I will finally get the opportunity to complete the set-up of my reloading bench after some years of inactivity, and am not clear on the most-effective way to lubricate shouldered/tapered rifle cases (.223 Rem and .308 Rem) to effectively apply adequate lubricant to the shoulder and neck areas of the brass.

I have seen the RCBS lubricating (and depriming) die which automatically applies lube to the case, but have not heard any comments from other reloaders regarding its effectiveness.

In the past, I have used the traditional lubricant pad to roll cases to apply lubricant, but am not clear if sufficient lubrication is applied to the critical areas of the shoulder and neck.

I have also seen the spray bottles used to spray lubricant on the brass laying on a terrycloth towel or similar, but this seems to be a major waste of lubricant, especially when I have literally thousands of cases waiting to be reloaded.

What are the methods currently being employed to lube your rifle cases during the reloading process?

Rusty Musket

I lube in a gallon sized zip lock bag.
I make my own case lube with lanolin and castor oil mixed 2-1.
a hundred 0-6 cases uses a dollop of lube about the size of a pea.
wipe the lube in the bag, pour in the cases, and mush everything around.
the lube covers the entire case.
the same amount of lube does about 150 223 cases.

Here is our method.

I use a little bit of Imperial on my finger, rub it on my palms.

Pick a handful of cases, roll them through my palms, and while holding them in one hand, I rub the necks with my fingers from the other hand. Then use a Q tip covered in lube, and run it through the inside of each neck.

I do this in a sort of a batch - like a 100 or so cases.

Then run them through the sizing and depriming die.

After this I lay them on tissue paper, and spray a small amount of degreaser on them and roll in the tissue paper.

Now they are ready to trimmed and primed.

I still use a oiled stamp pad. I take each case and wipe it down with a soft cloth and put them in a reloading block. Then I use a drill motor to run a proper calibre brush through each neck and lay them on the pad. When I have several on the pad, I roll them back and forth. And then as I pick them up individually, I stand them up with the neck against the pad and press down like I want to cut a donut out of the pad. This puts a small amount of lube around the inside of the mouth. I then resize/deprime and pitch them in the tumbler. When I have all of the batch in the tumbler, I turn it on for about 30 mins and then remove the cases one at a time and wipe any media dust off with a soft cloth. They are now ready to trim (if needed) and reprime. Kinda tedious, perhaps, but it works for me.

I don't ever lube the shoulder, it just causes dents and other problems.
I use Imperial or 100% bees wax rubbed evenly on each case as I pick them up from the loading block.
Don't use spray lubes, the only stuck cases I've ever had were from using that spray junk.
Heavy forming and sizing always runs best when using RCBS case lube II and a lube pad, even bees wax leaves wrinkles in unwanted places.

Cheers.

I use and have used a variety of the spray case lubes... I think the one on the bench at the moment is Hornady..

I use a large tupperware container... just dump in my cases, spray, shake a couple times, and spray again..

you have to experiment with how much to spray, or how many times based on the size of your container and the number of cases your working with.... It works for me.. And once the tupperware gets disgusting, i just toss it and get a new one..

quote:

And once the tupperware gets disgusting, i just toss it and get a new one..

You mean you go upstairs and steal another one from your wife? Tried that once....didn't go too well....

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Originally posted by Dulltool17:

quote:

And once the tupperware gets disgusting, i just toss it and get a new one..

You mean you go upstairs and steal another one from your wife? Tried that once....didn't go too well....

That's has got me into trouble before also.

I use a similar method for large scale loadings of 500 or more

Giant plastic mixing bowl and Hornady One Shot

Spray and move the bowl like I'm panning for gold to spread the lube through all of the cases

Let it dry then load

What doesn't get loaded gets either covered up or put in a big ziplock bag so to not pick up a ton of dust

I only use my hands to lube 50 or less runs

I use Imperial case lub exclusively on a RCBS pad ... roll about 15 or 20 at a time until Ive done about 100, the start resizing them....If Im only doing 20 to 40 cases, I put a dab of the lub the fingers of my left hand, and rub the case and stick it in the press always being careful not to use too much, it just takes a tad otherwise you tend to dent the necks.

