Brass prep

[AirborneEScouter]

New to reloading and starting slow by perfecting brass prep before moving on. I have read extensively on the subject but want to answer a simple question here. I have a vibratory tumbler, an ultrasonic cleaner and now a FA rotary tumbler using stainless pins. The rotary tumbler has certainly proven to be the ultimate in cleaning the cases but I’m still finding a little carbon residue in the primer pocket. I’m curious how clean these need to be - I do have a pocket cleaner brush and can easily knock this out but curious if it’s necessary - see attached a pic of a typical case after 2 hours in the tumbler. Maybe another hour in the tumbler would work, or a different formula in the cleaning solution (I’m using a non-scientific 3 second squirt of dish soap and about a teaspoon of lemi shine). Would you go the extra mile to scrape out this amount of residue?

 

[wind gypsy]

Not a chance i'd spend a second more on cleaning that primer pocket.

 

[Phil j]

That is clean enough for sure.

 

[bsnedeker]

Agree with above, that is what mine look like most of the time when I take them out of the tumbler. I've never taken any steps beyond that and have never had a primer issue.

 

[rayporter]

i have a tool to cut primer pockets to exact depth and that cleans them at the same time. i cut them the first loading for sure and after that rarely. i dont tumble much either.

thats clean enough.

 

[AaronMColeman]

I'm a hunter. Much dirtier primer pockets have killed elk really dead in my experience.

Precision guys may have more to say on this, but us hunters and plinkers are 100% fine with what you have. In fact I'm 100% fine with much dirtier.

 

[Aaron Warpony]

i'd say that's good, unless you're trying to win money at a mile shoot

 

[ADR]

I agree with others that you have those plenty clean enough. I am a little excessive and use a primer pocket uniforming tool though.

 

[MrTim]

I always brush my pockets then clean/tumble. Your pockets looks fine.

Side note: When tumbling with steel you are work hardening the brass to some degree. Great for the lower half of your brass but not so much for the necks. I spend more time using the ultrasonic now and reserve the tumbling for extra nasty brass and for short intervals only. If your annealing, then this is not an issue.

 

[AK_Skeeter]

I always brush my pockets then clean/tumble. Your pockets looks fine.

Side note: When tumbling with steel you are work hardening the brass to some degree. Great for the lower half of your brass but not so much for the necks. I spend more time using the ultrasonic now and reserve the tumbling for extra nasty brass and for short intervals only. If your annealing, then this is not an issue.

Annealing Made Perfect did a study and found only the "skin" of the case is work-hardened by tumbling with steel pins: "Examination of the cross-section of a case which was tumbled in stainless steel shows no obvious deformation of the microstructure, see figure 5.1. Microhardness testing on the cross-section shows a hardness of 98HV". "4 hours of SS tumbling hardens the surface of the case wall by 15 – 25 HV. When the same case is sectioned however, the cross section of the case wall can be tested (see photo above right). This showed that no work hardening occurs deeper into the cross section. The tumbling effectively creates a harder "skin” on the surface which is undetectable even under 200X magnification or higher (Appendix 2 - figure 5.1)."

 

[ephul]

I've got an RCBS prep station and just brush the primer pockets as I debur and chamfer after trimming.

 

[Laelkhunter]

AirborneEScoute, that primer pocket is plenty clean. Just make sure all of the flash holes are clear, and don't have any media stuck in it.

 

[Fubarredz]

I never spend any extra time cleaning my primer pockets!