Case lube woes - LC 5.56 brass

General Firearms Reloading & Ammunition
1

I am trying to get this hole rifle reloading thing down. It’s a lot more work than I anticipated (loading pistol is a breeze).

The press is a Lee Loadmaster progressive, using Lee Pacesetter dies (full length sizing and factory crimp). All brass is LC.

I am still waiting for some tooling to come in. This whole case trimming is daunting, now that I am looking at 3500 once & twice fired brass that I have accumulated. The Lee case trimmer in the drill press is not going to cut it, so the Dillon Rapid Trim is in route. Doing the primer pocket reaming is bad enough (RCBS trim mate).

The cases were prepped in a tumbler with walnut shell, a couple tablespoons of Meguires Car polish, 10 - 1" x 1" squares of cut up dryer sheets to keep the static dust down, and run overnight.

Right now my biggest hassle is case lube.

I started out using cooking spray (as recommended by local shooting buddy) and was more than surprised at how well it worked (loaded up 180 rounds for test loads in .2 gr increments). The concept of having bio lube buildup on my press bugs me a bit, so I picked up some Hornady One Shot, and a bottle of RCBS pump spray to see which one does best.

I have the cases standing in pistol case trays, shook the lube well, sprayed at about a 30* down angle at about 5" for a moderate coating (making sure the sides of each case in the rows are getting sprayed) rotate the tray 45* and repeat for all sides. All I get are stuck cases in my die (I did thoroughly clean my dies & press before this batch). I re-sprayed my batch, let dry, and they still get stuck (getting tired of pounding them out). The only way I can get them to cycle is to run them wet. At this point I am concerned that I have damaged my sizing die. since the cases that are run wet are coming out with vertical striations in the brass (nothing deep, just light scratches in the brass). I am about to run a felt polishing wheel with some lapping compound up the die to see if that takes out any burrs.

Any tips, tricks, or insight into what I am doing wrong here, or what I need to do to get some better results?

Once I get my loads (55 gr and 77gr) picked, I want to get into production (I have another 2k new LC brass as well), so lubing one case at a time is out.

2

I only have a single stage press (rcbs rock chucker) I dip every 5th case neck about 1/4" into some 5w30 motor oil it is still messy, but it does not cover my reloading bench with overspray. I do this before I tumble that way when I tumble any oil residue on the case gets cleaned off. If there is excess residue on the case then I wipe off with a rag before I tumble it. Seems to work for me and the motor oil is noticeably smoother in the sizing process.

3

I use Lee lube dilluted 1:4 or 1:5 with 91% alcohol. Put cases in big ziploc, spray them 2-3 times, and then knead them around. Set out for alcohol to evaporate, but I set them on a cookie sheet and place in oven on “Keep Warm” setting for 5 minutes or so. Cases emerge with nice even sheen of lube. Spray bottle costs $1 at Ace. Pick up alcohol at any pharmacy, but avoid the lower 70% version, because it has too much water in it.

Then i apply just a dab of Imperial on the first 4-5 cases on top of the Lee lube and every 5th case or so therafter. Never had a stuck case. And it’s dirt cheap.

You may want to disassemble your die and clean out any remnants of One SHot before switching lubes.

4

I know I am going to be stuck running two passes through the press.

1st pass, deprime, size & trim, bell the case mouth.

Tumble to remove lube, deburr case mouth.

2nd pass, deprime again to verify clean primer pocket, prime (sizing die backed waaay out to center case for primer - Loadmaster primes at top of ram cycle), powder, seat, and crimp.

I’m pondering making a lube die out of my decapper (too tight to buy the RCBS die when I can mod one of my own).

Still comes down to being able to lube up a batch of 500 or so and get to work.

5

That’s how I did the cooking spray. Maybe 1 second worth of spray in the bag for 100 cases.

6

There is no reason to be using anything other than Dillon Case Lube. I don’t know why people suffer with anything else. I run hundreds of rifle rounds through my press every week. I simply do not have time to mess with dog shit products when I’m loading every single night of the week.

Here’s what you should do with One shot…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zy3EN40IoA&list=UUhPnWTfJ3a0DXS91hirCUKA&index=1&feature=plcp

7

One shot is complete crap. I don’t know how Hornady gets away with selling it.

8

Use the Dillion. If you can’t find it make some. I use pure lanolin mixed 1 part lanolin to 9 parts isopropyl alcohol (91%, higher is better). Some use 1 to 8, some use 1 to 10. The Dillion is basically these two ingredients. Use sparingly. This stuff works really well.

9

Interesting suggestions in here. I’ll have to try a few…

10

OP;
I’ll have to second what Markm said…Just use the dillon spray lube…Don’t waste your time fucking around with cooking oil, motor oil, Hornady one shot, unless you like pulling stuck cases from your dies, and possibly damaging your dies in the process. The Dillon lube works, it’s not very expensive and a little goes along way,…I’ve been reloading for over 30yrs. and it is by far the best I’ve ever used… I ruined a sizing die using one shot…I’ll never use that shit again!

11

Dillon case lube sprayed on your brass in plastic shopping bags. Knead to cover every piece.

Size.

Trim using a Giraud trimmer (it will save you time and your sanity, plus make all cases consistent – it works like a pencil sharpener):

If you can’t afford a Giraud you might be able to find a used Gracey.

Tumble to remove all lube.

Prime, powder, bullet, and shoot.

12

I may have to invest in one of those. Do you trim your rifle cases for every reload, or every few?

13

Dillon lube is all I use. I have an open top box I use to lube 200 or so cases at a time by simply spraying them while in the box and shaking it around for a few. Never had a stuck case.

14

Another Dillon user here, & I’ve never had an issue with it.

15

I just resized 240 Speer 5.56 cases last night using one shot with my RCBS rock chucker press and dies. Works great as usual. Is your die adjusted properly?

16

That’s the beauty of Dillon Case Lube… you DON’T need to cover every piece. The stuff gets in the die, and you can actually size a few bone dry pieces of brass before you start to feel the operation get sticky.

I just mist the brass and go to town.

17

I have used Hornady One Shot EXCLUSIVELY since about '93 to size many thosands of LC 5.56, 7.62 and many sporting rounds without problem. So stuff it naysayers!!

18

So you have no experience with DCL. I’ve heard this testimony from every guy who’s just done it this way or that way forever.

One Shit can work… The aerosol is about 75-80% as good as DCL. The pump is no better than water.

19

I’ve never tried the Dillon stuff, but after many thousands of rounds… this old boy still works for me.
Case Lube
Add lube to the pad, set a handful of rounds on the pad… roll. size.

I’ve never had a stuck case.

20

Maybe they change the formula since you bought your can in 93.:sarcastic: