Dirty primer pockets and sonic cleaner

[Varminterror]

I run 20min of 1:1 Vinegar:water then run 15min One Shot. At worst only 1 in 20 cases will have any residue, and cases are clean and shiny inside and out. I dry on a Frankford dryer my wife gave me for Christmas a handful of years ago - I never would have bought it myself, but it's absolutely worth the low cost! I rinse in hot water, dump on a towel, pat, and dump into the trays. Within an hour I have perfectly dry brass to work with. No more water spots, no more blowing out cases, no more racking to dry, no more overnight waiting. Whether wet tumbling or ultrasonic cleaning, I am really glad to have the dryer.

 

[Mike D Texas]

Wet pin tumbler takes care of that issue easily.

 

[Flintlock shooter]

After I sonic clean I rinse twice in distilled water. Then I hit each primer pocket with a blast of air from my air compressor. While the "gunk" is wet it comes out easily this way. Doing that also makes sure that I don't get any scaling in the flash hole when the brass is drying. I dry in 200 degree oven for 20 minutes.

 

[unleashed]

You could just not worry about it. I stopped religiously cleaning my brass 2 years ago. Now I just tumble with spent primers in, size/deprime and then tumble again for 20 minutes to remove case lube. The primer pockets clean themselves every time the case is fired. I don't have a single caliber that has more than a 5 SD since moving to this method.

 

[Dr. Richard Gray]

This is more of an annoyance, but I'm hoping someone here has a trick I can learn.

I have a Hornady sonic cleaner and no matter how I load the cleaner, or how many rounds of cleaning I do, I still end up with several cases that have gunk in the primer pocket. For those that have such case cleaners, how do you prevent this, or deal with it other than wait for it to dry and use a primer pocket tool to clean it up afterwarrd?

I first de-prime and resize my cartridges. The lubricant I use is STP. I use an old sock, place some STP on it and wipe each cartridge case. This makes the cartridge a bit sticky, so next I clean the cases with good old brake parts cleaner or some cleaning solvent. My parts cleaner circulates a flow of air into the cleaner and causes the turbulence to thoroughly clean the cases. I then put them in a casing holder to drain and dry for a few days. Now they are ready for the tumbler (I use ground walnut shell media). When the cases come out I is when I do my inspection of every case for cracks, corrosion, etc. and use an RCBS primer pocket uniformer, in a Dremmel tool, to clean the pockets. The problem you are addressing is common for all reloaders. I often find large chuncks of the media getting stuck in the primer pockets. I first tried the RCBS primer pocket brushes and would not recommend them at all. This is just something that you have to account for in reloading.

Hope you enjoy what you are doing. Good luck and have fun.

 

[30BR]

Even in benchrest, lots of folk don't bother cleaning pockets, once they are cut to a uniform depth. Shoot em the way they come out of the tumbler.

 

[Dr. Richard Gray]

You could just not worry about it. I stopped religiously cleaning my brass 2 years ago. Now I just tumble with spent primers in, size/deprime and then tumble again for 20 minutes to remove case lube. The primer pockets clean themselves every time the case is fired. I don't have a single caliber that has more than a 5 SD since moving to this method.

Tried that tumbling with spent primers still in. Cases filled with media that packed into the case and required some type of drill bit to loosen it and get it out. Don't know why it doesn't happen after depriming. I have broken at least 2 decapping pins as a result. If you use an ultra sonic cleaner you don't have to worry about this problem.

 

[dwinmeade]

I have one of Harbor Freight's single canister tumblers. I load 40-50 6.5 CM/243/22-50 cases, along with 6 squirts of foaming Dawn liquid and 1 table spoon of Lemi-Shine. Also with about 2# of SS pins. I run it about 3 hours (it takes the previous batch 3 hours to dry...nice cycle for me).
Once done tumbling, I dump brass & pins in a strainer in the kitchen sink and rinse throughly, mixing them around slightly. As I lay them out on a towel, I lightly tap them on the counter to make sure no pins are inside. Here's how I dry them...

I tried the oven on low method and it tarnished my shiny brass. Now I load them in empty, plastic factory cartridge inserts, rubber band them together (so they stand up together) and put them in front of my table fan. Within 3 hours (probably less) all cases are dry and shiny and no primer pocket cleaning needed.


Now it's time to stop the tumbler, rinse the batch, get them drying, and load up another bunch. This 3 hour cycle gives me alot of reloading time, once I get my 'honey-do' list done first.

 

[Blackhawk]

Wet tumble with ss pins solves a lot of problems.

