Primer pocket clenaing

[Dildobaggins]

So I've successfully reloaded and shot about 500 rounds of 223. I took my cases and tumbled them in corncob media, and cleaned the primer pockets. I'm very new to this, and don't know if I'm being too picky or if they should be cleaned better. Thoughts? Thanks!

 

[acudaowner]

if your happy with it it's all good . load it up and shoot it if you don't like the way it shot clean it beeter if you feel it will make that much differance I have not see it , but that does not mean that no one has .

 

[Dildobaggins]

if your happy with it it's all good .

I guess my question should have been will it effect ignition or accuracy? I cleaned the pockets with a Lyman multi tool, wondering if that's how they look normally.

 

[DIBBS]

I don't clean my primer pockets. Definitely not a world class shooter. I do, however, make sure that primers are firmly seated in the primer pockets. I don't believe it is a necessary task, nor that it affects accuracy, others may disagree.

 

[spife7980]

I guess my question should have been will it effect ignition or accuracy? I cleaned the pockets with a Lyman multi tool, wondering if that's how they look normally.

If you ran a scraper over them and that’s what’s left then it’s what’s left below the high points of brass which means it’s a wobbly pocket which is what I expect with Winchester. Cleaning it further will do nothing for you.

 

[Dildobaggins]

If you ran a scraper over them and that’s what’s left then it’s what’s left below the high points of brass which means it’s a wobbly pocket which is what I expect with Winchester. Cleaning it further will do nothing for you.

Sounds about right! Loaded primers into the win brass on my rock chucker, and they went in fairly easily without much leverage. I took 100 Lapua cases and they are almost all clean as a whistle and the primers were still very tight.

 

[Near miss]

Have not cleaned them, with quite many of primers standing out of the case a few thousands and still provide very good precision.

 

[smoothy8500]

..... many of primers standing out of the case a few thousands and still provide very good precision.

I don't clean pockets either. But, Ummmmm, yeah, the though of high primers in an autoloader give most shooters an uncomfortable feeling..... The fear of Slam-fires, Out-of-battery ignition, and "KaBooms".

 

[Near miss]

I don't clean pockets either. But, Ummmmm, yeah, the though of high primers in an autoloader give most shooters an uncomfortable feeling..... The fear of Slam-fires, Out-of-battery ignition, and "KaBooms".

These problems are probably related to free firing pin movement?
I figured it is all good since the bolt face will push the primer in if it goes any. My gun has safety on the firing pin. My problem with high primers is that my COAL measurements vary quite much because of it but I have already learned not to care, the seater does its job well.

 

[spife7980]

I figured it is all good since the bolt face will push the primer in if it goes any.

And if it wont go in any and gets pushed on then it blows up... hence the slamfire, out battery, kaboom comment you quoted.

 

[Near miss]

And if it wont go in any and gets pushed on then it blows up... hence the slamfire, out battery, kaboom comment you quoted.

True. I guess I will have to find a way to improve seating.

To OP, I would focus more to the other end of the cartridge. Here is my study from last weekend on seating depth using N540 and Scenar 77s at 150m using series of 10 shots.
Tested 6 different micrometer settings. The 11th setting was at around 2.265 so the lowest should be 2.255ish. (Does not really matter, you need to test it yourself)

Notice this test was done using only seater setting. I did not adjust it during seating one serie. It seems like staying at the same seater setting provides most robust results. I did not even measure the COAL for these as I normally do but I wish to not incorporate it to my "bulk" loading process.

 

[secondofangle2]

cleaning primer pockets is largely a waste of time. I only clean my brass so it doesn't gum up my hands, case lube pad, dies, and everything else it touches so much.