So I funally got out yesterday and shot my first ever round of handloads and it was AWESOME! There is such a satisfaction of doing it myself as apposed to relying on someone else or a machine.
My question now is on case prep. So far I have neck sized and popped the primers and tumbled/polished the empties. But I have noticed that tumbling didnt do much for the primer pocket??? I assume that needs to be cleaned well with a primer pocket cleaner correct? Also do I need to run a brush down the inside of the case too. I know the cleaning media got in there during cleaning but Im not sure how clean is clean. The outside sure looks pretty though.
One last question. Do I need to lube the id of the neck when neck sizing?
By the way I did get a few 1" groups out of my first test rounds, so now its back to the drawing board to start modifying the better rounds to see what I can do to tighten then up some more. I'm shooting a savage model 11 with the 22" barrel, so I felt like that was pretty good for being a standard of the shelf hunting rifle.

Get yourself a primer pocket cleaner that has the wire bristles like the RCBS one. You can use the universal handle that RCBS has and others too, BUT if you have an battery operated screwdriver then put the brush into the chuck and tighten on the part of the brush above the threads, as you don't want to ruin the threads. Set the driver to a low speed and you can clean the pockets very quickly. You are going to need some brushes to lube the inside of the neck if you use a lube pad and if you use a product like Royal Case & Die Lube you would spray LIGHTLY the inside of the necks and the outside of the cases. You will need to rotate the cases 180 degrees to get both sides. A little lube goes a long way BUT that being said, you want enough on so that you don't get a case stuck in your dies. At any rate it is always a good idea to have extra brushes for necks (calibre specific ie 22, 30 etc) and primer pocket brushs small rifle and large rifle as you need them. Take your time to do it right and enjoy it. All of us who reload have made mistakes, so don't worry and don't be afraid to ask because there are lots of guys here that know their stuff.

Thanks for the info. Looks like I need to take a trip to sportsmans warehouse, AGAIN! Oh well, its an excuse to get out of the house. Im sure there are plenty more questions and trips to come. Thanks

You are welcome and welcome to the forum. Just a point, when you are using the primer pocket brush in the cordless drill wear a leather glove on the hand you will use to hold the case. Let the drill do the work and you will try and push the brush in further and it will slip and you will bark your hand. I did several times.

sounds like you are on the right track.1" groups are great work and mean you must be doing things right. depending on how fussy you want to get you have a great starting point just dont forget to right down what works and dont loose the recipe.

I never lube for neck sizing but always for full length. I use make-up cotton swabs I "liberated" from the wife's war paint kit. They are firmer than the regular ones.

Same here: neck-sizing without lube, full length always lube. And when you've problems pulling back your innersizing part of the die: treath the inside of the neck with the brass brush which you roll over the lubing pad now and then, or use carbon powder on the inside of the neck.

But for primerpocket-cleaning I use a home-made device: you take an old (small) screwdriver and file away some parts at the top so that it resembles the shape of your White House, with a top that fits the primer-hole and the sides of the srewdriverblade touches the wall of you primer pocket. So you need 2 sizes for Small and Large primers.
When het screwdriverblade is a little bit small, a nice tick of a hammer can make things grow (also your fingers when you don't aim right )

I would suggest lubing everything til you get the hang of it I still remember the stuck cases in my past they were always a suprise and always hard to get out. They even sell rescue kits to have on hand and I have seen some here also. Once you get a few hundred rifle rounds and feel like you may have the hang of it then venture cautiously into the no lube world it takes less then a second to leave a terrible taste in your mouth and longer to get it out.

Good info. I have been using the brush rolled on the lube pad on about every third neck just to be sure I dont get one stuck. So far so good.
I tried putting the primer pocket cleaner into an electric drill and that worked good. My only concern is eventually wearing the primer pocket too thin after repeated cleanings as it seems to shave a tiny bit of brass out. Im going to try out the screwdriver idea as well. All ideas are appreciated, thanks

Ut-trout wrote:

Good info. I have been using the brush rolled on the lube pad on about every third neck just to be sure I dont get one stuck. So far so good. I tried putting the primer pocket cleaner into an electric drill and that worked good. My only concern is eventually wearing the primer pocket too thin after repeated cleanings as it seems to shave a tiny bit of brass out. Im going to try out the screwdriver idea as well. All ideas are appreciated, thanks

You have to be careful and develope your touch when you are using the cordless drill and you have to have the speed(rpm) turned down. You really don't need that much pressure as you are not removing something that is terribly hard. If you do get a case stuck in your die. You will see that after you have drilled the primer hole out to thread it for the extraction screw to remove the case that the web is pretty thick.

Welcome aboard Ut-Trout...once you have finished reloading, grab a beer and pull up a stump mate.

All of the above guidance is spot on mate. I have been loading for just over 30 yrs now and you have already picked up some of the "tricks" I use, like the lube brush inside the neck.

I use a Primer Pocket cleaner that is basically a "pin" of the appropriate thickness with teeth milled into the end. See pics below. I couple of light twists in the primer pocket cleans out pretty much everything. If you are shaving brass out, I would suggest you may be being a little heavy handed when you push the case onto the brush. The primer pocket does not need to be spotless mate, just the burnt carbon from the old primer cleaned out so that the new primer seats fully.

Cheers, Vince

I believe in uniforming the primer pockets !!!

I use a Sinclair primer pocket uniformer in a power screw driver with an adapter that is also sold by Sinclair.
This a one time operation when the brass is new.
I then use the same tool to clean the pockets before re-loading.

www.sinclairintl.com/....Uniformers

www.sinclairintl.com/....er-Adaptor

Thanks again for the great info. While I have your attention, from what I have gathered the h414, h4350, and hunter are all very similar powders correct. Am I in my right mind or way off? The reason I ask is that I like the idea of the h4350 extreme powder being unaffected by the cold/heat. Utah experiences some extremes temperature swings throughout the year, and it would be nice to bypass that whole game all together.

H4350 is actually manufactured by ADI in Australia and marketed as AR2209 over here. I have found all of the ADI powders to be very temperature stable...I use them exclusively for my rifles. I can't speak for H414 though...it is an unknown factor to me.

Cheers, Vince

H414 and Hunter are spherical (or ball) powders and H4350 is a extruded powder.
H414 is the fastest burning of the three.
Hunter is actually a 4350 burn rate powder.