Neck Lube Experience

[DoneNOut]

Polish off the annealing residue and your seating depth variations will greatly clean up

Now this is intriguing. I wonder if my alcohol swabbing and mandrel use is removing that annealing, or if I need to use Fltiz...here we go!

 

[C-130 Dude]

I went through the runout nightmare 2000-2003. Did a blind test of batches from .001 to .009. A .009 runout batch shot the best. Sold the runout gauge in 03 and and haven't worried about it since. Cold welding is a new one for me lately. If something is gonna be a problem it will be one for me. So far, cold weld is in the Xfiles folder...

.009 shot best??, go figure. I've got cartridges I built 10 years ago with no neck lube and have not had any issues. Granted, I did use sealer on the primer and outside neck-for hunting use only in my 375HH. I do use sealer on neck and primer for my 5.56 shtf stash. But no neck lube. I might try some graphite next time I load for my 308. Might be a hoot to see if it makes a difference to my already lousy scores. Yeah, I'm playing the, "I'm old with bad eyes card". Ha!

 

[Tiny Tim]

Just started experimenting with dry neck lube. Saw a slight increase in CBTO (+-.001) but only running .001 interference fit at most. ES 11 SD 4 at 3038 fps in 243AI. I might be concerned with recoil moving bullets in mag box on a rifle with more recoil.

 

[338 dude]

Another potential problem with lubing necks:

My buddy was hunting grizzlys with a Blaser rifle in 375HH. He had factory ammo that was loaded with moly coated bullets, which were popular at the time. He told me that the recoil of the rifle caused the bullets to move in the cases of all the rounds in the magazine. He swore off moly after that. Good neck tension is important in a hunting round.

Just a thought.

With recoil like that, he should be crimping those.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

With recoil like that, he should be crimping those.

He was using factory ammo.

 

[DoneNOut]

Just started experimenting with dry neck lube. Saw a slight increase in CBTO (+-.001) but only running .001 interference fit at most. ES 11 SD 4 at 3038 fps in 243AI. I might be concerned with recoil moving bullets in mag box on a rifle with more recoil.

.0015 will work loose in a mag box. I only run that low with a single shot comp gun.

 

[Calvin45]

Wow - that sounds like a lot of work. I try to keep things simple. I simply run a dry brush in the necks of fired cases to remove anything that is loose. The carbon all remains in the neck. I use FL bushing dies and that's it. The only time I see seating inconsistencies is when the bushing is too tight for the brass being used or when the load is compressed. Even a little compression causes seating inconsistencies IME.

I must have got lucky…I have a killer 300 win load that involved crushing 79 grains of 8133 under a 225 Eldm. No issues

 

[DoneNOut]

I must have got lucky…I have a killer 300 win load that involved crushing 79 grains of 8133 under a 225 Eldm. No issues

But would that kill a bear?

 

[Calvin45]

How am I escaping the cold weld problem? I've pulled 10yr old loads and even 70-80s military surplus and nothing has been welded. I don't disbelieve you or others when I ask this. I just wonder if a certain process, or brass cleaning is more prevalent to cause the issue.

Agreed. Never had this happen. Factory ammo never does this either.

 

[Salmonhead]

Now this is intriguing. I wonder if my alcohol swabbing and mandrel use is removing that annealing, or if I need to use Fltiz...here we go!

I just tumble it off with corn cobb

 

[DoneNOut]

I just tumble it off with corn cobb

Well, that's easy enough!

 

[Calvin45]

regarding cold weld…I'm entirely convinced that overzealous cleaning practices, both on brass and rifle bores, often cause more problems than they solve. A film of carbon in the neck left "uncleaned" is good (and chemically not different than graphite haha, though the molecular structure won't be the same so I'm not claiming it's identical).

I've never used a rotary tumbler or ultrasonic cleaner. Never used metal pins or ceramic media. No wet tumbling. Just basic corncob in a Lyman vibratory. No issues with decade old handloads.

As for factory, I've shot ammo in dads .30-30 from the early 70s. No problems.

 

[DoneNOut]

regarding cold weld…I'm entirely convinced that overzealous cleaning practices, both on brass and rifle bores, often cause more problems than they solve. A film of carbon in the neck left "uncleaned" is good (and chemically not different than graphite haha, though the molecular structure won't be the same so I'm not claiming it's identical).

I've never used a rotary tumbler or ultrasonic cleaner. Never used metal pins or ceramic media. No wet tumbling. Just basic corncob in a Lyman vibratory. No issues with decade old handloads.

As for factory, I've shot ammo in dads .30-30 from the early 70s. No problems.

Flitz in walnut and you need sunglasses when you open the lid!

 

[Muddyboots]

I just tumble it off with corn cobb

I just started doing this back end of 2022 as a thought to try and sure glad someone else been down this road. I have to make sure I record the brass was annealled since impossible to tell since polished in walnut (std mixed 50:50 with lizard fine walnut bedding) with Flitz and super bright.

I have not shot much so no real data yet other than shot well looking bright. Which is NBD.