To dry lube or not? That’s the question!

[Baboltin]

So I have gone through the process in this order of reloading my 7 mag
1)Deprime brass
2)Clean brass in tumbler with turbo tumbler media
3)inspect brass/wipe off with a rag by hand
4)measure OA of brass

-Question-
Which leads me to a question my Barnes handbook says 2.50 case length then below that says trim length 2.49. So I would go to imagine if I am understanding this correctly if I have my brass between 2.49 and 2.50 I am fine and to not trim my brass. Is that a correct understanding of the manual? My 60 pieces of brass I'm reloading was from 2.482 up to 2.492 so I decided that I didn't have the need to trim at this point.

5)resize without expander ball
6) mandrel resize the neck
7)remove case lube
8)chamfer and deburr
9)clean primer pockets
10) prime brass

-Question-
And then I stopped because I wanted to ask this other question should I dry lube the necks or not dry lube the necks at all before charging and seating the bullet?

 

[bota]

No. It depends. Are you planning on shooting said munitions in a timely manner?

 

[338 dude]

As mentioned above if you plan on storing ammo for long periods of time you could experience bullet weld from dissimilar metals contacting each other dry lube may help that

 

[Pdyson]

I only use the dry lube for mandrel neck expansion. Primarily because I don't have carbide mandrels. I brush out the dry lube with a nylon neck brush before charging and seating bullets

 

[Veteran]

Some Benchrest shooters and maybe even long range hunters here like to dry lube the bullet base or the necks to help cut down on
neck tension/friction because it helps the bullet seat easier and they believe it adds some accuracy, and lower Standard Dev and
ES. Its really optional. You can run your own tests or search youtube for videos of folks that do this.

I use a little bit of graphite dry lube on mine. Some pros use tungsten disulfide powders (WS2).

It's really up to you. One thing I noticed in your process I do differently is that I do not deprime or decap brass until after tumbling.
Too many times, when I clean primer pockets I have seen corn media stopping up the flash hole for the primer, and if I do not catch it, it will cause either a non uniform burn or a clicker. Its also a pain to get it out when I do I catch it, just takes more time.
So, I just decap after tumbling and before annealing. I did not see annealing on your list.

Folks here have found they either need to anneal every time, or at least every 2-3 times to get the full life out of the brass.

Also, most here like to full length resize every time and use bullet comparators to bump the shoulders by .002.
I don't do that every time, but I do it at least every 2-3 times, and may neck size in between. If you don't do it enough, you will
have case head separations from bad head spacing and you will also have trouble with chambering and ejecting shells.
It sort of depends some on whether you are shooting belted magnums, which are more sensitive to all these issues, and on your specific rifle chambering.

Good luck.

 

[Tidus56]

If I use stainless pins when I clean then I will for sure add dry lube to the necks to avoid cold welding. I now only use stainless pins on 9mm or brass that is ultra dirty my bolt gun brass I don't use stainless on anymore. If storing ammo for a while I will also dry lube.

 

[338 dude]

Some Benchrest shooters and maybe even long range hunters here like to dry lube the bullet base or the necks to help cut down on
neck tension/friction because it helps the bullet seat easier and they believe it adds some accuracy, and lower Standard Dev and
ES. Its really optional. You can run your own tests or search youtube for videos of folks that do this.

I use a little bit of graphite dry lube on mine. Some pros use tungsten disulfide powders (WS2).

It's really up to you. One thing I noticed in your process I do differently is that I do not deprime or decap brass until after tumbling.
Too many times, when I clean primer pockets I have seen corn media stopping up the flash hole for the primer, and if I do not catch it, it will cause either a non uniform burn or a clicker. Its also a pain to get it out when I do I catch it, just takes more time.
So, I just decap after tumbling and before annealing. I did not see annealing on your list.

Folks here have found they either need to anneal every time, or at least every 2-3 times to get the full life out of the brass.

Also, most here like to full length resize every time and use bullet comparators to bump the shoulders by .002.
I don't do that every time, but I do it at least every 2-3 times, and may neck size in between. If you don't do it enough, you will
have case head separations from bad head spacing and you will also have trouble with chambering and ejecting shells.
It sort of depends some on whether you are shooting belted magnums, which are more sensitive to all these issues, and on your specific rifle chambering.

Good luck.

Every time !

 

[Baboltin]

No. It depends. Are you planning on shooting said munitions in a timely manner?

