Question for the more experienced...

[Officers'Wife]

A certain unnamed idiot that shall remain my brother has a habit of "polishing" (for want of a better word) the primer pockets of brass before he reloads. He claims it gives a cleaner more dependable reload. Is this normal procedure or just one of my brother's many many faulty assumptions?

 

[otisrush]

What specifically do you mean when you say polish? Does he literally make the pocket shiny?

 

[Officers'Wife]

Not so much the pocket itself but the hole into the case itself. Kind of like using a nipple pick on a caplock every time. After he removes the primer he kind of pushes a bit of alcohol soaked micro-weave cloth through that tiny hole. His explanation (2nd hand) is that any residue might hamper the primer charge to the powder. I know next to nothing about reloading and he has been at it for years but that just doesn't make sense to me.

 

[blarby]

I'm OCD, but i've never flossed a primer hole.

Uniform, yes.

Floss, no.

You don't want obstructions in the flash hole, and you want it round and centered.

Sounds like he's one of those guys who could really benefit from stainless steel pin tumbling.

 

[HOWARD J]

I use a RCBS Wire brush pocket cleaner on fired standard cartridges---it cleans out the heavy crud but I would not say it polishes the pocket.
when I remove a crimp from Military brass--the decrimper polishes the primer pocket.
You don't clean the pocket for reloading or you don't reload?

 

[mgmorden]

He's just being OCD - it serves no functional purpose.

 

[Bigdog57]

I visually check the flash hole for obstructions, like tumbler media. If it's clean, press on! If there is something in there, blow it out or pick it out. No 'flossing'.
I do use a primer pocket scraper if it's a bit cruddy. Many times not.

 

[buck460XVR]

He's just being OCD - it serves no functional purpose.

I tend to agree, but..........His reloads, his choice. If I was to shoot someone else's reloads, I'd want them to be OCD.

 

[spitballer]

I load in small batches and can afford to demand cleanliness, and I clean my primer pockets thoroughly as a matter of principle. But as far as performance is concerned, carbon buildup in the flash hole itself is probably more important than the pocket. Normally I'll run an abrasive pipe cleaner through the flash holes after the wash, while the carbon is still soft. Contrary to what I've been told on this site, I still believe that larger flash holes produce more pressure, especially those huge flash holes designed for unleaded primers - careful!

 

[cfullgraf]

He's just being OCD - it serves no functional purpose.

I agree.

But, never discount the psychological factor. If the Officer's wife's brother feels better about his reloads by "flossing" the primer pockets and flash holes, he will shoot better.

 

[TimSr]

I've heard that varying degrees of carbon left in primer pockets can cause velocity variations of up to .0000000000001% in some tests.

 

[rsrocket1]

If you wanted to prove him wrong, perform a blind test on him. Personally, I'd leave him be. If he thinks it will make him shoot better (or rather that dirty primer pockets make him lose confidence and shoot worse), then it will help. There is no harm other than wasted time.

 

[hanno]

Seems OCD to me but then again, I weight check every 10th round and flashlight check every tray. To someone with a progressive, I probably seem OCD.

If "polishing" the primer hole floats his boat, leave him be. Harmless enough.

 

[LiveLife]

Tell him he is not doing enough and he must polish the inside of the cases to mirror shine for optimal accuracy.

Seriously, I inspect rifle case primer pockets and clean as necessary but have not "polished" flash holes. Uniforming flash holes I can agree with but polishing, no.

Even "The Rifleman's Journal" case prep for new case doesn't require polishing of flash holes and they are dedicated 1000 yard long-range benchrest shooters and they are really OCD about consistency of cases - http://riflemansjournal.blogspot.com/2010/12/basics-new-brass-preparation.html

With pistol case primer pockets, I have cleaned primer pockets of match loads but could not measure enough difference on target when comparison was done with clean vs uncleaned primer pocket loads. When reloading on progressive presses, residue left in primer pockets are simply crushed and pressed flat when a new primer is seated. If enough crud accumulates, it will prevent primer from fully seating inside the pocket but I found primer still ignites because the compressed crud still presses on the primer anvil feet to set the anvil tip against the priming compound. My reloading mentor shot bullseye matches and cleaned primer pockets of pistol cases but he never polished flash holes. Most action pistol match shooters I have shot with never cleaned pistol case primer pockets, even many regional USPSA match shooters who are really OCD about accuracy.

