Lube bullets before seating?

Logically you'd think that would reduce any friction as it works like a funnel allowing the bullet to be eased into the neck rather then being scraped along a right angle .
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Logically? Not me, I go with the old guys, I still have old dies, I have what appears to be 3 different sets for the same caliber. Not a problem for me but all three sets with different names were made by the same company. Before we became logical we seated bullets by balancing the bullet on the top of the case before it entered the seating die. We hoped the bullet did not hang on the edge of the case mouth so we beveled the inside of the case mouth to make an attempt to avoid the bullet crushing the case neck.

And then in one of those 'and then' moments a manufacturer designed and built seating die with a guide meaning the bullet was dropped through the die after the shoulder of the case contacted the bullet guide. The guide aligned the neck of the case with the base of the bullet. And that was the end of the bullet hanging on the neck of the case. One manufacturer made one die body with different guides and called the set 'universal'. I have one universal 7mm seating die, it seats 7mm bullets in any 7mm case with the pressure from the heel of a hand, and yes, it has a window? in the side of the die for dropping bullets into the guide while the guide is setting on the case shoulder.

And then there are new ones, I have two. One is called Gold Medal and the other is referred to as being 'competition'. And I have a Weatherby set of dies for the 257 Weatherby, the seating die is a universal; in the old days it was not necessary to order another die body, all I was required to do was order another guide for the die body and then there was the bullet seater in the top, the manufacturer offered all types and sizes.

F. Guffey
 
This is getting complicated but I'm going to try to step in.

You keep coming back to the scratching molly off when pulling a bullet. I agree that I would not want that. In the past I recall taking a brass brush and placing it in my drill motor. Then switch it on to high speed and give it a couple quick in and outs of the case mouth. I believe that will remove those microscopic sharp edges. Also It seams to me that the case necks all need to be the same thickness and the cases properly annealed to get more consistent tension. I would forget about the wet lube.
 
Well hate it or love it, all I can say is that the results suggest lubing helps. And thanks to an article linked in the 2nd post by unclenick, plus my own results, I'm a believer that wet pin tumbling and at least some graphite or talcum powder before seating is a good idea. Until someone on here can provide evidence to the contrary , even anecdotal, I believe in my competition loads I will be using lube.
 
MG,

Sorry for confusion, but two different things are being looked at. One is avoiding bonding to the neck and the other is lubrication of the shot and the ogive's entry into the lands. The latter takes only minuscule amounts of moly. Harold Vaughn did a test that showed a tiny pinch of moly put on top of the powder charge before normally seating a bullet would apply enough moly to the throat during gas bypass to produce the reduced velocity effect (though that isn't what he was intending to show). I expect the neck similarly needs very little for seating force purposes. But if you are trying to prevent a bond or so-called "cold weld" from occurring between the bullet and neck over a long period of time, then you need more than a trace, you need enough to form a barrier.

When you chamfer a neck you make a funnel, but it still has a corner with the side wall. The angle is oblique, but it's still there and can still scrape something not strongly adhered to the bullet. I don't know if a spinning brush would remove the sharpness or not, as it tends to leave its own marks on the surface. I found that either burnishing as I described or running the case mouth over a carbide expander a few times solved the scraping, but expanders tend to pull necks off-axis, so they aren't preferred, to my mind.

Applying a wet patch of Gunzilla and letting it sit 24 hours causes all the moly to patch out the next day.
 
FYI,

I intend to do the same experiment using.308 lake city brass and smk's.....i intend to report the results in a new thread. It may make a difference, it may not.
 
What wet lube are you using?

I'm thinking of duplicating your experiment with Hornady's Unique Case Lube, which looks and feels suspiciously like Mink Oil, applied with a Qtip to the inside of the case neck. What do you think of this lube?
 
I was using RCBS case lube. It is quite viscous compaird to something like gun oil. When I do the .308 test I intend to use graphite for the dry lube and the same thick RCBS case lube for the "wet" lube. I would think a wax or paste type lube would work very well....

Just remember to lube the bullet with lube and not the case because if you lube the bullet, any excess lube will be pushed up and out and you can simply wipe it off.
If you lube the case neck any excess is pushed down and in.
 
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