Lube residue on bullet seating...

RTTY · Dec 14, 2024

Hello,
on my brass preparing process I use the Redding dry Lube for lubing the neck and Redding Imperial Wax.

I Lube the body of the case with Imperial Wax and the fingers and dip the neck on the dry lube then resize.

After that, I clean the exerior of the case with isopropil alcool.

I not use the same product/method for the interior of the neck.
Some time I use a brush, but I think that some residue of dry lube remain.

Have some advantage on seating with lube residue?

Making some advantage on consistency?

Thanks

021411 · Dec 14, 2024

Is lubing the neck really required?

Just wondering if this is really required when seating the bullet. I am asking because without lubing I am already getting between 5-10 SD and I doubt I can get better by lubing the necks. Is lubing only for prolonging the case (neck) life?

www.snipershide.com

Seating “feel” is one thing. If you’re talking about trying to get better numbers, see the link.

All my new brass gets some neolube and mandreled for the sake of uniformity and easier seating since there’s no carbon residue. After they are fired they have enough carbon fouling to aid in smooth seating.

918v · Dec 14, 2024

Leave the dry lube inside the neck. I wipe off the sizing wax with a rag. By the time I have a loaded round the case is bone dry.

RTTY · Dec 14, 2024

021411 said:
Is lubing the neck really required?

Just wondering if this is really required when seating the bullet. I am asking because without lubing I am already getting between 5-10 SD and I doubt I can get better by lubing the necks. Is lubing only for prolonging the case (neck) life?

www.snipershide.com

Seating “feel” is one thing. If you’re talking about trying to get better numbers, see the link.

All my new brass gets some neolube and mandreled for the sake of uniformity and easier seating since there’s no carbon residue. After they are fired they have enough carbon fouling to aid in smooth seating.

Hello @021411 ,
thanks for the reply and the link.

Yes my question are almost for better numbers.

I clean my brass with wet tumbling and media and the inner of the neck are pretty cleaned.

I use only dry lube from redding

RTTY · Dec 14, 2024

918v said:
Leave the dry lube inside the neck. I wipe off the sizing wax with a rag. By the time I have a loaded round the case is bone dry.

Hello @918v ,
there almost like my procedure, but when I loaded the round I clean more with other rag and isopropil

straightshooter1 · Dec 14, 2024

RTTY said:
Hello,
on my brass preparing process I use the Redding dry Lube for lubing the neck and Redding Imperial Wax.

I Lube the body of the case with Imperial Wax and the fingers and dip the neck on the dry lube then resize.

After that, I clean the exerior of the case with isopropil alcool.

I not use the same product/method for the interior of the neck.
Some time I use a brush, but I think that some residue of dry lube remain.

Have some advantage on seating with lube residue?

Making some advantage on consistency?

Thanks

Hmmm??? Sounds like you're doing more work than you need to?? It helps to know the details of your whole sizing process.

For me, I only use the Imperial Sizing Die Wax for sizing and dry tumble with rice, which removes the wax and preps the inside of the neck nicely without any further lubing needed for seating.

Just so you get an idea how that fits into my particular process that I do ~100 at a time:
Deprime cases
Anneal case necks and shoulders
Clean necks with steel wool
Lube and FL Size with reamed non-bushing sizing die and no expander ball
Dry tumble with medium grain rice
Remove rice from case interiors
Expand necks with mandrel (no need for lube)
3-way trim cases to uniform length
Prime cases
Charge case
Seat bullets (no lube required)

918v · Dec 14, 2024

RTTY said:
Hello @918v ,
there almost like my procedure, but when I loaded the round I clean more with other rag and isopropil

Ok, then just leave the dry lube inside the neck.

RTTY · Dec 14, 2024

straightshooter1 said:
Hmmm??? Sounds like you're doing more work than you need to?? It helps to know the details of your whole sizing process.

Sorry, I cannibalizzer my post...
I use dry for the neck, internal and external, I dip the neck on the ceramic media.

straightshooter1 said:
For me, I only use the Imperial Sizing Die Wax for sizing and dry tumble with rice, which removes the wax and preps the inside of the neck nicely without any further lubing needed for seating.

You use the wax also on the inner of the neck?
If yes the neck need without dubt cleaning.
If you use the dry, the dry work at the same manner of the moly, a litle bit same...

straightshooter1 said:
Just so you get an idea how that fits into my particular process that I do ~100 at a time:
Deprime cases
Anneal case necks and shoulders
Clean necks with steel wool
Lube and FL Size with reamed non-bushing sizing die and no expander ball
Dry tumble with medium grain rice
Remove rice from case interiors
Expand necks with mandrel (no need for lube)
3-way trim cases to uniform length
Prime cases
Charge case
Seat bullets (no lube required)

I also work 100 case per time.
Deprime
Clean
Anneal
No steel wool
Resize FL no bal
Expander
Clean isopropil external case
Priming
Load
Seat
Clean

straightshooter1 · Dec 14, 2024

RTTY said:
You use the wax also on the inner of the neck?

No. But the dry tumbling apparently leaves a very very light coating, though the rice tends to absorb the wax. All of the case exterior doesn't feel waxy, but does feel dry and polished and the interior of the neck apparently has the same kinds of feel as seating is very smooth and consistent from case to case.

RTTY said:
If yes the neck need without dubt cleaning.
If you use the dry, the dry work at the same manner of the moly, a litle bit same...

Yep, no double cleaning needed.

I've tried the dry neck lube and it works ok, but I just there was just too much work in dealing with it. The method I'm using is way easier and less time for results that I had (consistent seating) were better.

