9mm resizing difficulty

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xtremacanuck

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Hi folks. I'm experiencing some difficulty resizing 9mm Luger. By difficulty I mean: first and second case no problem, third case a little resistance, fourth case needs some muscle, fifth case too tight and Redding press starting to tilt the bench. I find I need to lube every fifth case for it to work great. I have the same brand of dies for 40 S&W and no issues. And yes they are both carbide dies. I've heard someone at the club say they lube about one in a hundred to help things along.

Do I have a deffective die?
 
you just need to lube the brass


lube.jpg
 
The die may be tight, or cases still 'dirty'.
You can try either adding something like NuFinish car wax/polish to tumbling media to have cases covered with very thin layer of wax to make them 'slippery' for the die; or to spray cases with something like Hornady One Shot case lube and swish them around bucket a couple of times.

I chose to use either TurtleWax or NuFinish in media.
 
Are you using a steel die or a carbide die?

If steel, the cases must be lubed. If carbide, they don't need lube.

9mm cases do not take a lot of force to resize, so I suspect that you're using a steel die. Lube all the cases on your next reloading session and see what happens.

EDIT: oops, my bad. I didn't see where you said they were both carbide dies. You might want to try cleaning the inside of the 9mm carbide die and see if that helps. What brand of dies are they?
 
9mm is a tapered case, so it is a bit harder on the final portion of the downstroke than a straight(ish) case. There are also a few guns like the Glock that can produce some bulged cases due to less support in the barrel for web area of the case.

What gun are you using, and any chance you're using range pick up brass?
 
I use a Dillon XL650 for 9mm, and follow the Dillon instructions and lightly lube all my cases. Lee also recommends lubing pistol dies in Modern Reloading. Especially when you clean your brass really will, lube just helps your cases go through the dies so much easier and prevents any possibility of galling.

You only need the lightest amount of something like the Lyman Spray Lube that babo_al posted a pick of. Just spray a quick mist high above a cookie sheet full of cases crowded together on their sides, give em' a roll and do it again. That's way enough. Lately I've been using that Lee "toothpaste tube" mixed with alcohol in a plant misting bottle. It works well without any possibility of screwing your primers or powder even if you use too much.
 
i lube all my brass 9,40, 45, it's so much easier to resize.[ carbide dies on a 550 ] i find 9 a rear bear without lube, 40 & 45 not so bad. i'm using dillon case lube cut 50% with methol. how much NUFinish are adding/litre +/-
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll reclean the die, lube more cases, and the addition to tumbling media sounds interesting. I'm not new to reloading, just new to 9mm. I never lube my 40 and 38/357 brass and never had an issue, and for the rifle stuff it's a given. Just found it odd I needed to lube this carbide die set.

Thanks for the tips.
 
You don't have to lube your carbide die set - just add some car wax or so to your tumbling media. Use both - walnut shell and corn cob at the same time, and tumble for at least 1 hour (2-3 would be better). 30/70 ratio for walnut/cob works great.

I do, clean my dies every 2K rounds reloaded; just using Q-tip soaked with OneShot.




Ideally - one could use ceramic/selica mix for media, and wash and dry it later.
 
Add some Flitz metal polish to your tumbling media instead of car wax. You will be able to see your reflection in the polished brass...
 
I have the Lee dies and haven't had an issue with about 700 brass so far. I tumble before resizing with about 5 Bounce sheets in the corn cob media.
 
1. Tumble or vibrate to clean brass.
2. Be sure to get all media out of cases.
3. Run through your dies.

I have never done anymore or anyless than that.
 
Thats kinda the whole purpose of using carbide dies, to take the work out of lubing and cleanin iit offthe cases after.Just run them thru the tumbler and away you go, Never lubed a handgun case to go thru a carbide die yet !!

Bearcat
 
I use a bit of CLP or canola or worst case the Lee lube on a sponge, rub my fingers on the pad and fill up my case feeder makeing sure I get a bit on every case... After I size it all I give it a 30min bath in the sonic cleaner... Squeaky clean and feeds/sizes perfectly.
 
Lee carbide sizer is best.

I have used many different brands of sizer/decapper dies and have found that the best one is the Lee sizer/decapper. Bar none.
My Hornady Titanium Nitride 9mm and 40 sizer/decapper die swaged a little ring of brass at the bottom of the case. Each subsequent size operation made the little ring bigger until the case couldn't/wouldn't fit the chamber. After a couple of uses, the brass was junk.
My brass tumbler left a tiny, tiny small dot of crud on some cases that I often missed before sizing. My factory Dillon [they still made the best presses though!] carbide sizer/decapper ate the tiny bit and distributed it on the carbide ring. Every case came out with multiple scratches even after I cleaned the inside of the die.
The Lee die has given me no problems, and it is cheap to buy.
 
While it is quite correct to say that carbide dies dont need lubed cases,I have always found that when resizing 9mil cases,things go so much easier if they are lubed a bit.You really notice a big difference in how your arm feels after you sit down and load 1K of rounds on a progressive

What works well for me,and doesnt add a whole lot of time,is to get a old towel,spray some case lube on it very lightly,dump about 500 cases at a time in the towel,fold it up with the cases in it and give it a good shake.This deposits just a small bit of lube on the cases ,but really makes a difference when resizing on a progressive press.

I dont bother lubing straight sided cases like 38/44 however
 
sevoman, that has been my experience also. When reloading .45 ACP with LEE dies, I didn't bother with anything. When I went to 9mm, the resistance was so much greater. It's a smaller caliber, what the heck?

I also clean my cases really well, and the Lee Modern Reloading manual says that when reloading very clean cases some galing of the brass may occur and that it's best to use some sort of lube (furniture polish?) to make them dirty enough to go through the dies easy. Other people on this thread suggest and use additives to their tumbling media such as car or metal polish to coat their brass for easier resizing.

When I went to the Dillion XL650, I just decided to follow the directions straight from the start in regards to pistol case lubing for the carbide resizing die. It's such a light coat, that no removal of the lube is necessary between loading stages. It just makes things go soooooooo much smooooother and eaaaaaasier....
 
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