Friends-

I have been handloading rifle cartridges since 1979. Over the years, I have leaned to the side of precision. For example, I clean and true-up primer pockets, debur flash holes, weigh and sort my brass, and with a few of my rifles, I turn the necks of my cases. So, it is a small batch highly precise exercise.

So, now I am embarking on loading .45 ACP. I see this as a completely different exercise. For example, I am not truing up primer pockets, not worth the effort. I sure as heck am not deburring 1,000 rounds of handgun brass. One question, I have regards, cleaning primer pockets, should I or shouldn't I? I cannot imagine that a little carbon residue is going to make a difference, but, I would like to hear others thoughts regarding this.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

I sure wouldn't worry about cleaning the primer pocket.

Unless you're a bench rest shooter with a very accurate gun, it's highly unlikely you'll notice any improvement on paper from your primer pocket uniforming, case neck turning and primer pocket cleaning. Weight sorting cases may help; I don't know since I've never tried it though I have tried the other stuff.

I quit cleaning primer pockets a long time ago, especially when it comes handgun rounds.

On the only two I own and load for the 45 ACP and 40 S&W I don't do anything but tumble and load

No trim
No nothing

Load em and bang em

The only prep step I do that isn't already mentioned is I put each round thru an OAL gage to make sure none are over the max length.

I also tumble them to clean, and resize with carbide dies on a progressive....quick and effective!

Cheers,

Dan

Most auto pistols that headspace on the case mouth tend to get shorter not longer in my experience.

And I just tumble, and load.

I do not trim pistol cases and I do not uniform primer pockets. BUT I like case to be clean that is why I do clean pockets and wash all cases before reloading them. If necessary I clean them with a tartaric acid mixure only.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Some of you might find this of interest

I think the blown primers on the Hirtenberg case could come from the thicker case walls and lower internal volume of the Hirtenberg cases. If you adjust you load there should not be any problems with the Hirtenberg cases. I have found them to be reliable and long lasting, but you must lower the load to compensate for the thinker case walls.

quote:

Originally posted by Reloader270:

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Some of you might find this of interest

I think the blown primers on the Hirtenberg case could come from the thicker case walls and lower internal volume of the Hirtenberg cases. If you adjust you load there should not be any problems with the Hirtenberg cases. I have found them to be reliable and long lasting, but you must lower the load to compensate for the thinker case walls.

Blown primers happened on factory Hirtenberger ammo.

We have had no end of problems with Hirtenberger ammo, in several factory loads.

A 45ACP is a different animal than a 223.
Bench shooters fixes have little effect.
It's been a long time since I've seen a
SubMoa 45.

quote:

Originally posted by Bren7X64:
Most auto pistols that headspace on the case mouth tend to get shorter not longer in my experience.

And I just tumble, and load.

How can that be? I've never heard of brass shrinking.

Tumble em, load em, bang em, and most importantly REPEAT OFTEN!!!

Peter

I've loaded thousands of handgun ammo on a progressive after just tumbling the fired cases. They worked fine and accuracy was always fine for the intended purpose.

My experience is that my progessive runs better with cases that were decapped and tumbled in SS pin media, but not all of the presses are equally affected by primer residue crud.

quote:

Originally posted by craigster:

quote:

Originally posted by Bren7X64:
Most auto pistols that headspace on the case mouth tend to get shorter not longer in my experience.

And I just tumble, and load.

How can that be? I've never heard of brass shrinking.

Probably because they get their case mouths bumped (quite hard) on the front of the chamber where they head space. If the cartridge is low pressure (.45 ACP) the bump outweighs any lengthening effect. In effect it's being peened back slightly every time it gets fed.

See http://thefiringline.com/forum...ex.php?t-442733.html 7th post for an example. There are a few more below that back this up.

This has also been my experience. We're not talking inches here, but after 10 or 20 reloads, it can be seen with the naked eye (compared to another case obviously). If the naked eye is sharp.

I take the time with new brass to equalize the primer pockets and flash holes in all my cases. It's only done once in the life of the case so it is worth it for me.

I do tend to be a bit of a fanatic for accuracy so the pockets are always cleaned and I run all my brass through a trimmer every time. It rarely trims any metal but I do it to ensure that the cases are the same length.

With double base (ball) powders my measures will hold tighter tolerances than the +/- 0.1 grain that my scales do - compared with my lab scale - so once I set the powder measure I throw 10 charges into the pan and weigh it - adjusting the measure to throw the exact weight - and then if I weigh the charges thrown they are always within less than 0.1 grain from the scale weight. Throwing ten charges when set at 18.4 gives me a reading of 184 grains if it is properly adjusted.

I have noticed that thrown charges with double based powders gives better accuracy than weighing individual charges. Those loads also show less deviation and extreme velocity readings.

For the coarse grain single base powders I had a measure modified by a bench rest friend to throw more consistent charges. He has the same measure and rarely weighs charges for his bench rest shooting.

I always check the measure with a scale - even the micrometer adjustable measures to be sure that I am throwing the appropriate load.

Shit Paul......we are talking about the 45 ACP here