My Observations
After trying all kinds of brass cleaners (ultrasonic, or dry tumbling in media) I have found the following.
1) Ultrasonic cleaners did not perform for me as well as expected.
They did require turning them on multiple times yielding less than satisfactory results for me. In that light, I just will not use them for brass cleaning.

2) Dry tumbling in a vibrating tumbler is hazardous to your health.
The dust emitted when you sort your brass from the media itself contains lead particles.
This dust is in the air that you breathe, and unless you separate brass from media outdoors you will be left with a fine red dust that will settle on your equipment.
Brass cases on the inside and primer pocket holes may in fact come out of dry tumbling with some media dust on them( especially inside of the neck ) and should be wiped by hand before use.
Additionally, media will settle in your primer holes requiring you to monitor each piece of brass and clean as needed Also after each use you must either choose to clean your tumblers chamber or let the red dust and cleaner continue to build up after each use. ( this can be quite messy)
The end result however is an acceptably clean usable brass cartridge case.

3 )Wet tumbling with SS pins as media will yield perfectly cleaned brass every time if you do your part with the only
the downside is that SS pins do occasionally get lodged in your primer holes.
It is not a big issue as I generally give each case a quick wipe and examine each for any pins left inside and in the primer pocket area.
Now in all fairness, another step is needed and that is to place your clean brass in a heated case dryer in order to remove all dampness, and water spots.
On the plus side, your SS pin media need only to be purchased once.
The only other items that you need will be Lemi-shine and Dawn. Both of these can be found rather inexpensively as opposed to corn cob media, or the like which must be used in a vibrator tumbler along with polish and an ultrasonic cleaner which is made for use in said machines.
All l of the above items must be replenished as your supplies dwindle.

Side Note: I have found that homemade ultrasonic cleaners can be made rather inexpensively however they just didn't work well for me. Even the commercial ones still did not leave my cases as clean as I wanted These results were based after trying 2 different ultrasonic cleaning units both ended in disappointment.
In the end, I leave it up to you to decide, however, I for I prefer to wet tumble.

 

[Dr. Richard Gray]

Even in benchrest, lots of folk don't bother cleaning pockets, once they are cut to a uniform depth. Shoot em the way they come out of the tumbler.

Dirty primer pockets are a MAJOR problem for a revolver. If the primer is not seated deep enough, because of dirt and gunk, the cylinders will not revolve efficiently. Had this problem a lot with both my Super Blackhawk 44 and my Blackhawk 357. Never affected any of my rifles, but the thought is still there that the primers are not seated properly. That alone could cause poor performance in a rifle.

 

[marchboom]

After using my ultrasonic with Lemishine there are a few cases that still have a little bit of primer residue but it is so small that it's not an issue. Never had an issue seating primers, handgun or rifle.

 

[Blackhawk]

Dirty primer pockets are a MAJOR problem for a revolver. If the primer is not seated deep enough, because of dirt and gunk, the cylinders will not revolve efficiently. Had this problem a lot with both my Super Blackhawk 44 and my Blackhawk 357. Never affected any of my rifles, but the thought is still there that the primers are not seated properly. That alone could cause poor performance in a rifle.

I have found that even after wet tumbling and drying my brass I still will give especially new brass the obligatory primer pocket cleaning using my powered Lyman Case Prep Express unit. In this manner, I can make certain that all primers will fit correctly.
Additionally, I will examine several brass hulls for correct primer seating depth before starting my progressive reloader for volume.
In This manner, I know that my primers are seated -.003 below flush.
I own and shoot several large-caliber revolvers including a Ruger Super Black Hawk, and a Ruger Super Red Hawk Toklat Alaskan among others and have never had a cylinder refuse to index in time.
However, I am aware of the issue that you are talking about and agree with your statement about primers having to be seated correctly.

 

[doctorlead]

This is more of an annoyance, but I'm hoping someone here has a trick I can learn.

I have a Hornady sonic cleaner and no matter how I load the cleaner, or how many rounds of cleaning I do, I still end up with several cases that have gunk in the primer pocket. For those that have such case cleaners, how do you prevent this, or deal with it other than wait for it to dry and use a primer pocket tool to clean it up afterwarrd?

I put in a tablespoon or so of Lemi Shine w/ each load of brass. Typically takes 15 min or so and clean inside / out

 

[iclick]

I use the lyman mixed with hot water then I use heated clean for 25 minutes. Then I use our dehydrator to dry them. Other than a few water spots to wipe off they for the most part look like new brass when done.