Brass/ primer hole clean!!!

[Edubya]

I have been inspired by the 50/50 solution of peroxide and vinegar cleaning of the brass. I've also thought about getting into the ultra-clean, with the ultrasonic gadget.

Well, tonight I thought that I might try something that I already have; the "Waterpik Ultra" that we use for dental hygiene. I punched out a primer of a .40 caliber brass and found a couple of other sizes that I had laying around and took them into the bathroom. With the solution in the Waterpik tank, it took about 5 seconds with each brass, then rinse off, under the tap, and a swabbing out with a q-tip made it like new! If you need to clean the primer and flash hole even further, I'd suggest that you use a pipe cleaner or visit your nearest source for dental hygiene products, i.e., drugstore, or even Wal-Mart (ugh--Chinatown) and get those small round brushes that you use for a substitute of floss (you'll recognize them, once you see them).

The ultrasonic machines costs about the same as the Waterpik Ultra at Harbor Freight Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices
and might be able to do more brass at one time, but the dental hygiene unit can save you big bucks if you and your family will use it.

[Mike in VA]

Just for safety, I would not use the same unit to clean my teeth that I used to clean primer pockets. Priming compounds often contain lead, and this could be a way to ingest lead.

Seems like a lot of work to clean the crud out of primer pockets, though. Why not get one of the little twist type hand tools designed for this?

[fredj338]

You have way too much time on your hands. I almost never clean the primer pockeets of my pistol brass. Would never have thought of cleaning the flash hole w/ a pipe cleaner, never.

[Liquid Rhino]

I just use a small flathead screwdriver that fits the pockets. It's ape-ishly simple & effective. Never had to actually clean the flash holes as of yet, since the crewdriver does a good job of breaking up the grime.

The pipe cleaner's a good idea though!

[agalindo]

I only use mine when cleaning .223 or .308. The cleaner comes with a small handle the end of it screws off so you can use the larger primer or small primer pocket cleaner. You can remove the end "cleaner" put on a drill.



The cleaner end you can put on a drill.

[KrayzieVanh]

I was just about to ask about this. I came upon this article:

UltraSonic Case Cleaning

It beats the small primer pocket cleaners. I've used mines for about 400 round and it's already going bad. I've tried using a flathead bit and the torx bit for my drill and that works pretty decent.

[rodnocker1]

I don't clean my pistol brass but I do my rifle. At first, I was using an RCBS primer pocket cleaner but after cleaning around 2,000 pieces of .223 brass, I could barely use my hands. I got to looking around and found an old Dremel tool with the cable extension on a back shelf. I ordered some small brass end brushes from Widget supply and these work great (they also have steel ones). I lightly chuck the extension in my gunsmithing vice and it's off to the races. This method leaves both of my hands free to handle the cases which reduces both the time it takes to clean the brass and also the stress on my hands.

[lethal93ta]

I use a primer pocket uniformer on my RCBS prep station.

[AZXD]

One of my issues of Handloader Magazine had a write-up on various things that can affect accuracy. Results were based on methodical testing, and they determined that unless you are shooting competition with a rifle ... It's a total waste of time and way down at the bottom of the list. Things like case thickness uniformity were more important.

I'll look around and post which issue the article is in later.

[tomfoolery]

All good suggestions for cleaning but i myself don't see the need to clean the pockets (.45cal).

I cleaned one batch when i first started re-loading and they fired the same as the ones i didn't....so now i don't.

good read though.