I hear of many simply wiping down their brass after sizing. This would get rid of lube on the outside of the case but not inside the neck. Does this lube left inside the neck of the brass have any adverse effect on the final product? Does it reduce the amount of pressure needed to start the bullet moving from its seat? Does it have an effect on velocity?

Lube can damage the powder and can affect the way that the bullet moves from the neck; that's why I carefully remove ANY trace of lube (Imperial wax) from my cases after resizing.

Red,

If I have to lube the inside of the case neck before sizing then everything goes back into the tumbler before loading. It can be a hassle as I have to wipe the dust off of everything a 2nd time but since I'm never sure what case lube is going to do to the bullet/neck relationship I don't take chances.
I would believe that the lube would act much like motor oil, it reduces the amount of friction between the 2 and thus would reduce the pressure needed to start the bullet on it's path.

I normally tumble brass after sizing, but have a time or two skipped it. I never noticed any difference in the ammo other then a couple powder kernals sticking on their way into the case.
This doesn`t mean you`re safe doing it, just that I never saw a difference......

I used to always tumble after sizing. Now I do it about half the time. I did a test years ago in my 280PDK shot a group over a Chrony tumbled and one with traces of lube inside. I couldn't see any difference velocity or accuracy in a .75MOA hunting rifle. That is just one data point so please don't take it as FACT. My "opinion" is normal neck tension differences would have more impact. But this old boy has been wrong before.

I use a wool bore mop to remove case lube from inside the neck. It seems we work awful hard to get consistant ammo & a dry case neck seems to add to that.

My thought on this is "How can variable amounts of trace lube on the inside of the neck not effect bullet pull and therefore velocity?" For me, the easiest solution is use a water soluble lube and simply wash/rinse the cases in a large bowel. Spread them out on a towel and let them dry. Presto...Clean, resized, lube-free cases.

Leaving case lube in the neck invites bridging of the powder. This can lead to a mess when you get a bridge and have to pull the funnel away or pull the neck of the case away from a measure.
Not a good practice.

I can say from experience that even a thin film of rcbs lube left in a case neck (and I mean thin enough that powder won't stick when you load it) will result in a bonding process a year or two later of many bullets and the case.
Years ago I started seeing some pressure problems on admitedly "strong" loads that had been stored. These loads didn't have problems if shot right away...but had pressure problems after storage.
The way to check if you have a problem with stored and loaded ammo is to try to seat the bullet just a tad deeper. If it takes alot of pressure to move the bullet and it sort of "cracks" as it comes loose you have some bonding going on. I recomend you spot check any ammo that has been stored a while that might have had lube in the case neck area.
For that reason I remove it using an undersized nylon brush wrapped in a wetted heavy duty shop towel patch...no
problems since doing this.
Better yet...start loading ammo using a lee collet die and a redding body die.....oh so very wonderful!

quote:

Originally posted by fredj338:
I use a wool bore mop to remove case lube from inside the neck. It seems we work awful hard to get consistant ammo & a dry case neck seems to add to that.

Same here. I stick an old mop into a T shirt rag and then shove it in the case neck and spin the brass in my fingers and wipe the inside neck clean. only takes a minute to clean 20 cases after sizeing. Personaly ive never had a need for a tumbler, seems like it would create more work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...Hngs&feature=channel

He uses synthetic motor oil.

He removes it with the tumbler for 30 min.

I remove the lube by wiping with a patch wrapped on a worn out bronze bore brush. Then I rinse the cases in isopropyl alcohol. Turn them upside down in a loading block and place in front of a fan for 30 min and they are dry and clean. No tumbler, no media to dig out, no media residue, nothing but clean brass.

Here's the process I use almost always

1. Tumble/vibro the brass to clean

2. Lube, Resize and remove primer

3. check length and do case trim and deburr

4. Wash completed unprimed cases in Gasoline or other good degreaser such as acetone or other

5. Dry thoroughly....(I use an air hose and blow them dry)

6. Seat new primers

7. Install powder and bullet


If you do this then you're working with totally clean and dry brass at seating and no need to wipe them afterwards and no lube inside the necks or anywhere!

