neck lube in Forster ultra seater

[GW Hunter]

I've never lubed necks prior to bullet seating. I think I want to. It seems as if Imperial dry neck lube is a popular product so I am going to try that. My question is has anyone had a problem with the graphite building up inside the tight tolerances of a Forster Ultra micrometer seater die and having an adverse effect? Thanks in advance....

 

[19 Badger]

I use Forster dies but when I seat the bullet I have a very slight amount of Imperial wax on my thumb and finger and apply it to the bullet before I seat it. Not even sure if it helps any, but it makes me sleep better. Lol.

 

[jd5521]

I use the imperial dry lube for sizing but do not add any for seating. I figure there's still enough inside of the neck after sizing is done.

 

[dok7mm]

The best way to avoid that would be to apply the dry lube inside the case neck with a Q-TIP. You can also twirl the case neck into the ceramic balls/dry lube, but you need to wipe off the outside residue, to avoid contamination of the die. I prefer the Q-TIP.

 

[Mikecr]

I've never lubed necks prior to bullet seating. I think I want to.

Why?

 

[MagnumManiac]

I use a nylon brush a couple sizes bigger than needed and dip that into the dry lube, dust off any excess and pass it into the necks during sizing, or just prior to charging the cases if they've been sized with a bushing.
I have found an expander of the correct size AND a neck die of the correct size gives me the most concentric rounds. The dry lube ceases any cold weld issues too.

Cheers.

 

[Dosh]

Imperial dry lube on a q-tip for me. Clean the dies when finished. Sizing necks without lube isn't a very good practice.

 

[Barrelnut]

All of the above work well. I tend to brush the inside of the neck with it like MagnumManiac.

 

[Jeffrey Van Zandt]

I use a brush and mica same with neck expander K&M Die

 

[GW Hunter]

Why?

I want to try everything to improve runout. I take it Mikecr doesn't think this helps?

 

[Chuck32571]

Why?

I agree, why would you need to lube the inside neck. If you've prepped the brass properly by chamfering the inside of the neck the bullet will seat easily with no damage to it. An after loading concentricity check will correct runout below the .003 recommended by Hornady.

 

[Jeffrey Van Zandt]

it also seams to help with cold weld if the loaded round is left over the winter

 

[jarnold37]

I've never lubed necks prior to bullet seating. I think I want to. It seems as if Imperial dry neck lube is a popular product so I am going to try that. My question is has anyone had a problem with the graphite building up inside the tight tolerances of a Forster Ultra micrometer seater die and having an adverse effect? Thanks in advance....

I became an avid reloader some years ago and truly enjoyed the "mechanics" of the process. I spent time on case prep and used straight line as well as bushing dies. When using standard neck and full length dies however, I had noticeable screech when the button was doing its job of sizing out the neck for proper dimension to grip the bullet. It should have been obvious, but didn't occur to me. After trying different types of neck lube I could not eliminate the obvious effort to pull the button through the neck, accompanied by the screech. Asked many knowledeable people and usually told to lubricate neck. My understanding finally increased when I had case splitting in brand new Remington brass when trying to form to Ackley improved. The gunsmith informed me that it was bad brass and needed annealed. He was absolutely correct. Now I feel that having proper annealed brass is possibly the most important brass prep. Neck tension is all over the place and accuracy suffers tremendously not to mention increasing pressures. Depending on the quality of brass, some even anneal after only two reloads. I keep my necks soft and don't bother with "lubing necks"

 

[Mikecr]

I want to try everything to improve runout.

Now we're getting somewhere. Neck friction is not a contributor to runout.

I don't have an issue with lubing necks where it's needed, but I don't personally. Instead, I would resolve the cause of that need.
For instance; screeching on expansion? Maybe we're way oversizing? Just stop doing that.
Inconsistent seating depths, due to inconsistent seating forces, because necks are over-cleaned? Just stop doing that.
Worried about cold welding bullets to necks? Leave the carbon provided in necks and keep your stored ammo dry. Or load normally (with provided carbon in necks) and then wipe the case mouth-bullet junction, and all exposed bullet with turtle wax which was applied to & dried on a rag. Seal that junction.

But for reducing runout, you might as well search old or start a new thread.