Do you lube pistol brass when resizing?

S

Shadow9mm

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All my dies are carbide, and I understand I do not need to lube my straight wall pistol brass. With that said I have switched to wet tumbling. I have found significantly greater resistance sizing the clean brass over say dry tumbled or mostly clean straight from the range and resizing 44mag is a chore.

Do you lube your pistol brass before sizing?
 
All my dies are not carbide, and so I lube the brass I size in steel dies.

I don't wet tumble, can't say if that causes any difference. I have run lubed brass through carbide dies, it makes things slightly easier to resize but I don't do it as a matter of course, seems kind of pointless to me.
 
I do. Even though I have carbide dies.

But . . .

I only lube them because I know it's all going to get washed off due to the wet tumble in stainless steel pins that is forthcoming. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother.

Lube or not, I'm going to wet tumble the brass in ss pins anyway. So before the size/decap, and flair process, I toss 'em in a 1-gallon freezer bag, give 'em a shot of Hornady spray lube. It only takes an extra 30 seconds or so, so I figure what the heck - may as well lube them.

And I'm glad I do because there is a lot less handle effort and that's gotta be a good thing.
 
I have found significantly greater resistance sizing the clean brass over say dry tumbled
Click to expand...

Yes there is. In fact, during the flair process, it actually feels like it's galling. This is why I first tumble in corn cob - the dust acts as a lubricant, I guess. (And I lube the cases, as mentioned in the post above.)

Then I process (size/decap, flair).

Then I tumble wet in ss pins.
 
In my early days of reloading, I had only steel dies. I hated the lube process. What a sticky, horrid mess. When carbide dies became available, I jumped on that wagon like a rooster on a worm. I retired all of my old steel sizing dies and have never looked back.

My case prep involves dry tumbling in crushed walnut, with a couple of dryer sheets and some Dillon brass polish added to the mix. After tumbling, I dump all of the cases into a big container and wipe each one down individually with an old T-shirt, to clear any fine dust from the outside of the cases prior to resizing. I never need excessive force to resize a case by just running it through a carbide die.

I don't load any bottleneck cases, so that's not a problem for me. I do load 8 calibers from .380 to .45 Colt, and I haven't had to lube a case in 30 years.
 
I give my pistol brass (9mm and up) a very light shot of spray lanolin lube for smooth
cycling with my 550B.

Cleans off easy enough and seems to keep powder drops more consistent.

JT
 
I dry tumble in walnut shells then place clean brass in plastic bag, try to lay majority of brass on side then lightly spray with One Shot case lube, shake them in closed bag to spread One Shot. Then I load on Dillon 550 using all stations including deprime/prime/resize etc. with carbide dies. Makes loading go much smoother. Done it this way for years, very simple to do & works great for me.
I'm guessing this method would also work well with wet tumble?
 
I lube pistol brass, 9mm, 38Spl, 357, and 45 ACP, just to make the process easier on the dies and press. Had my grandson at the press with a batch of 38 and he was having a little trouble. A quick spray with One Shot and he was resizing with ease. I always wet tumble after sizing to get the entire case clean, including the primer pocket.
 
I use carbide sizing dies for all my straight-wall handgun cases in a Dillon 550b (progressive). It is not covenant to use lube in a progressive even though it would make sizing easier. I use lube on my .30 Carbine cases with a carbide sizing die because it is recommended and because they are the only straight-walled cases that I size in my RCBS jr. (single stage) press. I have a Dillon 550 conversion kit for the .30 Carbine, but do not use it... I really have no use for it.

The bottom line is, lubing does not lend itself well to progressive presses where one is cranking-out a whole lot of ammo.
 
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I recently loaded a hundred 44 WCF rounds and also some 45 Colt rounds using new Starline 45 Colt cases.

The 44WCF is reportedly troublesome to reload and should be lubed. I found it to be no problem to reload and did not use any lube either on recycled RP brass or new W-W brass.

The 45 Colt new Starline brass was a bit large OD and needed to be run through a sizing die. I was surprised at how much effort was required. I may try some lube on the next batch.
 
I always lube my pistol brass, but only a slight amount, I lay them on a paper towel and spray one quick spritz across a portion of them and that is enough.
I can tell the difference in sizing force, so heck, why not make it easier on you and your equipment.
 
The only one I lube is .30 Carbine. I have the carbide die but RCBS said brass needed to be lubed. Sizing without the .30 Carbine lube is much more difficult.
Paul B.
 
Absolutely! You don't need any scientific tests, just ask your arm. A little One Shot, however you choose to apply it, makes a very noticeable difference. If you're wanting to build up your bicep, fine. Otherwise, make the job a lot easier. I do throw them back in the tumbler for a shot run but it would probably be okay not to.
 
After wet tumbling, a short run through the walnut leaves traces of walnut oil on the brass that lubes it and is not enough to require cleaning. Folks adding Nu-finish or other preservative materials to their dry tumble are getting some of the same in the form of a thin layer of wax or silicone, depending on the product used. Not enough to mess with powder ignition or anything. It probably reduces the neck's grip on the bullet a little, but this doesn't seem to be a problem in handgun cartridges. In precision rifle cartridges, it might be, but I've not run the experiment to try to discern a difference.
 
Do you lube pistol brass when resizing

I always give the brass a light spray of aerosol lube and let it dry until the next day. Works well.
 
It depends a lot on how I’m feeling. Age starting to creep up and the ol’ right arm just doesn’t have enough oomph to run hundreds of cases through the resizing process. Thus, I generally don’t lube pistol cases starting out…but somewhere down the line…perhaps 150 cases in I give in and use my Hornady One Shot. That stuff really lasts…I’m nearly through with the can that came in the Hornady LnL Classic kit I bought in November 2017.
I know it’s off topic, but I prefer Hornady Unique lube for my rifle brass…mainly .300 Blk.
 
I tumble in corn cob and then load them. I really don't understand the wet tumbling craze. Just looks like more trouble to me.
 
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