If he is not convinced, have him do his own range test and see if polished flash holes will make any difference but it may be better for him to lurk on THR as most of us have already done what he may think of doing.

 

[moxie]

Waste of time. I never clean primer pockets in any manner. Primers always seat just fine and always go bang. Hard to improve upon always.

 

[Officers'Wife]

Tell him he is not doing enough and he must polish the inside of the cases to mirror shine for optimal accuracy.

Seriously, I inspect rifle case primer pockets and clean as necessary but have not "polished" flash holes. Uniforming flash holes I can agree with but polishing, no.


If he is not convinced, have him do his own range test and see if polished flash holes will make any difference but it may be better for him to lurk on THR as most of us have already done what he may think of doing.

To give the idiot his due, he does produce very good ammunition, it's just puzzling to me how a man who's tractor cab floor resembles the bottom of a truck stop trash can would be so meticulous on what would seem to be a minor matter.

Considering the times he has mentioned some comment I've made on this board it would appear he does lurk, at least on occasion.

 

[mdi]

Since reloading methods tend to be very personal, it prolly makes his ammo shoot better, at the very least to him (my ammo doesn't require flossing flash holes, cleaning primer pockets, or uniforming pockets/flash holes). To some, there may be no advantage to going way outside the norm for case prep, but who is to say? What is a waste of time, totally useless for some may be an enjoyable task for others. BTW, I have seen pics of huge burrs on flash holes

 

[RugerOldArmy]

Waste of time. I never clean primer pockets in any manner. Primers always seat just fine and always go bang. Hard to improve upon always.

I agree with this. I've tried it. I don't believe it made any difference.

In my experience the key factors are 1) The bullet, 2) the right powder/charge, 3) Basic case prep, 4) The primer.

Once you go beyond that, diminishing returns really apply.

 

[jmorris]

More oftten than not I bet on the decapping pin, that pushes out the spent primer, to clear a big enough hole that the primer can ignite the powder.

 

[Sunray]

"...idiot that shall remain my brother..." And I thought it was just me. Mine doesn't even shoot. Plays that violent children's game on ice. Worse that he lets 'em shot hard rubber disks at him and spent thousands on protective clothing. Idiot. snicker.
The residue is going to have a very hot fire blow through it. Won't be any residue after.

 

[BCRider]

I sure don't. But then I'm not a Fclass bench rest shooter or someone with one of those artillery piece like "railguns". Such folks are the ones that only use brass from the same production batch, log how many times each casing has been shot and reloaded, orient their dies the same way each time and orient their brass the same way each time during reloading and during shooting. To them equalizing the flash holes is likely a standard practice. And I would not be surprised to see them flossing the hole as well as fine cleaning the primer pockets. For them it's all about eliminating that last .01% difference that leads to tightening up their groups that last fraction of an inch.

For normal use? No advantage at all.

 

[THe Dove]

I wonder what he calls you???

I used to de-cap then clean/tumble the primer pockets. However, in the past year or so I've tumble prior to de-capping. I have not noticed any benefit either way.

The Dove

 

[OilyPablo]

I like my primer pockets clean so I wet tumble after depriming. I freely admit this is .999 for cosmetically nice brass and really isn't a giant hassle because I prefer wet tumbling anyway. It's not for me to get in the middle of siblings.

 

[readyeddy]

Me, I don't even bother cleaning the primer pocket so long as I can see daylight through the flash hole and the new primer fits. But that's me and my 1.5 moa groups.

If I wanted to make ammo capable of shooting .5 moa or less, than I would do what your brother does, plus a bunch of other stuff.

 

[JO JO]

to each his own its all good, thats one of the reasons this
hobby is so cool, there are some basic mandatory steps but
you can sure go beyond if you choose