No such thing as a stupid question....but

jakfrost

jakfrost

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this might make the grade :redface:

I'm getting back into reloading but instead of pistol, its rifle. Which means for me, no carbide dies.

Which means I have to 'lube' when full length resizing which I'm doing for a few hundred used brass...

My question is: everywhere I read 'they' say one MUST lube the inside of the case mouth. AND you MUST remove all residual lube before proceeding with the primer and powder, ( makes sense...), however, HOW the heck do you get the lube off the INSIDE of the case mouth :confused:

With a Q-tip??? :sniper:

I tried a couple of things but it is sure going to prolong the process! I even tried resizing WITHOUT lubing the case mouth with no apparent problem, as far as I can tell anyway :popCorn:

I have the Lee Collett dies for the brass that comes out of my guns, no lube required as near as I can fathom :confused:.

And I don't think there is a carbide die made for full length resizing for bottleneck cases? Did I miss something?

Jim
 
Nope, you have to lube. I use the Lee case lube. I put some on my fingers and spread it on the case by turning it in my hand. I then wipe my finger across the mouth of the case putting a little bit of lube around it. Once I have re-sized, then I use an appropriate nylon bore brush to brush out the lube. I use Lee case lube because it will not contaminate the powder if I don't get it all.
Some guys use graphite which you do not have to clean up afterward.

You get to choose your poison, but you gotta choose one.

Enjoy,
RW
 
I lube cases with either Imperial Sizing Wax or RCBS lube pad. If only doing a few I wipe them off by hand with a towel. If doing a bunch I throw them back in the tumbler to clean the lube off after sizing.

I did not care for the spray on case lubes I tried.
 
I only lube inside case necks if it is necessary, and then I only use a dry moly lube applied with a Q-tip. Only do this if you are having a rough time with the expander ball catching inside casemouth on the down stroke, and making it tough and noisy, this can stretch cases if not addressed.
 
Kevin M. said:
+1 on tumbling after resizing. Then just run brass through a decapping die again to remove any media stuck in the flash hole.
Click to expand...

Well after wiping 50+ cases with a hand towel, and trying to work a corner of the towel into the mouth of each case to remove at least some of the lube spread around by the expander ball, ( not very successfully it would seem, judging by the amount of powder 'stuck' to the inside of the case mouth after charging the cases...), I seriously considered throwing them back into the hornady vibrator.

However, remembering that I had just spent the previous hour poking the seriously stuck grains of media out of each and every one of over 100 case flash holes, and concerned that the media would certainly need replacing sooner rather than later after all that lube was deposited in it...I decided that maybe factory ammo wasn't that bad after all :bangHead:

Seriously, there must be a better way, has reloading rifle cases evolved so little since I left it 20+ years ago?? One case at a time...wow. I'm almost hesitant to fire a round after so much (loving...ha,ha) care has been lavished on it cp:

Jim
 
jakfrost said:
However, remembering that I had just spent the previous hour poking the seriously stuck grains of media out of each and every one of over 100 case flash holes, and concerned that the media would certainly need replacing sooner rather than later after all that lube was deposited in it.
Click to expand...

Jim, have you considered switching to stainless steel media. It doesn't get stuck in flash holes and you never need to replace it.
 
ben hunchak said:
I only lube inside case necks if it is necessary, and then I only use a dry moly lube applied with a Q-tip. Only do this if you are having a rough time with the expander ball catching inside casemouth on the down stroke, and making it tough and noisy, this can stretch cases if not addressed.
Click to expand...

+1 I haven't been reloading for a while now, but I don't remember lubing the inside of the case mouth. I beveled the inside of each case mouth though.
 
Always lube the inside of the case mouth for easy passage over the expander. What you are after is micro fine graphite from the makers of imperal sizing die wax. Comes in the same little tin. You just dip the case mouth in there knock out the excess and you are good to go. You can also dip your case neck brush in there and go over the inside of the neck with it. I have had my little tin for 12 years and it is not even close to being done yet. It make the return press stroke nice and smooth.
 
