neck lube ,poor choice

[bob4]

I sure hate sticking my neck out here and telling what I tried. I feel it coming already! But I did try it just to see. I've been using a black graphite powder for seating recently. Just stuff you get from the hardware. Been working great. Except, even with gloves, it's messy as hell. So last night while I am waiting for imperial wax to show up I had a thought. (these usually get me in trouble). I thought I would try seating bullets with case lube. So did a couple of empties just to see.They went in slick as hell. But taking the cartridge and leaning on it on my bench I was able to move it a few thousands. Wasn't an issue with the powder. Can I expect better results from Imperial wax? Seating 300 WM Berger 215 with .002 tension. This is a hunting rifle.

 

[cohunt]

You are supposed to clean the case lube off before seating bullets (though I know some people dont) , I don't use any lube when seating bullets
But that's just me, reloading comes down to personal preference and what seems to produce the best accuracy ylfor your rifles.

 

[Msjwolfe]

I don't use any lube when I seat bullets. I do lube my bullets with HBN, when I started using HBN coated bullets I had to increase neck tension because my bullets started to move in the cases. I was using rcbs dies and bumping the shoulder back which could have contributed to it as well I'm using Redding dies now , but I also didn't have the issue before the HBN

 

[Rick Richard]

I would not be a fan of Lubing necks just because of what you mentioned...The movement.

 

[bill123]

Try spinning a bore brush in the necks w/a drill.

 

[Pdvdh]

I lube the case necks with Hornady sizing wax. Bullets are HBN coated. Wax applied inside neck with Q-tip.
Two step application process.
1) Apply light coating
2) Remove any free wax with a 2nd unlubed Q-tip.

May require additional neck tension.

Never wax lube my revolver case necks, bear defense loads, or loads carried in the magazine of heavy recoiling rifles. I load my long range loads single shot style, so the lubed case neck loads are never in the magazine of my rifles.

I even lube my AR-15 223 case necks, however a neck crimp is applied on those shells after bullet seating.

 

[cheechin]

A small dab of Imperial Sizing Die Wax on the finger tips and a rub across the mouth and those neck sized brass slide so easily in and out of the necking dies. As above, I tend to use a cordless screw driver to power an old bristle brush to clean the inside of the case neck prior to sizing and make sure the outside gets wiped clean beforehand.

 

[bigedp51]

The graphite Imperial dry neck lube below is not messy and simple to use. And you just shake the jar to coat all the ceramic media and dip the necks into the graphite coated media.

Graphite is nothing more than finely ground carbon. And if you wet tumble it strips the carbon from inside of the case necks.

Last night I was cleaning my cases after neck turning and using Hornady Unique. And I use alcohol to remove any remaining case lube inside the case.

Bottom line, dipping the case necks in graphite will replace any missing "dry" carbon. And it is not a messy operation and your expander die or dies expander will smear a fresh coat of "carbon" in your necks.

 

[bob4]

Thanks all. Really been looking for smoother/more consistent seating. Funny someone mentioned the bore brush. Tried that also last night by hand. Made several passes but not with a drill.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

Based on many 1000s of rounds testing at 1k yds I can tell you your best bet is to brush the neck out with a stiff nylon brush and thats it. Dont clean your case, dont lube your necks.

 

[J E Custom]

My preference is to use clean cases (Inside and Out) If cases are annealed and trimmed and also turned and then sized I find that my loads get better SDs than any other method i have tried. In the cases that i tried different lube methods I found them to be inconsistent within the load its self.

All I could deduct from this is that the application of said lubricant is
not as consistent as a good clean surface and proper neck tension.
I have never tried to do both with cases that were well prepped because I was very happy with SDs in the single digits I have even seen SDs of 1 and even 0 on a few loads.

I know some have good luck with Lubing the necks, but I haven't
And it is scary thinking that the bullet would move so easy. so don't fault yourself for trying. It is all part of the learning/loading process.

J E CUSTOM

 

[bob4]

I'll try the brush method next. Have both nylon and brass. My ES a SD use some improvement.

 

[The Oregonian]

I FL size with neck bushing at .003 and no ball , then run through expander die at .002. I use a q-tip with alcohol to remove lube from inside of neck and then use a dry q-tip, sometimes doing that two times bc it takes so little time. I use imperial case lube.

 

[Muddyboots]

Curious thread for me. I always thought a clean dry neck gave best consistent ES and SD. I have a small bench drill press behind me mounted with a nylon brush so I can clean inside neck thoroughly before I FL. I FL with a "little" lube and then clean lube out of neck with swab dipped in acetone which makes the inside squeaky clean. You can double check easily enough when you charge with powder. If powder doesn't stick anywhere in neck, then it is completely clean. I can tell pretty easily that the neck tension is consistently better when I seat the bullet. Takes a little effort to seat but not major effort. I chrony every single load even when shooting off sticks for final practice to insure my loading process is true and consistent. Maybe overly anal but works for me with level of confidence I get with consistent results.