Case Lube for Pistol

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kingdarb

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Hey Folks,

I've been loading 9mm for awhile now, but I'm giving some thought to adding a squirt or two of dillon case lube to the cases before I deprime/size/reprime. I will be running them through a 550 and likely tumbling the finished rounds after to get rid of the residue. Has anyone done this? Worthwhile??
 
Waste of time and money if you're using carbide dies, a must if you're not. Make sure your brass is clean before they see any die.
 
If you're not using carbide dies then you should lube. If you're using carbide dies lube won't do anything for you, in fact unless you're planning on cleaning the cases after it could actually cause motre problems than it solves. Lube residue building up in your chamber and action won't make your gun shoot any better.
 
As already mentioned, carbide dies are the way to go. Most of my handgun dies sets have carbide sizing dies and don't know why one would ever 'need' lube with a carbide sizer. I never have. For reloading bottleneck rifle cases where lube is required, over the years the BEST I've ever found is a product called Imperial Sizing Die Wax. Second to none. There is another I've found, when Imperial wasn't available, that does work well is Unique Case Lube by Hornady.
 
Another option (which I use) for neck sizing is the white powder graphite. I just dip the case neck, tap off the excess and carry on. Works great.
 
I recently started to use "bootleg" case lube...
99% isopropyl alcohol and liquid lanolin in a 12:1 solution in a dollar store spray bottle.

Dump cases into a plastic zip-loc bage.. 'Couple spritzes of bootleg case lube... Shake 'em around and start resizing.
This stuff works like magic and it's very inexpensive.
So far I've only used it to size about 1000 .223 cases... No problems.

The IPA you can buy at any pharmcy/walmart for about $5. The liquid lanolin is available from Amazon.com or from a health food/suppliment type hippy store...
 
TPK said:
Another option (which I use) for neck sizing is the white powder graphite. I just dip the case neck, tap off the excess and carry on. Works great.
Click to expand...

Powdered graphite does work well. I had some that was a charcoal colour we used to use when I was on the tools at work. :(I neglected to hang on to what I had in my tool box when I retired. I'll have to check out some of the local industrial supply outlets. The local hardware store had some in small plastic tubes for squeezing into locks for a lube and that stuff was virtually black. I'll have to check around:).
 
Personally, I wouldn't bother with lube in carbide dies on any kind of straight wall case... There is minimal work to resizing 9mm brass as it is. I resized 2000 9mm brass on my single stage last night(I wish I had a Dillon). I found cleaning the ram, then giving it a shot of Seafoam Deep Creep made a bigger difference than lubing the brass ever did. IMO.
 
As noted, you probably don't need it for carbide dies. If you really want something, +1 on the Imperial wax.
 
Johnn Peterson said:
Powdered graphite does work well. I had some that was a charcoal colour we used to use when I was on the tools at work. :(I neglected to hang on to what I had in my tool box when I retired. I'll have to check out some of the local industrial supply outlets. The local hardware store had some in small plastic tubes for squeezing into locks for a lube and that stuff was virtually black. I'll have to check around:).
Click to expand...

Checked 'around' and a local auto parts dealer has ordered a 1lb tin, $30.oo, of powdered graphite powder for me. That amount will probably outlast me & my needs.
 
Lube is not required with 9mm and carbide dies using a 550, it just creates extra steps lubing and cleaning the brass with no real gain, 9mm isn't that hard to resize at all.
 
I give the cases in my case feeder a quick spritz of the bootleg caselube (99% rubing alcohol and lanolin) mentioned above. Even with Dillon carbide dies this makes things run a bit more smoothly. The film on the cases is so light that I don't bother to tumble and have easily gone 1000 rounds in my shadow without cleaning... no issues.

I think you should be able to dissolve RCBS caselube in the rubbing alcohol too and get similar results, though I admit I haven't tried this. I find the liquid RCBS lube for the grease pads a little easier to find than liquid lanolin.
 
Even with carbide dies, I use a lube made of 1/2 and 1/2 Anhyrous lanolin and mineral oil.
Heat it in the microwave until it is homogenous.
It is water soluble, and works very well.
Anything to do with sizing cases..... my experience has been... the less grunt req'd the better.
BTW... the lube recipe is an old formula from bullet swaging in years gone by.... Dave Corbin's wisdom from the 70's.
 
I no longer tumble my pistol brass, what a waste of time that was!
These days I simply give them a shot of Pledge furniture polish, mix them all in together and leave overnight.. Noticable difference in press/lever effort!
 
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