My loading bench is in the basement and I haven't loaded certain cartridges in a few years.

Yesterday I went to load up some 30-30 rounds for the little guy who now loves shooting at 11 years of age and found the dies had surface rust inside and out from moisture I guess. No pitting.

I looked around and found some liquid wrench and sprayed them and wiped them down and they seemed to work fine.

Should these dies be stored with some kind of lube, like you oil the firearm after it's cleaned and put in the safe?

If so, what do you use?

Thanks in advance.

In a perfect world, dies won't be stored in a damp basement -- or unheated garage, barn, shop.

I keep my dies lightly sprayed with WD-40, which is a moisture barrier NOT a "lubricant." But mostly I keep the dies in a heated room. Same goes for the presses, and any other machine tools on the reload bench -- which is just about everything on the reload bench.

The other contributor for rust is the oils and acids on your skin. Just like handing a firearm, fingerprints cause rust on steel surfaces.

Light coat of oil, wipe down the fingerprints and store in a dry, heated area with good ventilation to prevent condensation on the surfaces.

Put some Flitz on a patch wrapped around a bore brush in an Electric drill and polish it out.