Case lube ?

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Urban_Hunter

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Do you lube the inside of the case neck for the expander? If so what is you process and lube of choice? I've been using One Shot and it makes it smooth but powder sticks to it when charging. Upon reading some forums I realized a lot of people use no lube, some lube every 3-4 cases with a dry lube by means of q-tip, some lube the die instead of cases... My head spins. It seems to work fine with no lube, but is definitely more strenuous and makes me worry about damaging the expander or overworking the case. What say you?


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I've gone away from one shot and have since been using Imperial Wax. I dab a little into the neck of the larger cases(300wsm,winmag) with a q-tip as well about every 3-4 cases, but just a light rub with the fingers on the outside of the neck and body of case and I haven't had a sticky case yet.
 
My own experience says lube the inside case mouth to ease the entire case prep process.

I've tried spray lube. It works. You must tumble using walnut/corncob/steel pins afterwards.

Imperial Wax is the very much favored solution. Use a q tip to get the inside case mouth. I have been doing the q-tip thing 50 cases at a time one out of every 5 (since my shell holder is 5x10).

This doesn't work as well I want. I will go to 2 out of 5 and be done with it. If I am still feeing like I need to lube I will go back to the aerosol spray.
 
I have used dry graphite in the past. It didn't really work all that well so I haven't lubed inside the necks for a long time. This is one reason I love cast bullets and the cartridges that work well with them. The bullet lube leaves a coating of grease inside the case neck and makes sizing easier in effort and case wear/stress.
 
I use Hornady One Shot. Just make sure it is dry (only takes a minute) before running it through the press.
 
I have used Hornady One Shot since it came out on the market many years ago and I have never had a stuck case. I always squirt some on the inside of the sizing die and expander ball each reloading session as a precaution also. When I spray my cases I do them at about a 45 degree angle to the case mouths to get some on the inside of them also.
 
The Hornady case lube, this is the aerosol stuff, correct?

You had any problems with spraying today, FL sizing tomorrow and having stuck cases?

How about spray today come back in 3 weeks and cases are stained black, took 18 hours of Walnitmedia tumbling to clean up.

Lee has a competing product that also has the staining issue. I guess if you use it then Fl size and then tumble to get the residue off you are okay.
 
The Hornady One-Shot is aerosol. I lay about 10 cases down on a terry cloth, spray the cases directly, roll them by hand on the terry cloth, then place them back in my block and repeat with 10 more. I resize as soon as I have lubed all the cases I intend on doing, usually less than 5 mins. I have had no issue with staining? I haven't tumbled anything after resizing either.

The problem I have is that the directions say to spray some into the case neck at an angle to give the expander some lube, which works great and smoothed out that process, but when I get ready to charge with powder the powder is sticking to the lube in the case neck. That is what posed my question. When reading reviews of One Shot I realized a lot of people do not lube the case neck, or at least not with this product, due to powder sticking.


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I don't like the feel of the lube so I tumble, which is why the powder sticking issue never comes up.

I leave my brass in the relaoding tray, spray, size tumble.

I am swtiching over to Imperial in part because I have so many nickel plated cases.
 
Guess I'll have to deal with it on this batch, and clean the cases next time. I have a sonic cleaner instead of a tumbler, and half my brass is primed, as it is military pulls.


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I don't tumble mine after sizing either. I just use a rag to give them a quick swipe. I have never had an issue with the powder sticking to the lube in the case mouth. I just give them a quick swipe of spray about 20 cases at a time and turn them 180 and repeat. I do not set and spray in one place to where it overcoats the cases.
 
I've used one shot since I started reloading. I find it can be a pain but I've also found what works for me. I spray the inside of my dies before I start. Spray all the cases. Let them sit maybe 30 seconds and start running them thru. I read somewhere you could spray them and leave them and come back later. I haven't got those results. The only stuck cases I have had were when I didn't spray my die on a brand new 223 hornady die. Stuck the first darn case. I also stuck a case in a 308 sb die that has been used and abused. I skimped on my lube that time.

I usually go a step a farther than most here. After sizing I tried to tumble and my cases still felt greasy. Since then I wipe all my brass off in a rag before tumbling. Probably unnecessary but they aren't greasy.


Big or small, kill em all
 
with the Bushing size dies you measure the OD of a loaded round at the neck,,subtract .002 from that and use that bushing to size your necks down and there is no need for the ball to open it back up,


loading .308 with neck walls .015 a loaded round will measure something like .338,,sized down in a .335-.336 bushing the necks will be sized just enough .

in a regular fl die the die will size the neck down to .328-.330 or something smaller than you need then the ball has to open it back up to the .335-6 you want,,which works well enough if you lube everything the same ever time,,if are using an expander ball and not lubing evenly your accuracy will suffer ,
 
Urban_Hunter":2aqb6n07 said:
Do you lube the inside of the case neck for the expander? If so what is you process and lube of choice? I've been using One Shot and it makes it smooth but powder sticks to it when charging. Upon reading some forums I realized a lot of people use no lube, some lube every 3-4 cases with a dry lube by means of q-tip, some lube the die instead of cases... My head spins. It seems to work fine with no lube, but is definitely more strenuous and makes me worry about damaging the expander or overworking the case. What say you?


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About every 3-4 rounds I will press the case mouth against the lube pad and give it a twirl. If I suspect the ammo might not be used for a year or two the inside of the case mouth will get a quick swipe with a Q tip "just in case".
When you first buy a set of new dies take them apart and clean them. Then run the expanding button in a drill and polish it with very fine polishing compound or 800-1000 grit sand paper. It makes a huge difference. Might also give ATF a try as a case lube. It works great and is cheaper than anything else. A 1 qt container will last your entire life.
 
Urban_Hunter":12wm84f7 said:
After reading mr.Big's post I did some reading to include this: http://www.sniperforums.com/forum/cartr ... -ball.html

At this point I realized that there are those of us who are serious, and those of us who are hobbyists.... And hobbyist like myself are probably an embarrassment to those true reloaders! [emoji1]

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Don't sweat the details as we learn as we go. Some people reload so they can shoot, some shoot so they can reload :)
 

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