Titanium nitride dies?

A lot of people will say there is no need to lube pistol cases when resizing (I assume that you are referring to Hornady dies btw, which I am not a big fan-of, full disclosure) .... I lightly lube 9mm cases even though I use Redding and RCBS carbide dies, which are better than those Hornady dies imho.

I have to admit that I may not have lubed the last batch of 380 brass I ran before resizing but that's been at least 10 years ago or more ... I think I got that unprepped brass from Top Brass or somewhere like that and was reloading target ammo for my wife at the time .... I'd still lightly lube that brass using those Hornady dies.

Not a big fan of those dies.

I don't lube pistol brass with no issues. I have Hornady, RCBS, and Lyman pistol dies. My Hornady sizing dies have sized thousands of cases with no lube. Still important to keep cases clean. A touch of lube on a case every dozen or so does make the effort slightly less.

Fwiw a lot of old time reloaders, including myself, (and there is some scientific data that may support this from a metallurgist up at the University of Michigan), believe that slightly lubing pistol brass, even when using high quality carbide dies, relieves some of the stress on the brass when resizing. They've even done studies where lubed pistol brass is less likely to spring back (which doesn't seem to happen as often with normal civilian brass as it does when using various milsurp brass - which few do when it comes to milsurp pistol brass).

Case in point new brass manufacturers lube brass during the entire seven stage forming process - the last stage of which is almost entirely identical to our single reloading resizing stage. Meaning, we are resizing by hundredths of an inch, if not thousandths of an inch ... yet that is, apparently, enough to warrant lubing before resizing according to some.

So take the easier pressures required from your arms, shoulders and hands out of the equation. Your dies will thank you for it, your arms, shoulders and hands will thank you for it, your press will even thank you for it and especially your brass will thank you for it.

my barrel is TiNi coated! it’s pretty

I have a bunch of carbide dies and one titanium nitride die. I can't tell any difference between them in use.

I also can see no difference in lube vs. dry with any of them, at least as far as case life goes. With any of them, it takes a little less force on the press, but it's a minor difference in what already is very low effort. I've stopped lubing handgun cartridges used with coated dies entirely, with the lone exception of the .500 S&W.

I use a hint of lube with them, but only on like every 5th or 8th case, when it starts to get harder to work the lever, I lube another case lightly and repeat. Takes no extra time to my process, but my arm doesn't get tired as fast.

Airborne Falcon said:

Case in point new brass manufacturers lube brass during the entire seven stage forming process...

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The quantities they deal with probably has something to do with that, too...

I have and use the TiNi dies in most all of my handgun calibers. I had carbide but replaced them with the TiNi since they were smoother and required less force to operate. Running on a AP you want every thing to run smooth as possible. I still give the brass a light spray of OS before dumping them into the brass feeder.

If you use lube you will need to clean the TiNi insert regularly.

Happily used Hornady dies and TiNi for years. Prefer the Hornady seating dies with the helpful sleeve.

My son has Hornady TiNi dies and has no issue with them. He loads on a LNL progressive, so he does give cases a shot of one shot just to make things run smoother. While some will chime in “you don’t need to lube”, they are correct, but we do. Try it either way for yourself and see. Good luck.

I only own and use carbide dies so far. I tried both lubed and dry sizing with all of them. The only two sizes of them I noticed any appreciable force difference with were 500 S&W and 30 Carbine.

lordpaxman said:

My son has Hornady TiNi dies and has no issue with them. He loads on a LNL progressive, so he does give cases a shot of one shot just to make things run smoother. While some will chime in “you don’t need to lube”, they are correct, but we do. Try it either way for yourself and see. Good luck.

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I use a Hornady LNL AP as well. It will certainly work with pistol cases without case lube, but I find a spray of one-shot makes life a lot easier. Actually, the biggest difference i see between lube/no lube is that my COAL variation drops dramatically when using case lube, because the force required for sizing is much more consistent.

swg1 said:

Happily used Hornady dies and TiNi for years. Prefer the Hornady seating dies with the helpful sleeve.

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I am in this boat. I use a LNL AP and I like the Hornady seating dies because of the sleeve. Makes seating pistol bullets easier. On 9MM I do lube with One Shot and size in a separate process from the rest as I'm sizing down very far and it makes it much smoother.

Shinbone said:

Can I get your thoughts on titanium nitride dies? Especially pistol dies like 9mm or 380 Auto? Should lube be used?
Thanks.

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I developed a process a long time ago that makes lubing cases automagical: I use a tumbler with corn cob and a little Ballistol for my first tumble after decapping.

I’ve never had any issues with Honady’s TiNi sizing ring itself but I have had some issues with sizing and flaring with Hornady dies.

When I started reloading in the early 1980’s, I did not use lube when using carbide dies. I was not tumbling at the time and removing the lube was a pain.

Eventually, I got into tumbling and now prefer to clean cases after sizing. So, I started lubing cases when using carbide dies. The sizing process, particularly with 44 and 45 caliber, cases requires so much less effort when lubed.

The lubricant gets cleaned off after sizing.

Individual choice though.

It’s just easier to use a little lube IMO. I like One Shot sprayed into a plastic bag and cases tumbled in that. Everything goes slick, so to speak. But, spraying one every now and again works too.

I’ve used carbide and TiNi without any problems. It’s all better than steel, I think, and steel wasn’t all that bad.

I size most of my brass in Carbide dies without lube. The higher pressure ones like 10MM and hot 38 Super run easier with some lube. My dies are either RCBS or Dillon.

The instructions with my RCBS 30 carbine dies say to lube them, due to the case design. Dillon carbide dies for bottleneck cases also require lube.

I have never used any TiN coated reloading dies.

I will give you my experience with using TiN coated punches used in stamping dies that punch holes into 1/4"-5/16" steal. Yes the coating helps but we still had to use some type of lubricant/coolant otherwise the coating would wear off right away and cause galling on the punches. As a toll and die maker, I maintained the stamping dies that punched the big holes into the rails that semi trailer axles slide on and pins lock into. They only way to get those big punches to last was to have them TiN coated and use plenty of lubricant/coolant.

With that being said, I would want to at least lube a few cases per batch to keep the dies from galling up or the cases getting stuck.

Shinbone said:

Can I get your thoughts on titanium nitride dies? Especially pistol dies like 9mm or 380 Auto? Should lube be used?
Thanks.

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No lube needed for any straightway pistol cases when using Carbide or TN dies except for .30 Carbine, especially such minuscule cartridges as those named above.

Do you have to or need to, no. Does it make a difference, IMO, yes. I always gave my 9mm a quick blast
of Hornady One Shot and my arm could always tell the difference.