tool inserted into the slots that allows for different cleaning gadgets to be locked into place. I also use the Sinclair Primer Pocket Uniformers, one of which is locked into one of the aforementioned Forster Deburring Tool Bases. I'm seeing less and less of these Forster bases available, but you can still buy them from Forster Reloading direct. I have everything set up as sort of an assembly line that allows me to resize, clean the primer pockets, trim the cases if necessary, champfer and deburr and then wipe every casing before starting the reloading process. I'm kinda anal about case preparation and check each casing by measuring them with a caliper to verify the length is to specs. And once you deburr all the primer pockets when the casings are new, I've found you never have to worry about them after that initial deburring. I also run each casing through a Wilson Case guage to make sure the shoulders are in tolerance and don't need to be bumped. Works for me.
 
You actually do not have to clean them.

DAA, who shoots many thousands of rounds a year quit cleaning primer pockets at least 10 years ago. All his loads shoot just fine.

Jack
 
I'm not cleaning mine any more either Jack, and haen't noticed any changes in vel./accuracy. Was hard to quit doing it though--habit i guess.
 
Originally Posted By: Jack RobertsYou actually do not have to clean them.

DAA, who shoots many thousands of rounds a year quit cleaning primer pockets at least 10 years ago. All his loads shoot just fine.

Jack

Jack is absolutely right! Don't have to clean them for ordinary shooting purposes. But when you shoot for ultimate accuracy, it is another variable that is controlable for primer depth seating purposes and consistency.
 
I clean with the RCBS tool only because i had a problem with the seatin depth the primer was raised just enough to be a problem not all but some and cleaning has cured the problem.
 
Maybe I'm wrong here but I was under the impression that you should deburr them when you have new brass. After that, no need to ever cleaning the flash hole.

As for cleaning the pocket, I use a RCBS case prep center with large and small primer pocket brushes.
 
Originally Posted By: The VirginianMaybe I'm wrong here but I was under the impression that you should deburr them when you have new brass. After that, no need to ever cleaning the flash hole.

As for cleaning the pocket, I use a RCBS case prep center with large and small primer pocket brushes.

Nope...your right. I just hold the cleaned casings up to the light to make sure there is no residue stuck in the flashhole.
 
For cleaning primer pockets I use a cordless drill. I almost bought the rcbs unit which looks like it would work great. Then I thought: Why not use stuff I already have instead of buying something. A cordless drill, A primer pocket cleaner from a manual handheld cleaner, and a 2" peice of an old clening rod. I put the 2" peice of the cleaning rod into the drill, then thread the pp cleaner into the cleaning rod. Works great.
 
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