"...lube the inside of the case mouth..." Not enough used to matter. Doesn't have to be every case either. It's really just to lube the expander button a bit.
 
MauserMike said:
Jim, have you considered switching to stainless steel media. It doesn't get stuck in flash holes and you never need to replace it.
Click to expand...

Well as a matter of fact I was following a thread on this forum awhile back and checked into it...looks pretty good. However, having just bought the Hornady jiggler and a bunch of media + polish...I was hesitating to spend the $300.00 to buy the tumbler and pins. Then I'm stuck with the vibrator and walnuts...nuts!!

I guess like any relatively new endeavour, there is a fair amount of 'trial and error', and you just have to ante up and spend the bucks to find out what works, and what doesn't :(.

Oh, and 'shredder'...where would one find 'imperial sizing die wax'? Google doesn't do it for me on that one :redface:

Jim
 
I got my Redding imperial wax from Henry Nierychlo, one of the reloading dealers on this site. Great prices and great service.

I use q-tip to apply sizing wax very liberally inside the case neck. You dont need much to make a differance. And you don't need to bother to clean it out after.
 
Oh, and while I think of it...any of you guru's have a clever method of indicating how many times you have fired a particular case?

Seems like unless I start running my cases after 3-5 firings thru a propane torch gauntlet then I'm running the risk of ruining them!

Do you put little black marker daubs on the side of the case, indicating each firing? Or perhaps on the head stamp area? Dunno?

Maybe just be very strict about sequestering each group...away from their more/less used friends on the bench awaiting their turn in the press/torch routine...?

Jim
 
jakfrost said:
However, remembering that I had just spent the previous hour poking the seriously stuck grains of media out of each and every one of over 100 case flash holes
Click to expand...

I tumble with the old primers in. Then I decap and re-size. Then I wipe them. I don't consider this a chore. Sort of like mowing the grass, it does not require all of your attention, so you can think about some other things while you do it. Have a conversation with your kids, wife, friend. Just enjoy it. If I worried about the time I spent on reloading, I wouldn't do it.
I pick up once fired brass at the range (most guys here do not reload), especially on the sight-in weekends we run, take it home, save it up, tumble it. There is an hour gone, easy. Take it out of the tumbler (much less dust now with the dryer sheets and a little brasso and check each case for damage and "reload-ability". There is another hour for 100 cases. I am already 2hrs into 100 cases. At $25 an hour, it is already breaking even with factory cost for brass. Now I lube, decap, re-size, wipe, trim, de-burr and uniform primer pockets, and prime . Another hour and a bit gone. Now my brass is more expensive than new stuff, although I do de-burr and uniform primer pockets on new brass as well as prime them, so we won't count that here..
So I am $75 into my brass. And still need to add components. figure a LB of powder for $30, 100 bullets for another $30, and primers for $5. If I counted my time that 100 rounds would cost me 5 hours or $125, plus $65 for components making that $190. Whereas buying 100 rounds of .30-06 ammo @$25 per box is only $125 total.

Count your time as time devoted to a relaxing hobby. Then you can shoot more for the same amount of money and less frustration. I find the repetitive nature of reloading to be extremely relaxing and the solid THWACK! of the bullet hitting your target to be very cathartic.
 
I've never lubed the inside of the case neck. Perhaps it's because I bevel the case and use boattailed bullets, but I'm glad I can skip that step.
 
I was resizing some .223 brass last night. On one batch I forgot to lube the inside of the case mouth. Within the first 5 to 6 cases with no lube in the mouth the down stroke was getting harder and it started to make a loud squeaking. Needless to say I realized my mistake and lubed the cases mouths of the rest. Problem solved. With my brass and dies at least, lubing the inside of the case mouth is required.
 
I should mention that when inside case necks are lubed I don't do every one just a few here and there to stop sticking expanders. I don't bother cleaning this out manually, unless all the cases go in the tumbler.
 
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