carbide dies - lubing cases?

[rick_reno]

When you size pistol cases (straight walled - I'm doing .454) using carbide dies - do you lube the cases?

 

[steveno]

when using carbide dies there isn't any reason to lube straight walled cases

 

[rick_reno]

Good. I've not been lubing for about 15 years, then the other day someone at the range told me I should lube them.

 

[jungle]

If you are using a progressive press, you should really try Hornady One Shot.
It is easy to spray a few hundred cases and the reduction in effort has to be felt to be believed.
The stuff is dry to the touch and really doesn't have to be cleaned off.

 

[HSMITH]

If you try Hornady One Shot and don't continue to use it you just like to work harder to achieve the same end result than most......

I lube with One Shot using carbide dies and I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[roo_ster]

Hornady One Shot is good stuff. I give all my pistol cases a quick spritz & bottleneck rounds get the full dose, as per directions.

 

[Sunray]

Not necessary. That's the whole point of carbide dies. Doesn't bother anything if you do though.

 

[P0832177]

I have done the lube thing, and it does make running the 550 smoother. I have found the same results with using brass tumbled in Isso, too! They are just as smooth, without the added step of spraying the cases.

 

[ulflyer]

Does the Carbide Wear Off?

I ask because yesterday while loading 45acp's on the 550 I noticed for the first time that my shiny brass had a dull look. Upon examination it was obviously coming from the RCBS decapper/sizing die. Pulled it off and cleaned it thoroughly, put it back but it continued doing the same. Never had that happen before. Any thoughts on this would be apprec. If its defective, I know RCBS stands behind their product.

 

[Steve in PA]

I've been reloading and using the RCBS T/C dies for .380, 9mm. .357. .44mag and .45acp.........for about 15 years and use no lube. No need too. As for the T/C wearing out, I highly doubt that as my dies are 15 years old and I could not begin to tell you how many rounds I've reloaded for each caliber.

 

[ReloaderFred]

Usually when you get very fine scratching of brass that's been tumbled, and then sized in carbide dies, it's caused from the minute amount of polishing residue left on the surface of the brass from the tumbling process. This can be removed by tumbling for about 15 to 20 minutes in clean, untreated, corn cob after polishing and before sizing. I have two tumblers, one for polishing and one for cleaning off the residue.

If your carbide die is scratching, this is probably the cause. Thoroughly clean the die and then tumble the polished cases to remove the residue and the scratching will disappear.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[ulflyer]

Fred, You Nailed It

Put some clean media in and let em run several hours (I forgot it was on) and now they come out of the sizing die like they supposed to. Even tho the brass appeared clean before, apparentlly they had a residue that was being smeared by the die.

Another thought: Prob my imagination, but I'd been using the walnut for some time with no problems at all and no build up of residue. The only diff now is that lately I've been shooting Trail Boss powder in my 45acp's. Although I've reported here that my gun barrels have been really clean looking after shooting it, I have begun to notice that it seems to produce more dry powder residue than, say, Win 231. I've about used up the can and will go back to 231 just to see. It seems quite a coincidence that "all of a sudden" the walnut media gets so dirty that even putting your hand in it comes out sooty. Heck, it was time for some new stuff anyway.

 

[Jeeper]

People that say there is no reason to lube have never tried using one shot.

Do a search on this topic and you will find a ton of old threads where this is all discussed at nauseum

 

[The Bushmaster]

Yup...Seems to work on everything except .30-06 cases...Oh Hi Jeeper...

 

[Master Blaster]

If you are relaoding a couple thousand .44 mags on your progressive press with carbide dies, Lubing them lightly will reduce your effort by about 2/3rds.

If you are reloading .45 acp it will make much less difference.

But some folks like to work twice as hard.

 

[BluesBear]

Carbide sizing dies have a carbide ring at the mouth of the die. This ring can crack, If that hapens usually a chunk (or all) of the ring will fall out.

The ring is fairly thick. It cannot wear off. I've sized upwards of 500,000 rounds on one die, on several occasions and didn't wear any out.


But if you drop it onto a concrete floor just right the ring will shatter.