Do you lube pistol brass when resizing?

Remembering how sore I was after the last time I resized 500 9mm cases, I intend to try some of that Midway case lube spray the next time I size 9mm cases. Unlike .45ACP and revolver rounds, 9mm has a slight taper to the cases making them a bit more work to size. Of course getting old doesn't have a thing to do with it. :)

Tony
 
I just started having to lube pistol cases when I started reloading 50AE. Only dies available were Lee Pacesetter set of 3. Started using Hornady One Shot but it wasn't cutting it so started using the Lee case lube that came with the dies & their resizing smoothly now. Other than these it's never been necessary.
 
the45er said:
I found this thread very interesting because of how many folks lube brass even when they use carbide dies. I've loaded 380, 357/38, 9 mm, 40 S&W, 45 ACP and 45 LC brass for years with carbide dies and never had any issues with sticking or otherwise. I don't really understand why it's ever necessary but to each his own!
Click to expand...
I've been loading for about 15 years, so far all handgun and mostly .45 ACP. As I've mentioned, I use carbide dies (Lee), and I lube with Hornady One-Shot aerosol.

There was a day a few years ago when I just wanted to make up a few dummy, action-proving rounds. I was only going to make five, so I didn't think it was worth gatting out the spray can. I don't remember the brand of brass, but one of the cases got STUCK in the sizing die. It was so stuck that it deformed the case head and ripped it out of the shell holder, leaving the case stuck in the die. I had to take everything apart and use a long rod to drive the case out of the die.

Since then, I always lube.
 
I have only stuck rifle cartridges. However I have noticed since switching to wet tumbling, even with carbide, sizing force has increased. 9mm was not a huge deal. 44mag and 357 mag were what was challenging, even with carbide.
 
Shadow9mm said:
I have only stuck rifle cartridges. However I have noticed since switching to wet tumbling, even with carbide, sizing force has increased. 9mm was not a huge deal. 44mag and 357 mag were what was challenging, even with carbide.
Click to expand...
I agree with you 100% on this ..wet clean are almost too squeeky clean .
Wet tumbling gets them so clean you just about need to put a little slick-em on the clean cases or even short 45 acp / 9 mm Luger get hard to size with a carbide die .
I went back to cleaning cases in dry treated walnut shell media because it left the cases not so squeeky clean ...rifle cases wet cleaned , were the ones that wanted to stick the worse and if not properly lubed gave me the most resistence on the press handle , both going in and coming out ... on one batch of 303 British cases I had to resort to STP Oil Treatment as a case lube because they wanted to stick so badly . How I didn't stick one was only because I paid strict attention to resistence going in ... if it started feeling hard , back out and relube it .

All you new guys ...if a case feels hard when sizing... stop ... don't force it into the sizing die ... it will just get harder to remove from the die and pull the rim off ...
... Hard In = Harder Out and Harder out might tear off a rim ...
... you want to remember that resizing rule .
Gary
 
Last edited:
All my current pistol dies have carbide or some such insert. While lube is not required, am keeping some imperial wax (oe whatever it's called now) close buy to give the odd case a little dab will do ya. So much easier, and not enough to worry about cleaning off the cases.
 
gwpercle said:
I agree with you 100% on this ..wet clean are almost too squeeky clean .
Wet tumbling gets them so clean you just about need to put a little slick-em on the clean cases or even short 45 acp / 9 mm Luger get hard to size with a carbide die .
I went back to cleaning cases in dry treated walnut shell media because it left the cases not so squeeky clean ...rifle cases wet cleaned , were the ones that wanted to stick the worse and if not properly lubed gave me the most resistence on the press handle , both going in and coming out ... on one batch of 303 British cases I had to resort to STP Oil Treatment as a case lube because they wanted to stick so badly . How I didn't stick one was only because I paid strict attention to resistence going in ... if it started feeling hard , back out and relube it .

All you new guys ...if a case feels hard when sizing... stop ... don't force it into the sizing die ... it will just get harder to remove from the die and pull the rim off ...
... Hard In = Harder Out and Harder out might tear off a rim ...
... you want to remember that resizing rule .
Gary
Click to expand...
Wet cleaning works fine, just leave out the pins and they won’t have any abnormal resistance in a carbide sizing die. It’s the way I’ve been doing it for two years now. I’m referencing pistol cases, not rifle of course.
 
Never lubed straight wall pistol brass (.380, 9mm, .38/.357, .44 and .45acp) in 30 years of reloading while using carbide dies. And I would load thousands upon thousands of those rounds every year….before the Covid madness.
 
I typically don't lube straight walled pistol cases since my dies are carbide.
Today I was sizing 100 new Starline 454 Casull cases.
After 10 or so cases the resistance started to increase.
I put a little Unique on my fingertips and lubed every 7th or 8th case.
It made things go much easier.

Even though you can barely make out that the cases were lubed I will tumble in corn cob when everything is loaded for a final polish.
 
I lube 9mm with One Shot even with a carbide die.
Really smooths up the 550 and less fatiguing for my slightly arthritic hands.
 
All of my 9mm case's are lubed as are 30 Carbine brass since both are tapered case's.

Straight walled pistol brass is given a shot of spray furniture wax after pin tumbling.
That small amount of wax makes the brass size so very easy in the carbide dies.
 
I put a touch of unique case lube on every 5-10 pieces. Whenever I feel resistance increase it helps. I dry tumble briefly to remove excess lube since it’s easier than wiping every one. Mostly 9 Luger and Makarov.
 
I dump my 9mm's on a piece of toweling, and give it a quick spritz of Hornady One Shot; I roll them around for a cpl seconds, then get to work on my Dillon press.

I do dry tumble my auto brass using crushed walnut shells with a cpl dry sheets with some Nushine auto polish. This holds down the dust, cleans the walnut media, shines up the brass, and leaves a thin coat of wax, which greatly eases sizing operations. It also lightly lubes the case mouth interior so I don' t feel any resistance to case mouth expansion.

For the most part, this clean & wax procedure works as well as the above Hornady "Spritz" procedure. Either way, I use one or the other to ease sizing of the tapered 9mm case. And BTW, I do not lube any other handgun cases.

YMMv, but this works for me. Rod
 
Yes. Much easier on the brass, press, sizing die and the reloader. I have experienced some case scratching from the resizing die when not using lubrication. Even lube the brass when using carbide dies.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top