Thread: New to reloading and have some questions

Cool, a lot of care taken into case prep.. I'll take all info onboard cheers

Stefan, normally we try not to use any wet lub on the inside of a case neck because of two reasons:

1. It can contaminate your propellant.
2. Its been found that in bullets that were stored for extended periods the bullet and case became "glued" together.(ever tried pulling the bullets on old military ammo?)

Rather use graphite powder to lub the necks.

This stuff is the gears and top up with fine graphite.
Its cheating really as makes it to easy!

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by andyanimal31

This stuff is the gears and top up with fine graphite.
Its cheating really as makes it to easy!

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

I tried every thing else, spray lubes ect but cant beat the trusty old lube pad and graphite

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

I'll second that. Im still using my first rcbs lube bottle that came with my rockchucker kit back in 2012. Still feels half full too.

If you can buddy up with somebody from here or at your nearest club you will learn quality tips for saving time but not losing any precision
My tip
-Quickload. You can buy it and have a play now while you have time on your hands. It will help you work out a good min to start your load development. And you can feed it anecdotal loads and swap powders to see what yields the best results (theoretical ones of course). You still get to try the bergers, hornadys, sierras etc and see what comes out on top.

So you guys are lubing bullets/inside case neck to seat bullets?
news to me

Originally Posted by widerange

So you guys are lubing bullets/inside case neck to seat bullets?
news to me

I use a dry lube only

I do the following:
-lube with body of case with a pad and then inside and outside of neck with graphite (rub on with a cotton bud)
-Full length resize (its hunting ammo, I want it to load no issues each time and happy to sacrifice a little accuracy)
-Wipe off all lube from outside
-Trim will lee hand trimmer (if it needs it)
-De-burr (if it was trimmed)
-Scratch the carbon out of primer pocket with a sharpened match stick (occasionally I might lightly use a primer pocket tool)
-primer, powder, seat bullet from there. I don't worry about removing graphite from inside neck, a little probably helps the seating process.

Dry, and not to seat but to size.

Originally Posted by widerange

So you guys are lubing bullets/inside case neck to seat bullets?
news to me

No, for sizing. But some remnants will remain to help seating.

@Stefanhope, you definitely shouldn't be able to fit the bullet back in there by hand. Think about it... If you can slide it in by hand, what's to stop it from wiggling back out?

Do you have a set of calipers? Measure the outisde diameter of the bullet, should be 0.284". Measure the inside diameter of the neck, should be about 0.280". You'll need the force of the press to push the bullet down into that - but it means the neck will grip the bullet like an elastic band as it's forced open.

Lube on the inside of the neck helps the expander ball (the bulge on the spindle in the middle of your resizing die) force its way through the neck. But you don't want that lube - waxes, oils, etc. - contaminating the powder you're going to put in there later, so remove it after you've resized. Use alcohol, soapy water, Q-tips, whatever.

YouTube. Reloading manuals. There's lots of resources out there.

Cheers for the info, yeah makes sense to me that the neck needs to be tight so the bullet is held in cheers

Originally Posted by widerange

So you guys are lubing bullets/inside case neck to seat bullets?
news to me

News to me too. I reload ~4000 cases per year and have never lubed inside the neck.

FWIW my procedure is:
Lube the neck and shoulder with a very light coat of Imperial Sizing Wax.
Deprime and full length size with a Redding die with appropriate bushing die.
(Full length as the case could be loaded for 3 different but similar rifles with slightly different chambers)
Ultrasonic clean, dry cases in oven at 120 deg, air cool.
Never have to clean primer pockets or necks.
Add primer, powder and projectile.
Fire and repeat.

I watched and learnt from a number of experienced shooters/reloaders.
I developed a process that works for me and delivers the accuracy I want/need.