Decap and Clean Primer Pockets Before Loading?

S

Swifty Morgan

New member
Today I stuck Wolf primers, which are supposedly hard to seat, in old .45 ACP brass. I had several primers that did not want to seat.

Is it necessary to decap brass before cleaning it? It seems like a bummer, given that I paid good money for a press which is supposed to do 4 things in one cycle.

If I decap before cleaning, it will add considerable time to reloading, but I will save the time I spend wrestling with tight pockets. Maybe. It could be that the Wolf primers are just hanging up in brands of brass they don't like.

I found I could feel primers going in if I tried, and by paying attention, I was able to catch the problem quickly and make a special effort to seat stubborn primers. It was still kind of a pain in the butt.

I had a fascinating problem with my seating die. After fooling with a primer problem, I stuck a bullet in a case that had just been charged, and when I turned the handle, I saw that the bullet had been jammed all the way into the case. I thought maybe the seating die had hung up somehow, so I tried again, and the bullet went all the way in. It turned out I had a bullet stuck in the seating die. It must have gotten stuck in there by lube when I interrupted reloading to deal with the primer problem. I have made a lot of spectacular errors while reloading, but this was a new one on me.
 
If my memory serves me, the russian primers tend to be a little harder, may explain the seating effort or tendency to get hung up on the corner of the primer pocket.. I haven't loaded 45 ACP, but I never deprime before tumbling in 9mm, 38 special, or 40. Actually, not even for rifle loads because I don't shoot long range precision yet. My thinking is: the new primer will just take the place of the old one and the walls of the primer pocket are usually squeaky clean, just the bottom looks gnarly.

What press are you using?
 
I tumble brass before decapping. It saves me from worrying about a bit of tumbling media getting caught in a flash hole.

What was the source of your brass? Do you use a primer pocket cleaner/reamer to be sure the primer pockets were clear and the right size?
 
The source of my brass, for the most part, was the ground by the firing line at the Trail Glades Gun Range near Miami.

This is for lead target ammo. I have not done anything except for cleaning it with the primers in place.
 
So it's range pick-up brass. No problem with that -- much of my brass is from scrounging at the range. But ... did you inspect the headstamps? Is it possible that any of the brass is military surplus, that had crimped primers?
 
old .45 ACP brass
Click to expand...
Is it possible that any of the brass is military surplus, that had crimped primers?
Click to expand...
Good point about military brass being crimped. Does the military still make / use 45 ACP these days? If that's it, a little RCBS reamer does the trick for my Lake City rifle brass, I love that it's got a built in stop to it and I can chuck it in my cordless drill.
 
First time I've heard of crimped primers. I had to look them up. Whether I have any, I could not say, but these primers did go in with a little effort, so it appears that they fit.
 
An updated 45 ACP was again recently available in the Marines.
Then, there is brass. Gibrass.com has recent Match 45 ACP WCC 98 once-fired, with no crimp. But, I would say odds of finding many milspec of any variety, in bulk range pickup to be nil. It will be almost entirely commercial. I bought 1000 from precisiononcefiredbrass.com and pickup on my own range. I really, really doubt you will find more than a couple crimped primers in 45 ACP.
Google crimped in Primers and see pictures. They are either a stamped ring around the primer, or usually 3 "stakes" pushing a nub of case brass over the primers.
About seating primers in dirty primer pockets: You can. People do. I won't. That residue is molten glass and lead. I remove it in wet tumbling.
The 45 brass mentioned above costs as much as new Starline.com
 
i was watching a video the other day from jerry miculek on reloading, he said he never messed with primer pockets. I prefer mine clean just to make sure the primers seat well so i deprime, then tumble. I also use walnut, so far it has not gotten stuck, unlike corn cob.
 
Last edited:
I soaked my decapped brass with citric acid and Dawn. I don't know if they'll prime more easily, but they're shiny, and at least I tried.
 
My thoughts are if you are going to load on a progressive press
" supposed to do 4 things in one cycle."
then I would only use primers that would seat easily .
If the hard to seat primers are all I could get ...I would prime them off press with a hand tool or single stage press .
Having to stop production to fiddle with primers isn't going to help in loading ammo ...seems it will just slow you down.
Ditch the Wolf primers or seat them off press so they don't cause problems .
Gary
 
Life is too short to go around cleaning primer pockets.
Click to expand...

My only reloading press is a single stage Lee Challenger. I clean primer pockets on every case, with a hand held little device from Lee, scrapper on each end, one end for large pockets, the other end is small pockets. I can pocket clean 100 cases in about 3-4 minutes. It worth the piece of mind to me. I've had high seated primers not go off before, which can be annoying, so I clean the pockets as normal routine.
 
I'm kind of the odd man out these days, as I'm not concerned with how much time I take loading ammo. I AM concerned with the quality of what I load, and that's the main reason I stopped using a progressive press years ago, and sold them to people who wanted them.

I decap by hand, with the Lee punch set, then tumble. Then, I inspect each case, with a horseshoe nail handy to poke media from the flash hole. Also on standby is my old Dewey Baby Crocogator (which is now what Lee sells as their own tool) Then I size, and then, tumble again. poke flasholes when needed, and put the brass up in boxes or loose container for future reloading.

I prime with a hand tool (RCBS), again, something I went to after decades of using the press mounted systems. I like having the feel the hand tool offers. IF something isn't just right, I know it, instantly, and don't worry about interrupting the loading cycle of 3-4 other cases while figuring out the fix.

I haven't used Wolf primers (though I might have a carton somewhere...) by choice, I won't. CCI mostly Win sometimes.

Other than the occasional case that gets mixed in with mine, I haven't used "range pick up" brass in decades. Bought a lot of brass over the years at gun shows, new or "once fired", I have no need for range pickup stuff (plus its never in calibers I need brass for).

I know I don't NEED to clean primer pockets, but I do it anyway. If the tumbling doesn't do enough, well, I'm handling the case anyway, inspecting, measuring, so why not? twist, twist, done. :D
 
I do my reloading in stages. Have never really cared for a progressive and still use a single stage only my Forster press. I do a lot of range brass and have 5 gallons buckets full of them. One day I'll soak some brass in soapy water, the next day I'll put them in a sonic cleaner than dry them in a toaster oven. The next day I'll de cap the brass, and sort them out by head stamp. The next day I will polish them in a tumbler with walnut media so that I can inspect for cracks and stuff. The next day I'll prime while watching TV. When I'm ready to shoot it is when I will do the final stages of powder and bullets and I weigh every 5th round to insure things are still good, and if I load for match accuracy than I weigh every cartridge. It's about enjoying what I am doing and not crunching the numbers.
 
Today I am reloading brass that was cleaned before decapping. I am having a lot more trouble seating primers. From now on, I'll decap, soak, and then load.
 
Swifty Morgan said:
Today I am reloading brass that was cleaned before decapping. I am having a lot more trouble seating primers. From now on, I'll decap, soak, and then load.
Click to expand...
It has been said that some times the soot from the powder can act as a dry lube. Could be why you noticed the difference.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top