Cleaning your dies

[Kroberts]

I'm curious how often everyone cleans there dies and how they prefer to do so.

I clean mine about once per year unless it's my cast bullet seater and crimping dies. The bullet live builds up pretty quickly in them so I'll take them apart and scrape out tge bullet lube and wipe it down with a rag to polish then clean. My others I will take them apart and spray in some CLP and wipe then down. I put them back together the next time I use them so I don't forget to retune them.

Kyle

 

[CatShooter]

I'm curious how often everyone cleans there dies and how they prefer to do so.

I clean mine about once per year unless it's my cast bullet seater and crimping dies. The bullet live builds up pretty quickly in them so I'll take them apart and scrape out tge bullet lube and wipe it down with a rag to polish then clean. My others I will take them apart and spray in some CLP and wipe then down. I put them back together the next time I use them so I don't forget to retune them.

Kyle

I flush them in Xylene or mineral spirits, and oil them with G-96 when I first buy them, then I repeat that every few thousand rounds.

 

[Gene]

I look inside every loading. If I see crud, I use brake spray, and wipe them out with a Q tip.

 

[Frank in the Laurels]

Honestly, I have never cleaned a single die...some have been in use since 1970....I dumped an entire bottle of RCBS lube on a brand new pad about the same year and still use it to this day, 50 years...puts on an extremely light body lube then a quick dip of the neck in graphite powder and in the die she goes...never had an issue..

 

[DartonJager]

I just toss mine into a jar of acetone soak a day or so once in a while and let drain and dry. I use Hornady One-Shot case lube so not much junk gets into my dies.

 

[g0rd0]

When I was using cast bullets I would clean the seat die every time. Now that I no longer use cast bullets every spring I take apart the dies and give them an hour in clean walnut shells, of course I then need to wash out the walnut shell all it takes is a quick soak in diesel fuel