Quote:
It can be said - not important at all ...
My friend, Bill Roth kept a chart of his 44-40 brass. Before he died, none of the cases were cleaned for 16 times and each reload ignited with no high primers or fails to ignite

Me? Deprimed each time shot and cleaned in a rotary tumbler with burnishing solution & ceramic media - both smokeless & black powder

I made three new firing pins for a friends hiwall in one shooting season. Was a Neidner system. Finally watched him shoot during a match. He was using IMR 4759 without a wad. Burned dirty without a wad on the powder. Was not cleaning the primer pocket during long strings. Watched him force the lever closed. The primer pocket was getting so dirty, the primer would not seat flush. Breech block was shaving primer metal and depositing it into the firing pin hole. After a while the pin would break. After much haranguing, got him to clean the primer pocket after each shot. Has had the same pin in it for over twenty years now.
I always clean the primer pocket and flash hole every time the brass is reloaded. 

       Joe.

I clean primer pockets when I notice that the primers are starting to stand even with the case. I clean them and keep on shooting. I don’t think I have experienced an off shot in between the two primer positions.

40 Rod

[quote author=654047417063405A465C2F0 link=1388546222/2#2 date=1388548068
For my discipline Benchrest AS Schuetzen it is extremely important for me to keep the pockets clean in order to achieve extremely consistent ignition from one shot to the next. 
JLouis [/quote]

Tell us how you KNOW, John. Tell us if this is an opinion or a test-based fact. Tell us about the test.

I'm relatively new to the BPCR game....But I shot modern BenchRest for years.

I used to be a nut about my brass in a 6BR and a 6PPC. I cleaned everything. Then I stopped being so meticulous and my scores stayed exactly the same.

I haven't cleaned a primer pocket in years. I actually think a small amount of carbon in the corner of the primer pocket helps ignition and the primer pockets last longer........

When I read this thread I dimly recalled that Warren Page, during his serious benchrest years, went an entire season of competition without cleaning primer pockets. He saw no difference in accuracy. I just googled "Warren Page" and "primer pocket" and got several hits. Seems I remembered correctly.

32/40 using 4227 breech seated you need to scrape the pockets after 20-30 rounds or the primer won't seat properly. Choice is use the handle end of your Pope De&Re every shot, scrape just a bit out or 100 shot match use 10 cases put the case aside when the primer starts seating hard.

Way ASSRA is scored with unlimited sighters no negative to using a new case putting a few on the sighter target to confirm same zero then back to record for 10 with the fresh case.

Modern rifle bench rest with limited sighters and short shot string matches, different thing. If I shot bench would scrape every shot, offhand matches switching out the case after 10 works well.

My opinion anyway

Boats