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
I use Imperial case lub exclusively on a RCBS pad ... roll about 15 or 20 at a time until Ive done about 100, the start resizing them....If Im only doing 20 to 40 cases, I put a dab of the lub the fingers of my left hand, and rub the case and stick it in the press always being careful not to use too much, it just takes a tad otherwise you tend to dent the necks.

\

Same as Ray except I use Bardahl and a folded old rag. That rag has lasted over 20 years and looks to have a lot of years left in it. I've used the Imperial and it's good stuff but the semi liquid Bardahl soaks into the rag and seems to last forever. roger

quote:

Originally posted by Dulltool17:

quote:

And once the tupperware gets disgusting, i just toss it and get a new one..

You mean you go upstairs and steal another one from your wife?

Yeah, well I didn't want to say it in case we ever met, I wouldn't want you pointing me out to your wife telling her "that's the guy that made me do it!"

Used PAM spray vegetable oil to do a big batch of cases once, years ago. Put the cases in a plastic container and spray em, shake em around and spray again until evenly coated.

A bit less confidence inducing than my usual Imperial die wax on the thumb and first finger, but it worked.

Had a small tin of Imperial that lasted about 7yrs, probably just don't handload that much... The coating lasts for 5 or 6 cases on my fingers. Don't take much to work wonders.

No grandkids that can be coerced into a little bit of domestic child labor? Tell em your gonna teach em about foreign policy, sweat shops and such...

Nobody??

Children are great.

This young lady is depriming a bunch of 40S@W I gave her Dad.

picture and story at the link

http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2...loader-age-five.html


A reader sent this picture of his daughter assisting him in reloading cartridges. On a single stage press, such as the RCBS pictured, there is plenty to do. A young child can easily and safely deprime cases, such as this young girl is doing. She deprimed 500 of them for her father, and was very pleased with herself. It reminds me of pleasant times when my daughter was about five. She loved to help me reload ammunition

I posted this in an earlier post so here it is again.

I mix this spray lube up using one ounce of lanolin to 12 ounces of 99% isopropyl alcohol in a plastic spray bottle. The Iso Heet I use is 99% isopropyl alcohol.

I put my cases in a one gallon Zip-Lock bag and give them a few sprays of the mixture and roll them around in it and dump them on a towel on my work bench for a couple of minutes to let the alcohol dry and it leaves a nice thin coating of the lanolin on the cases.

Since I started using the lanolin I've loaded a few thousand rounds and not had any cases stuck in a die and no dents in the shoulders due to the lube.

It's a lot faster than applying lube on individual cases with your fingers or rolling them around on a pad. I can spray a hundred cases in a freezer bag in less time than it takes to apply lube to a half dozen cases by hand.








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There are a lot of fast and nasty lubing methods used on youtube. You can try some of them.

Just remember if you don't use enough lube on the .223 the mickey mouse rims will tear off.

quote:

Originally posted by Rook49:
I posted this in an earlier post so here it is again.

I mix this spray lube up using one ounce of lanolin to 12 ounces of 99% isopropyl alcohol in a plastic spray bottle. The Iso Heet I use is 99% isopropyl alcohol.

I put my cases in a one gallon Zip-Lock bag and give them a few sprays of the mixture and roll them around in it and dump them on a towel on my work bench for a couple of minutes to let the alcohol dry and it leaves a nice thin coating of the lanolin on the cases.

Since I started using the lanolin I've loaded a few thousand rounds and not had any cases stuck in a die and no dents in the shoulders due to the lube.

It's a lot faster than applying lube on individual cases with your fingers or rolling them around on a pad. I can spray a hundred cases in a freezer bag in less time than it takes to apply lube to a half dozen cases by hand.








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Exactly.
Just the homemade version of Dillon's spray lube.
I have a large Akro bin I use.
Perfect for large volume of reloading on a progressive.
Cheap enough that 'waste' isn't a concern.

For short runs on a single stage, a dab of Imperial on a gloved hand goes a long way.