I do plan on shooting some of them fairly soon but some may get stored

 

[Baboltin]

Some Benchrest shooters and maybe even long range hunters here like to dry lube the bullet base or the necks to help cut down on
neck tension/friction because it helps the bullet seat easier and they believe it adds some accuracy, and lower Standard Dev and
ES. Its really optional. You can run your own tests or search youtube for videos of folks that do this.

I use a little bit of graphite dry lube on mine. Some pros use tungsten disulfide powders (WS2).

It's really up to you. One thing I noticed in your process I do differently is that I do not deprime or decap brass until after tumbling.
Too many times, when I clean primer pockets I have seen corn media stopping up the flash hole for the primer, and if I do not catch it, it will cause either a non uniform burn or a clicker. Its also a pain to get it out when I do I catch it, just takes more time.
So, I just decap after tumbling and before annealing. I did not see annealing on your list.

Folks here have found they either need to anneal every time, or at least every 2-3 times to get the full life out of the brass.

Also, most here like to full length resize every time and use bullet comparators to bump the shoulders by .002.
I don't do that every time, but I do it at least every 2-3 times, and may neck size in between. If you don't do it enough, you will
have case head separations from bad head spacing and you will also have trouble with chambering and ejecting shells.
It sort of depends some on whether you are shooting belted magnums, which are more sensitive to all these issues, and on your specific rifle chambering.

Good luck.

Yeah I am hoping to purchase and annealer but didn't have the funds yet once I get one it will for sure be apart of my process.

 

[Baboltin]

Some Benchrest shooters and maybe even long range hunters here like to dry lube the bullet base or the necks to help cut down on
neck tension/friction because it helps the bullet seat easier and they believe it adds some accuracy, and lower Standard Dev and
ES. Its really optional. You can run your own tests or search youtube for videos of folks that do this.

I use a little bit of graphite dry lube on mine. Some pros use tungsten disulfide powders (WS2).

It's really up to you. One thing I noticed in your process I do differently is that I do not deprime or decap brass until after tumbling.
Too many times, when I clean primer pockets I have seen corn media stopping up the flash hole for the primer, and if I do not catch it, it will cause either a non uniform burn or a clicker. Its also a pain to get it out when I do I catch it, just takes more time.
So, I just decap after tumbling and before annealing. I did not see annealing on your list.

Folks here have found they either need to anneal every time, or at least every 2-3 times to get the full life out of the brass.

Also, most here like to full length resize every time and use bullet comparators to bump the shoulders by .002.
I don't do that every time, but I do it at least every 2-3 times, and may neck size in between. If you don't do it enough, you will
have case head separations from bad head spacing and you will also have trouble with chambering and ejecting shells.
It sort of depends some on whether you are shooting belted magnums, which are more sensitive to all these issues, and on your specific rifle chambering.

Good luck.

Thank you for all the advice, I did full length resize and just removed the expander ball on the die and then went ahead and got the appropriate neck tense .002 that I wanted hopefully that is the correct way about going about it in that order.

 

[Baboltin]

Thank you to everyone for the input and help

 

[rsnell]

I have used Motor Mica for at least 30 years and never had a problem. Some have been loaded for one year.

Bob

 

[misterc01]

After I tumble, I resize the brass, and the use an ultrasonic cleaner to get any residual lube or other debris off. That usually takes care of the deprimed flash hole as well. But I do check the primer pocket to ensure cleanliness, and clean if I feel it needs it. I also use Imperial dry neck lube and leave it went seating the bullet. So far, works for me.

 

[SteveBurton]

My brass prep process is similar to yours but I do a couple of things in a different order.

1)Deprime brass
2)Clean brass in tumbler (wet or dry depending on my mood)
3)Inspect brass for pins or media
4)Anneal
5)FL resize with neck bushing, without expander ball using Imperial wax
6)Clean brass in dry tumbler to remove case lube
7)Inspect brass for media
8)Measure OAL of brass
9)Trim brass if needed
10)Chamfer, deburr and clean primer pockets
11)Mandrel resize the neck with Redding dry neck lube
12)Wipe outside of case by hand leaving dry lube inside neck

I have found that if I chamfer and debur before mandrel neck sizing it goes much smoother, especially if wet tumbling. The case mouth can get beat up and drags on the mandrel. It's also the last step so leaving the dry lube inside is easy.
I know my process seems lengthy but I don't load thousands of rounds a year. If I was doing pistol or 223 I'm sure I would change things up.

To answer your original question, I leave the dry lube in the necks after prepping my brass. I've had no issues with doing this at all.