many people that do not clean primer pockets for handgun cases. I've been doing it for over 50 years and will continue cleaning the primer pocket on all brass.

OK, sometimes I think that Eugene Rockhill will come back from the grave and smack me for being a slacker... Eugen was the WWII vet and retired Barstow narcotics cop that taught me how to reload & cast.

--
Of the Troops & For the Troops

i tumble mine in reptire bedding, primer pockets come out reasonably clean. for my 'very best' rifle loads i do take an extra minute and clean the pockets, but for range ammo, nope.
bob

There is absolutely no need or benefit to cleaning primer pockets. That said, I always do it on rifle cases. Why..just because, that is why!

I don't clean handgun primer pockets. If I put the cases in a cleaner, I do so after in the fired condition. I then deprime and size and reprime.

I do not like carbide dies!!!!! They oversize cases and I am not a high volume shooter anymore. I use 50s and 60's steel dies and am much happier. Lubing and wiping off the finished round is normal for me.

I reloaded thousands of rounds over maybe 15 years. I never owned a tumbler, and never tumbled a case. Never cleaned a primer pocket. I never bought a round of new brass. I once broke a decapper pin on a rock stuck down in a case.:) I never counted reloads, and only tossed a case when it split. I started with a Lee Loader, a set of dippers and a hammer, and ended with a Dillon. My ammo weren't pretty, but it shot like brand new, and I never had any kind of dud. This is not a recommendation, I'm just happy about all that work I didn't do.:)

JLF

I set up a dedicated deprime-only die in a little cheapo LEE press. Immediately after shooting, I deprime the cases and throw them into the tumbler with crushed walnut shells. When they come out of the tumbler, the primer pockets are as clean as I need them to be. I then run the cases thru my carbide sizing die and the depriming pin in this die removes any little bit of tumbling media stuck in the flash holes.

This procedure allows me to run only clean cases thru my sizing dies. Been doing it this way for many, many years and I'm quite happy with the results.

JMHO of course. YMMV

I don't clean primer pockets. I tumble my brass with the spent primer still in the pocket for about 15-20 minutes (anymore time just makes the brass look nicer). Then I size and decap all in the same motion. The primer seats when the handle goes forward. There no time to clean the pocket in that procedure!
Mark

Most of my shooting that involves reloading is 5.56mm, 7.62mm, 9mm and .357. The rifle brass goes to a local guy with the fancy automatic factory line stuff and comes back small base sized, trimmed to length, neck turned, primer pockets cleaned and sized to spec and polished until the case shines like new money...$30 per 1000...good enought for the girls that I go with...a premium product...They used to seat primers, recrimp and seal with red lacquer...just like new...no more...liability in the priming opeation and all....to bad...that was nice....anyway for the price of a couple of double Crowns on ice I save hours of time at the bench...I don't mind reloading...but its kinda like washing dishes...rather someone do it for me....

Fired pistol brass goes into a tumbler for a bit....something between an hour or a week...depends on when I get back down to the barn....then through the 550...looks good...no muss...no fuss....I have been called an equipment operator instead of a reloader...fine....

Byron

Art, Lee makes a universal decapping die that works for most everything. I have mine set up in an inexpensive Lee Partner press that I have bolted to a piece of 2x4 and C-clamped to my bench. When it gets all crudded up with primer residue, I unclamp it and take it outside, hose it off with Gunscrubber, then dry, relube it and clamp it back down. Keeps that nasty, abrasive primer residue away from my good presses, and they almost never need cleaning.

BTW, for those who, like me, are anal about clean cases and primer pockets, a short length of the old pencil-type typewriter eraser sticks chucked up in s drill motor makes the best primer pocket cleaner to be had. Trim the wood back just a bit deeper than a primer pocket by using a sharp knife like a lathe turning tool while the eraser stick spins. Leave the rubber part full diameter for large primer pockets, and turn it down a bit for small ones. Needs to be just slightly loose in the pocket or the rubber will twist off as it spins. When you get it right, it's good for several hundred cases before the tip needs to be recut, and it leaves the pockets clean and shiny with just a touch. Only problem is finding the dern eraser sticks - typewriters are about extinct now, and so are the erasers. Might be something similar for the power erasers used by draftsmen.