Red C:
Nobody's mentioned Forster's inside neck lube kit. I've always had the same problem. Ya gotta inside lube the neck but then get it all out. I found the Forster neck lubing kit which contains 3 different sized brushes mounted on a small stand and uses mica as a lubing agent. I screwed the plastic stand to a piece of wood and just clamp it to my bench. The mica is stored in the base and to lube your cases, you just insert the case over the proper sized brush and push down. It's relatively cheap at about $20 as I recall. Ya might wanna take a look at it. Hope this helps some. Later,
Bear in Fairbanks

quote:

Originally posted by WESR:
My thought on this is "How can variable amounts of trace lube on the inside of the neck not effect bullet pull and therefore velocity?" For me, the easiest solution is use a water soluble lube and simply wash/rinse the cases in a large bowel. Spread them out on a towel and let them dry. Presto...Clean, resized, lube-free cases.

simply wash/rinse the cases in a large bowel
That sounds time consuming and possibly painful!!

They make graphite to stick the case mouths in for neck sizing. I have on occasion necked up 280 or 06 brass to 338 or 35 whelen with a little imperial and never had an issue if I didnt revibrate them afterwards.

I never lube the inside of the neck. I simply roll the cases on a good lubed pad. I've never wiped the inside of the case neck before, but you guys got me wondering now. I've also never seen any lube transfer to the inside as I use the minimum amount to size the case. I've gotten good grouping without wiping the invisable traces of lube from the inside of the neck. I may try tumbling a second time to see if it makes a difference.
If there is known lube on the neck it would definately affect bullet tention, and release pressure. To what extent, I'm not sure.

I was noticing a difference in neck to bullet friction so I lubed the neck prior to seating. That seemed to make all of that batch seat quite evenly. That was recently so no 'bonding' would have taken place. I was under the impression that the bonding was taking place with dry necks. Something else to experiment with!

Something else I did, just for fun, was to set a wedge of waxy-lube around the boat tail of some bullets prior to seating, then dipping the bullet into the waxy-lube pot until I was sure the 'ring' of lube on the boat tail had softened. I then let the excess drip off the ogive and let the stuff set. I then fired them like that. One could see the bullet streak all the way to the target! Accuracy was good and pressure mild. And the bore was clean and shiny! Nothing came out on the bore patch.

Rinse in gasoline.....it costs too much and my wife wont' let me play with it anymore!!

Thanks for all the info. I had been tumbling after sizing to clean out the lube, but I just became curious if that was necessary. Sounds like the consensus is to clean out the lube. I'm going to stay with my procedure.

Lee Collet dies do not require that you lube the neck. That AND they create very concentric cases. What's not to like?

Carbon, lube, anything other than raw brass will create inconsistencies in your loads.

With RCBS lube the powder bridges really bad, but with Lee lube I don't have that problem at all. I've never cleaned out the lube as it says it doesn't react with powder.

I have never cleaned out the lube and I haven't noticed any problems or changes over time. I have pulled bullets out of loads I no longer have record of and cannot say I have found 'fused' bullets. But then, nor can I say for sure whether or not those loads were lubed at all.

If you are really worried about it, why not try the spray a lube like Hornady's One Shot

With bottle necked rifle cases I simply resize and deprime before tumbling. The cases aren't that dirty unless I run them through a semi auto and have to deal with dirt from hitting the ground. Then I just do what Vapodog does. I give them a fast rinse in denatured alcohol or WD-40. Both are avaliable cheap in gallon size cans from Home Depot or Lowe's. By waiting to tumble and polish until they have been resized you get totally clean, lube free cases, inside and out. Depending on your media, you may have to remove the kernel from the flash hole. All thats is left is to charge powder, seat bullet, crimp, (if you're going to), and box 'em up. Bill T.

If you use a water soluble lube, like RCBS, all you have to do is wash your brass.

I wash mine in a plastic sink tub. I put the wet cases in a stainless colander and put the whole in the oven. At low. 30 minutes later an oven thermometer stuck on the brass reads above 210 F and I take everything out.

I don’t believe wiping lube from the cases actually removes all the lube. I have used lubricated cases for decades to prevent case head separations in M1’s and M1a’s. You would be surprised how little lubricant it takes to prevent the case from sticking to the chamber walls.

If you really want to remove the lube, tumble your cases or chemically clean them with a solvent.

If I have well used and long necked cases that really drag on the expander ball I will lube inside the neck with a piece of Armorall Protectant wipe wrapped around a brass brush. You don't need to remove it. I also use this if I need to neck a case up say from 30 to 35 caliber, it makes the trip amazingly easy.

If I am full length resizing, I dip my rifle case necks in Imperial Dry Neck Lube and run them in & out one time on a nylon bristle brush, then resize. I have never bothered to remove any of the residue before seating a bullet.