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Posted: 7/27/2010 3:16:14 PM EDT
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So I have read the books, finally went to cabelas and bought a Hornady progressive and three sets of dies. I have a few more odds and ends to order online before I start reloading. I understand case lube, I have read here and there about treating the inside neck of the case so the bullet will seat easily. Is this a must do? Is it different for rifle and pistol? What do I need to use for this?
I have also read that case lube can contaminate the inside of the case ans mess up your powder, but all the spray lubes I've read about claim that its ok to get it inside? Thanks! |
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Absolutely NO case lube should go in the necks of the case during bullet seating, that will kill the neck tension and cause the bullet to set back as your rifle feed the round into the chamber.
Some people lube the necks during sizing and say it helps and reduces stretching the neck back out when the expander ball is pulled back through the neck after sizing. I have never lubed a case neck for any of my dies and the necks don't stretch on any of my brass, so lubing the case necks is completely optional and a personal option if you ask me(and a waste of time). If you do plan to lube the necks before sizing only make sure you get a good spray lube(Dillon is best but RCBS Case Slick works great also) and it will be much easier to lightly spray the necks of the case to speed up the process, but don't use to much lube since very little is required and to much will be hard to tumble out of the brass. EWP |
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I'd sure suggest that you add the following references
- current edition of the Lyman 49th reloading manual - the 'ABCs' of reloading by Bill Chevalier -NRA Guide to Reloading. The NRA does offer a reloading course using the NRA Guide to Reloading as a textbook. There's a lot of information to digest about reloading. The internet is full of information, but much of it is misleading or contextual. AeroE and Dryflash3 do a great job of policing this forum, but confusion can creep in in the form of conflicting opinions. |
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For bottle-neck rifle cases, lubing the inside and outside of the neck is critical if you don't want stretched necks and stuck cases. For straight-walled pistol, I've heard some folks use lube, but with carbide dies, it's not necessary. Lube will make them go through a big smoother, but that's all. As the poster above said, you want to make sure the lube is cleaned off the brass before filling with powder and seating bullets. If you use dry lube such as Hornady one-shot, it's probably not as critical, but I clean them off in either case. Lots of discussion on lube, Hornady one-shot is finicky if you don't use it right (there's a full write-up on it that was posted recently). I have since switched to homemade lanolin & 99% IPA alcohol for lube. It works great, but you do need to clean it off the brass after resizing. Most people do rifle reloading in stages, one stage to prep the brass (clean, size/deprime, clean, trim), another to prime, drop powder, and seat the bullet. For pistol reloading on a progressive, you can actually do everything progressively (except the initial cleaning). I recently got the LnL AP as well, I haven't yet used it in full progressive mode as all my brass was prepped and primed before it arrived. My next round of reloading I will try it progressive start to finish with .380 and see how that goes. |
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You'll never get in trouble using Hornady One Shot when loading pistol ammo, provided you're using a carbide resizing die. The reason being is that you don't "need" any lube when using a carbide die on straightwalled pistol ammo. Any lube you spray on will simply slick the process up and reduce the effort needed to just about zero.
I try not to get any lube inside the case necks, handguns or rifles. It has a tendency to attract and hold gun powder. I really dislike a case mouth stuck full of gun powder when I'm trying to seat a bullet. I've ended up converting to Imperial Sizing Die Wax for all my rifle reloading. It's fast, simple and very very little is needed to get the job done. I can put it where I want it and I think it's literally impossible to use to little. If you have the thinnest possible layer on the case body it is more than enough to easily resize a case. You can experiment with it, I try to use the smallest possible amount, a little goes a long ways. I think a clean case neck interior on rifle brass is better than a lubed one. Run a cleaning brush through the neck before you tumble you brass. Any dirt or carbon will be gone and the tumbler will slick up what's left over. |
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Quoted:
The LnL AP is a nice press, I love mine and I'm sure you will also.For bottle-neck rifle cases, lubing the inside and outside of the neck is critical if you don't want stretched necks and stuck cases. Not true, the neck of a case is NOT what sticks in a die, it's the base if the brass not having enough lube, you shouldn't be lubing the outside of the neck area as it's not needed in any die, and as for the neck stretching it just depends on how bad your dies expander is and good dies with carbide expanders(and some with regular expanders) do not need neck lube. For straight-walled pistol, I've heard some folks use lube, but with carbide dies, it's not necessary. Lube will make them go through a big smoother, but that's all. As the poster above said, you want to make sure the lube is cleaned off the brass before filling with powder and seating bullets. If you use dry lube such as Hornady one-shot, it's probably not as critical, but I clean them off in either case. Lots of discussion on lube, Hornady one-shot is finicky if you don't use it right (there's a full write-up on it that was posted recently). I have since switched to homemade lanolin & 99% IPA alcohol for lube. It works great, but you do need to clean it off the brass after resizing. Most people do rifle reloading in stages, one stage to prep the brass (clean, size/deprime, clean, trim), another to prime, drop powder, and seat the bullet. For pistol reloading on a progressive, you can actually do everything progressively (except the initial cleaning). I recently got the LnL AP as well, I haven't yet used it in full progressive mode as all my brass was prepped and primed before it arrived. My next round of reloading I will try it progressive start to finish with .380 and see how that goes. 
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