Primer pockets - How clean is clean enough?

#1 · October 14, 2025, 3:28 am

I am pretty new to reloading and am reloading 9mm on an XL 750. I have been de priming prior to wet tumbling with stainless steel rods. The shells come out very clean, but there are often minor deposits left in the primer pockets. I have been using an RCBS wire brush pocket cleaner but am wondering if this is overkill? I am doing club level action shooting, so I rarely shoot farther than 15 yards. So how clean is clean enough for the primer pockets? Here is a picture that represents how the cases come out after tumbling, sometimes there are three small dirty spots and some crud along the edge. Is it worth cleaning this out?

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#2 · October 15, 2025, 8:18 am

In my opinion that's overkill. The level of clean they come out of the tumbler is clean enough.

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#3 · October 15, 2025, 3:37 pm

Don't worry about cleaning primer pockets. You won't get enough buildup to prevent seating primers, and a dirty primer pocket won't negatively affect accuracy.

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#4 · October 15, 2025, 6:00 pm

Great. Thank you both for your responses.

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