Bullet lube when seating?

[dkhunt14]

I shake up the can of spray graphite and spray it in a old Berger bullet box. I then let it evaporate a little. I cover a q-tip and turn case upside down and put it in the neck. When you catch this right it completely covers the inside of neck. I sit case upside down in my loading block and let dry a couple of minutes. Then you are ready to prime and load. I always check to see that they are completely covered after they are dry. If not i redo them. It is important that you keep the q-tip loaded. When you catch it at the right dryness you can easily do 40 cases before you have to spray more in the box. When you respray it makes the dry stuff wet. The stuff is made by Spray On. If you think your bullets go in easy and consistent; wait till you try this. This is one of the things that helped me break all the records in 1000 BR. Matt

 

[Scrubbit]

Thanks Matt. Was wondering about the best way to apply it without making a mess. Q-tip it is. Eli

 

[CB11WYO]

Good thread for sure, thanks guys...

 

[SidecarFlip]

Maybe my Sierra's are pre-lubed because I've experienced no seating issues (I VLD all my case mouths). I've pulled seated pills to see if there is any marks on the pills themselves from seating and there is nothing and they slide in smoothly.

 

[Scrubbit]

Hi Sidecar, excuse my ignorance, but what's "VLDing case mouths". Not familiar with the acronym...

 

[Korhil78]

Hi Sidecar, excuse my ignorance, but what's "VLDing case mouths". Not familiar with the acronym...

I believe that he is referring to using a case mouth chamfer that has the VLD 28 degree angle on the chamfer.

I use imperial sizing wax on the outside of the case mouth when neck sizing. Just a tiny bit does it. When I go to seat a bullet, I put a tiny bit of the sizing wax on the bullet where the boat tail starts. I just started doing this not too long ago and it makes a WORLD of difference in the consitency of seating the bullet. At least that is what my brain tells me when the bullet is seated so smoothly.

 

[Scrubbit]

Thanks, that makes sense. I shoot VLDs and didn't realize there was a custom chamfer. Switching to hybrids in any case.

 

[Korhil78]

Thanks, that makes sense. I shoot VLDs and didn't realize there was a custom chamfer. Switching to hybrids in any case.

You can pretty much get one from any reloading company....Lyman, redding etc. they are not really custom, it just preps the inside of the case mouth to accept the boat tail of the VLD bullet better.

 

[Greyfox]

I will lube both inside and outside the necks of new brass(particularly Lapua), and my annealed brass for the first load. Annealing clearly effects the surface composition of the brass, increasing seating pressure or expanding pressure if I have to bring the neck size up with new brass, perhaps this is oxide/crystal formation. This can also scratch the neck dye if no lube is used. Once fired, this effect disappears. Several years ago I tested lubed vs unlubed reloads with my competition rifles and found no difference in accuracy, velocity, ES, or runout of either the case neck, or the bullet of a prepared,1x+ fired case. This assumes that the neck is sized approximately .002" smaller than the bullet and non-moly coated bullets. I did find that lubing the bullet or the inside of the case neck increased the chance of bullet setback with rounds loaded in the magazine with some of my rifles/cartridges used in multiple shot competitive shooting, or when hunting with rounds in the magazine.

 

[dkhunt14]

Greyfox did you test at 1000 yards with your competition guns? All my testing was done with 1000 yard benchrest rifles and the vertical got better with my lubing. The other thing that really helped vertical was annealing every time. I clean my necks to the bare brass by spinning with a drill with steel wool wrapped around an old bronze brush, then i anneal. The graphite really helped with the seating. It got way easier and bullets almost always seat within a thous. measured with a Stoney Point. I can run bullets into the lands 10 to 15 and still open the bolt and not let a bullet stuck in the barrel. Now my match and hunting guns are all single shot. They do not weld after they set.

 

[dkhunt14]

Maybe my Sierra's are pre-lubed because I've experienced no seating issues (I VLD all my case mouths). I've pulled seated pills to see if there is any marks on the pills themselves from seating and there is nothing and they slide in smoothly.

If you don't clean your Sierras with acetone they have lube on them.

 

[dkhunt14]

I believe that he is referring to using a case mouth chamfer that has the VLD 28 degree angle on the chamfer.

I use imperial sizing wax on the outside of the case mouth when neck sizing. Just a tiny bit does it. When I go to seat a bullet, I put a tiny bit of the sizing wax on the bullet where the boat tail starts. I just started doing this not too long ago and it makes a WORLD of difference in the consitency of seating the bullet. At least that is what my brain tells me when the bullet is seated so smoothly.

I would think that as rounds set the sizing wax would contaminate the powder. Especially if the bullets were setting upright and in the heat.

 

[SidecarFlip]

If you don't clean your Sierras with acetone they have lube on them.

They slide in like a suppository in a ..... (you know what.....). Never cleaned one.

.....and yes, the VLD chamfer cutter is available from every manufacturer. I use an RCBS because it's easy to chuck it in a lathe and do up the inside case necks. Just makes insertion easier for any pill, not just boatails.

Best 10 bucks I ever spent on reloading tools. I VLD everything in every caliber family.

 

[Greyfox]

Greyfox did you test at 1000 yards with your competition guns? All my testing was done with 1000 yard benchrest rifles and the vertical got better with my lubing. The other thing that really helped vertical was annealing every time. I clean my necks to the bare brass by spinning with a drill with steel wool wrapped around an old bronze brush, then i anneal. The graphite really helped with the seating. It got way easier and bullets almost always seat within a thous. measured with a Stoney Point. I can run bullets into the lands 10 to 15 and still open the bolt and not let a bullet stuck in the barrel. Now my match and hunting guns are all single shot. They do not weld after they set.

I did not test at 1000 yards with my competition rifles since the max is generally 600 yards or less. At this range my results were good. I have applied this approach to my LR hunting rifles in 6.5x 284 and 300WM and tested these rifles at 1000+ yards. The groups hold .5MOA or less with good symetry. However, I don't generally hold my hunting rifles to the same standard as my competition rifles. For either type of shooting I do I have found that I can keep my performance by annealing every 4-5 firings. I do find it necessary to lube the bullet after annealing for reasons mentioned in my previous post. With most all my loads I tend to size the neck so bullet seating has little resistence and feels quite smooth during the seating process. If this is not the case I will lube, or determine if its time to anneal, or discard the brass. I have found that the greater the seating pressure the higher the chances of developing excessive runouts and variation in OAL.
If I get into competing at longer ranges I will try your approach for sure.