RTTY said:
I also work 100 case per time.
Deprime
Clean
Anneal
No steel wool
Resize FL no bal
Expander
Clean isopropil external case
Priming
Load
Seat
Clean

Cleaning before annealing is ok as there's less residual oxidation, but the oxidation that is left after annealing is still abrasive to sizing dies (except neck sizing with a collet die

) where I'd want to clean that abrasiveness away after annealing anyway . . . or, I could apply lube to the neck, which tends to dirty up the die's neck area. I've experimented with this approach and other's too and settled on the one I'm doing now.

Before I started using steel wool to clean necks I'd simply dry tumble them. But using steel wool actually took much less time and produced cleaner necks and shoulders. If I was doing high volume of cases, I'd wet tumble without any media after annealing as that really cleans up the exterior of the cases nicely leaving some of that carbon deposit on the interior. But I'd still dry tumble with rice after sizing as it does such a nice job in getting the cases ready for charging and seating.

I take it the "Clean" after "Seat" is where you're removing the dry lube? I HATE having to do that!

RTTY · Dec 15, 2024

straightshooter1 said:
No. But the dry tumbling apparently leaves a very very light coating, though the rice tends to absorb the wax. All of the case exterior doesn't feel waxy, but does feel dry and polished and the interior of the neck apparently has the same kinds of feel as seating is very smooth and consistent from case to case.

Have you tried to clean with isopropil some rounds?
I think that are not the same cleaning...

straightshooter1 said:
Yep, no double cleaning needed.

I clean the second time for permit a the round the best gripping on the chamber.

straightshooter1 said:
I've tried the dry neck lube and it works ok, but I just there was just too much work in dealing with it. The method I'm using is way easier and less time for results that I had (consistent seating) were better.

Less work but not the same result.

straightshooter1 said:
Cleaning before annealing is ok as there's less residual oxidation, but the oxidation that is left after annealing is still abrasive to sizing dies (except neck sizing with a collet die ) where I'd want to clean that abrasiveness away after annealing anyway . . . or, I could apply lube to the neck, which tends to dirty up the die's neck area. I've experimented with this approach and other's too and settled on the one I'm doing now.

Before I started using steel wool to clean necks I'd simply dry tumble them. But using steel wool actually took much less time and produced cleaner necks and shoulders. If I was doing high volume of cases, I'd wet tumble without any media after annealing as that really cleans up the exterior of the cases nicely leaving some of that carbon deposit on the interior. But I'd still dry tumble with rice after sizing as it does such a nice job in getting the cases ready for charging and seating.

I anneal with an induction machine made by my self, this type of annealing are different from the torch, don't make or make less residue than the torch.

straightshooter1 said:
I take it the "Clean" after "Seat" is where you're removing the dry lube? I HATE having to do that!

No, i clean the residues of handling and remnants of a bit of wax.

straightshooter1 · Dec 15, 2024

RTTY said:
Have you tried to clean with isopropil some rounds?
I think that are not the same cleaning...

No, I haven't done any cleaning with isopropyl, as I just haven't seen a need to.

RTTY said:
I clean the second time for permit a the round the best gripping on the chamber.

As long as I'm not seeing powder residue anywhere on the case shoulders, I'm not having any issue with gripping.

Have you had problems with gripping when you don't use isopropyl?

CK1.0 · Dec 15, 2024

IMHO some of you guys do way too much work for little, to no, gain. Shiny/pretty brass doesn't shoot any better than brass that isn't quite as nice looking (in fact, most of the stuff some guys do to it to make it pretty, actually only makes it shoot worse).

Unless my brass lands in mud at a rainy match or something, fired brass goes straight into the AMP.

My steps are (starting with a fire case):

- anneal
- spray lube (IPA/lanolin 10:1 mix, 4-5 sprays into a 1-gallon ziplock freezer bag per 100 cases, worked around for a minute or 2 and then bag opened up for the alcohol to flash off for ~10 mins)
- FL size and deprime w/ decapping stem (no expander ball)
- dry tumble (in 20-40 grit corn cob blasting media, pours out of flash holes like water when finished, so you don't have to beat the shit out of the cases using a media separator)
- mandrel (the leftover dust from tumbling is lube for the necks)
- inside neck chamfer only (VLD chamfer head, I just kiss them enough to smooth things out for seating bullets and remove any potential peening damage from the mandrel)
- prime
- powder (to the nearest kernel)
- lube inside of necks (IPA/lanolin mix on a couple of wetted q-tips, quick swirl inside each case's neck, takes ~1-2 minutes per 100)
- seat bullets

...and FWIW, as far as trimming, I only trim my brass once per season/barrel. Once multiple firing cycles pile up, I check the fired brass in the chamber with a borescope, and if it has to be trimmed, I take it back to SAAMI minimum (and then don't think about it again for maybe another ~10 more firings/cycles).

RTTY · Dec 15, 2024

straightshooter1 said:
No, I haven't done any cleaning with isopropyl, as I just haven't seen a need to.

As long as I'm not seeing powder residue anywhere on the case shoulders, I'm not having any issue with gripping.

Have you had problems with gripping when you don't use isopropyl?

No, I have always used the isopropil for final cleaning.

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Lube residue on bullet seating...

RTTY

Sergeant of the Hide

021411

hot loads B==D - - -

Is lubing the neck really required?

918v

Range Physic

RTTY

Sergeant of the Hide

Is lubing the neck really required?

RTTY

Sergeant of the Hide

straightshooter1

Private

918v

Range Physic

RTTY

Sergeant of the Hide

straightshooter1

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RTTY

Sergeant of the Hide

straightshooter1

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CK1.0

\m/ SLAYER \m/

RTTY

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