goodbye Imperial

Is everybody shooting that much at one shooting session ? I take my time preping my brass but I only shoot 30 rounds per trip. How mush time is taken up in sizing , checking case headspace , trimming & seating primers .
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For me, I only use spray lubes when doing bulk brass processing. I do 5.56 and 300 blk in 1000 round batches and then clean and store them for future use.
 
For me, I only use spray lubes when doing bulk brass processing. I do 5.56 and 300 blk in 1000 round batches and then clean and store them for future use.
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Same here, except you can add 7.62x51 AR-10 and VEPR-.308 ammo to that mix. I do 1,000 round batches and store them. But they do not stay in storage long, even though I have several thousand 556, 762x51.

Is everybody shooting that much at one shooting session ? I take my time preping my brass but I only shoot 30 rounds per trip. How mush time is taken up in sizing , checking case headspace , trimming & seating primers .
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An F-class match is at a minimum 68 rounds, 60 for score..I shoot 2 per month. XTC and precision ar matches are over 100 rounds, I shoot 1 of those per month. Then there is practice where I will usually take a few guns, and practice with both.

1,000-1,500 rounds per month probably if I also add in pistol practice
 
If you have a lot of brass I could see doing that , what is your system , do you let's say clean 500 cases , shoot 150 at a session , when you have fired all 500 you clean . I clean 60 at the start of the warm weather with once fired brass , two different head stamps , 30 ADI 30 HSM . Fire 30 each range trip & clean that 30 each week , following week the other 30 and clean .

Gives me plenty of time for reloading , time at the range is around 2 hours . Shooting & BSn with friends. That makes for me a good day. Then it starts all over again . Right now I'm cleaning 30 rounds in a HF wet tumbler & nursing a blown out lower back after playing stick ball with the Grand kids . Shooting is easier on the body .
 
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If you have a lot of brass I could see doing that , what is your system , do you let's say clean 500 cases , shoot 150 at a session , when you have fired all 500 you clean . I clean 60 at the start of the warm weather with once fired brass , two different head stamps , 30 ADI 30 HSM . Fire 30 each range trip & clean that 30 each week , following week the other 30 and clean .

Gives me plenty of time for reloading , time at the range is around 2 hours . Shooting & BSn with friends. That makes for me a good day. Then it starts all over again . Right now I'm cleaning 30 rounds in a HF wet tumbler & nursing a blown out lower back after playing stick ball with the Grand kids . Shooting is easier on the body .
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I have about 3,000 or so cases of .308 lake city brass, about 4 thousand or so cases of 556 lake city brass, about 3 or 4 thousand cases of .40 S&W mixed HS brass, and hundreds of pieces for each long rifle, or revolver pistol with the same headstamps.

I am in the middle of processing 2000 .223 pieces of brass. It is all once fired so I have to trim it all and swage, but then I will load it all at once. Shoot it, then next time I won't trim, I will just clean/decapp, and size and load all 2000 in about 4-5 hours on an XL 650.

That also leaves time to do my single stage press work on my precision rifle ammo.

Oh...and after about 3 loads on my bulk .223 or .308 I will run it all through my annealing machine.

quite often I am doing about 3 things at once, I have a batch of 500-1,000 tumbling, a batch being annealed, and then im trimming, or decapping or something all at once. Saves time.
 
Mississippi
Never got into neck turning or annealing , your burning through more rounds then me for sure . Your round count must be up there , In three years I have 2000 rounds through my 308 l do shoot hand guns in the cold weather at a indoor range , 50 rounds max.
 
Mississippi
Never got into neck turning or annealing , your burning through more rounds then me for sure . Your round count must be up there , In three years I have 2000 rounds through my 308 l do shoot hand guns in the cold weather at a indoor range , 50 rounds max.
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On certain rifles, I keep a very accurate round count. Eg. There are exactly 784 rounds down my F-class rifle, 56 rounds down my Model 70 Super Grade .300wm hunting rifle. On my AR's, AK's, and Pistols, I try to stay within maybe +/- 500 of what has been fired through it....basically I just make a mark in each rifles log when it has fired another thousand or so. My Varmint/Match AR 556 that I got new in September of last year has nearly 4k rounds down the pipe already, and loaded hot.....that barrel is going to need changed someday.

It helps that I can shoot year round. There may be a few days in January when the high doesn't rise above 32 degrees. But mostly it is in the 40's or 50's
 
I chose not to search for Lanolin on the internet, fearing I could not see the label of actual ingredients. So I unsuccessfully went to CVS, then to a local herbal and health food specialty store, where there was only pure Lanolin in solidified form. The owner suggested that I try CVS, but I deferred and bought the solid formulation. I mention this just in case someone else has a similar experience.

I used a small digital kitchen food scale and made a 10% solution of lanolin in 91% isopropyl alcohol. That would be a 1:10 solution. I weighed out 12 Grams of lanolin and poured 108 ml of the alcohol which gave me a 4-oz (120ml) bottle of final product. As indicated on a previous post, lanolin is less soluble in cold as compared to hot alcohol, so I placed the mixture in the microwave for 20 seconds, at which time the alcohol just started to boil. The lanolin easily went into solution. I put it in a 4-oz spray bottle and tried it on five 25-06 cases. Absolutely worked like a charm. It seems to me there is no reason to make it more concentrated than 1:10.
 
