Lube them up or run them dry ?

[Varmint Hunter]

I use bushing dies for most of my rifle cartridges and avoid the use of an expander button all together. A quick brush in & out of the neck before sizing and necks are ready for reloading. However, I do have a couple of cartridges that I lube necks and then drag a button through. I'm undecided as to whether or not its beneficial to remove the lube (Imperial sizing wax) from the necks before reloading. A Redding tech guy told me that they never bother removing lube.

So for reloading in general; do you guys lube your necks or just run them dry as I do?

 

[whirlwindjml]

I've never lubed mine on purpose....however. I use lee lube and then a quick spray of Hornady one shot. Some of the one shot probably light lubes the neck.

 

[Rick Richard]

I make no extra step to remove residual Lube if there is any on the case from the sizing process.

 

[Ol' Red]

I don't take the extra step to remove lube either. I will be watching this thread, because if some has a good reason to remove lube, I would like to hear it.

 

[ButterBean]

If you use the Lee Lube( Which is excellent) or a dry graphite your good to go but the Imperial and Hornady are a must to get out as it's sticky and collects powder in the neck so I personally don't use it for that reason, My two pennies

 

[Pdyson]

I have pulled the expander balls from all my dies in favor of 21st Century expander Mandrels. I use a dry graphite lube and brush it out afterwards.

 

[QuietTexan]

I personally wouldn't put Imperial wax inside the necks unless I cleaned it out after. Seems like the solid wax lube stays on the case moreso than the wax or lanolin sprays, there's more bulk to it if that makes sense.

I use Tapmatic cutting creme when turning and run a q-tip with 99% isopropyl alcohol through the necks after, I think that would also work on wax. Before mandrel expanding I dip the necks in the Imperial dry graphite lube. Before sizing I'll either wipe the body with Imperial wax or spray with One Shot. I don't try to remove the One Shot that gets into the necks but I don't put the wax in there. That might change based on some of the information coming from people with AMP presses regarding how brushing the neck out changes seating pressure (link down below).

I just got an AMP annealer so I'm working on reconfiguring my brass prep process. I'm minorly concerned with AMPs note about dry graphite not adhering to annealed cases, so I'm thinking about running them through some walnut media before resizing to take off the annealing oxidation(?) first before running through the sizing die.

• Lube - this is vital even with nitrided dies. (Imperial wax or spray such as Hornady One Shot) – note: Dry media graphite tends not to adhere well to annealed cases. We do not recommend its use.

Process roughly looks like this right now:

1. Shoot
2. Tumble in corn cob, white 3M pad on carbon stains outside the neck (factory chambers carbon rings bleh, might remove this step now that I'm annealing)
3. Anneal then tumble in walnut (this is the new step I'm working on adding)
4. Spray lube and resize without a button (decapping pin installed or use universal decapper and work on primer pockets)
5. Primer pocket work/ prime
6. Dip neck in Imperial graphite and mandrel expand
7. Brush neck with white nylon RCBS brush (might add based on AMP press data below)
8. Charge and seat

In terms of does lube in the neck change anything, I'm guessing that it does because AMP showed brushing the necks out makes a difference running the seating die on a load cell. If anyone has a K+M Force Pack it would be interesting to hear what they see in terms of seating pressure changes without and with several types of lube in the neck.

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[GLTaylor]

If I use Imperial (or not) l run a nylon brush in and out of each neck before loading. This was shown by benchresters to make seating and release more consistent. It also shows up on target. Additionally, it removes any excess carbon or lube stickyness before adding powder.
Alex Wheeler did a test on this some time back.

 

[MagnumManiac]

I never use a wax lube on the necks…I do use powdered graphite on the INSIDE of all my cases during sizing. I use custom honed neck dies and expanders, then a mandrel with more dry lube in the necks that I apply with a nylon brush, dry lube is a must and the residual lube helps with consistent bullet release.
Wax is a bad idea in case necks. IMHO.

Cheers.

 

[26Reload]

When I started I used 'One Shot' but found when resizing lots of brass that I 'always' missed ones base or a shot in the neck..which resulted in stuck case or stretched necks(I used standard expander balls)...
Changed to 'Unique Case Lube' on case lube pad...no more stuck cases...and run a bit of lube on a felt pad into neck....resizing is quick and easy.....no more problems....
Just need more bullets.....

 

[CoachChris]

I have pulled the expander balls from all my dies in favor of 21st Century expander Mandrels. I use a dry graphite lube and brush it out afterwards.

Same here

 

[freddiej]

I personally take graphite lube, dry, put it on all the first batch of my new dies. I enbed crushed graphite on the neck and expanding ball of the dies. I do not use any busing dies. I have found them inferior to my standard FL dies. most bushing dies have standard hardened steel bushings, carbide, or titainium nitride coated. the latter two do not need any lubrication, the first does.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

I personally take graphite lube, dry, put it on all the first batch of my new dies. I enbed crushed graphite on the neck and expanding ball of the dies. I do not use any busing dies. I have found them inferior to my standard FL dies. most bushing dies have standard hardened steel bushings, carbide, or titainium nitride coated. the latter two do not need any lubrication, the first does.

I use all titanium nitride bushings that don't require lube. However, when you talk to the tech folks at Redding they claim that even the TN bushings provide better uniformity when used with a little lube.

 

[LRNut]

Same here

Since I went to mandrel expanders, I can feel the increase in neck tension consistency. I use an AMP too, but I have to say it wouldn't surprise me if the use of a mandrel contributes more to neck tension uniformity than annealing every time (but since the AMP is so easy, I am not taking any chances).