Store bought Dillon Case Lube---about $9.00 for 8 oz.
Homemade with 99% isopropyl alcohol. Bought from Amazon
2 bottles- 16 ounce- 32 ounces total approx. $8.00 to $10.00 per bottle
one 4 ounce bottle of liquid lanolin--$7.00-$8.00 for one bottle
So a rough estimate of $23.00 to $26.00 for 36 ounces of homemade case lube. You would have to buy 4 1/2 bottles of factory at about $40.
36 ounces of case lube should last even a volume reloader many years. Figures are approximate depending on the prices you pay plus the mixture ratio you use.
 
Everyone has their own preferences.

Personally...
I use One-Shot for general sizing.
For stubborn cases or forming, I use Imperial.
And, occasionally, I break out the Unique.

Why pay for One-Shot when I can make it so much cheaper?
...Because I make enough other stuff that I just haven't felt like dealing with it yet.
 
Never had issues running 5 or so 30-06 size cases at a time between my hands using the Imperial lube. When loading I lube up a full tray of 50 then size, tumble, and load. If I need more I simply add what I need.

Used the Lyman spray lube for years till they outlawed the 111 tri chlor used in it. When they changed the formula I went to Imperial.
 
I'll stick to store bought stuff . The RCBS Lube works well for me.
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It's the RCBS spray lube that got me to try the homemade stuff . I like the RCBS lube a tad better then oneshot and that got me thinking the RCBS lube is likely not much different then the homemade lube so I gave it a try and have not looked back .

FWIW this is the Lanolin oil I use . It's very think so I set it in a bowl of hot tap water for a bit to soften/thin it out a bit to pour it out
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DV2QODQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
rg1, here's another way to look at it, since I've found a 10% lanolin solution works well.

On Cabela's website, a 10-oz can of One Shot is $14.99
On CVS website, a 32-oz bottle of 91% Isopropyl alcohol is $4.49
I'll use your Lanolin price of $8 for 4-oz

To make 10oz of 10% lanolin home made solution, the cost is $4.26

So you can buy Lanolin and alcohol for $12.49 and you can make three 10-oz bottles of homemade lube, but you'll need to buy 4-oz more of alcohol to use up the last ounce of Lanolin.

So the investment is $12.49 for at least 3 bottles of homemade. You'd buy 3 cans of One-Shot for $44.97. Home-made saves you $32.48
 
So the investment is $12.49 for at least 3 bottles of homemade. You'd buy 3 cans of One-Shot for $44.97. Home-made saves you $32.48
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I don't know about rg1, but I don't pay $14.99 per can of One-Shot. The last one that I bought was regular price, at $8.99, two weeks ago.

With your numbers, that knocks the 'savings' down to just $14.48.
...Over what, for me, would be a few years worth of use. Not worth it.



Side note: Surprisingly, 99% Isopropyl is usually cheaper than 91%. It would probably result in a better product, as well.
That's all I keep around for when I need "the good stuff". (Short of a better solvent/cleaner.)
 
Another good example by cdoc42 above of the savings making your own lanolin/99% isopropyl alcohol case lube. Just trying to show you can save a bunch and have enough lube to last nearly forever rather than paying for an 8 oz. or so bottle. And it's the same as the factory stuff or better.
 
Well , I have been using RCBS 2FL oz bottle of case lube for a almost 25+ years & it still feels full , All of you shoot more then me. I shoot 308 every Sunday in the warm weather above 50, colder weather I shoot at an indoor range , handguns.
Hard for me to comment on case lube , when reloading only 30 cases . I can only imagine , that's coming from a guy that takes his time preping his brass , filling each case with the same. exact powder charge but forgetting to install the primers, A H moment.
 
Love my Imperial for NATO bottleneck rifle. Will continue to use it. Don't care about counting pennies for a cheaper replecement. For all my straight wall I use good old Dillon spray. Amazing to me how little imperial wax is needed on a burly NATO SL 30-06 casing to glide through the die with minimal effort.
 
Resizing my fired brass I find very little resistance ,maybe do to the chamber size in my rifle . When resizing once fired brass from my friends rifle , there is more felt resistance. I just add a little more lube . For the amount of resizing I do , store bought is fine , the stuff seems to last forever .
 
the stuff seems to last forever .
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I have said life is not fair; I purchased a box of RCBS lube, nothing wrong with the lube but the container demise came long before the lube lost it ability to lube. I poured what was left into a plastic medicine bottle.

Just a wild guess, I believe it took 35 years plus for the containers to dissolve into almost nothing.

F. Guffey
 
Can someone tell me the difference in lube's? I've always figured what works for me is where I stay unless something happen's with the product I'm using. I've been using One Shot for about 30yrs and no problems. A good friend got me a bottle of Dillon and I didn't care for it. It's a liquid in a pump bottle and I was messy with it. Perhaps the thing about One Shot for me is it's aerosol And easy to get on a good coat without to much. Bottom line seem's to me that they all work just choose the one you like. If lanolin and alcohol was that good it would seem to me someone would be selling it pre mixed! I think handloder's are pretty much experimenter's with everything involved in it. I remember when I first started I used the RCBS stuff you put on a pd. Then figuring it was to messy, went to STP, go figure! I liked STP but not sure why!
 
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