I Now Lube my Handgun Cases

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Brian10

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I have carbide dies and I know that lube isn't required, but I read somewhere that someone said they lubed their handgun cases. So I tried it and don't see myself going back. Most of the friction is gone and the cases size like butter.

I put 100-200 cases into a large ziplock bag and spray with Hornady One Shot. I shake the bag up and repeat the procedure once more. Hornady One Shot doesn't need to be tumbled off and the whole extra process only adds about 2 minutes. You don't have to be super thorough either because any case that doesn't get lubed won't seize up your press like bottle neck rifle cases will.
 
Yup, when you get em squeaky clean, lubing makes resizing so much easier. I just do a light spray of One Shot on the die and then a short spray (2-3 seconds) on the cases inside a zip lock bag. Makes resizing go by quicker to boot, especially with 9mm.

Damian
 
I also lube my handgun cases with Hornady One Shot- the only difference is I place them on the bottom of a shoebox-like plastic container and spray them for a second or two. It sure does make it easier!
 
I use lube on Magnum cases and .45 Colt. Tried lube on .45ACP. Didn't feel it was worth the difference.
 
Thanks for the idea. I started lubing my 9mm cases after someone here suggested it, but the Hornady one shot sounds much better than what I was using before.
 
No fancy , high cost sprays are needed.
A barely moist 30 cal cleaning patch in the plastic jar or cool whip container will do the samething.
And that's barely moist with ANY kind of oil or lube.
Motor oil, gun oil, 3in1 oil, olive oil...any kind of oil works.
If you can feel the oil on the cases after, you used too much!
I'm taliking barely a film coating of oil.

Unlike the spray, NONE of the oil gets inside the case with this method, none.
YMMV
 
You don't know what your missing until you try it !! Not sure how you can call dumping a few hundred cases in a plastic bag, spraying and shaking ... "trouble". I would call it a pleasure because it sure makes sizing much easier and much faster. I save much more time than is spent by doing the "trouble".

Jimmy K
 
I have not reloaded a single handgun round in 15-20 years without lube. Easy is good.

But some people are just hard headed and keep saying you dont have to lube with carbide dies...
 
But some people are just hard headed and keep saying you dont have to lube with carbide dies...
Click to expand...
Because I don't!

I lube .38-40 and .32-20 cases with just a quick wipe with an oil-damp rag or a large patch. Trick I learned from John Taffin. That is as quick and easy as case lubing gets and with those paper-thin necks, it is as quick and easy as resizing gets. IMHO, it is not worth the trouble of lubing cases to make .44Mag and .45Colt cases as easy to resize as the WCF's. It would be an extra, unnecessary step that saves zero time. I know some folks enjoy handloading and that is fine but I'd rather be shooting.
 
357 and 44 are all the pistols that I load for. Never felt any reason to lube them. Redding and Hornady dies are pretty slick.
 
I didn't think it was a big deal either until I tried it. Do I think it's a waste of time now? No, because I probably do save that 1-2 minutes back, if not more. I'm sure it also helps reduce wear and tear as well.
 
I have switched to lubing my 9mm brass for resizing (lanolin dissolved in isopropanol). Even with carbide dies it makes resizing *far* easier.

I remove the lube by tumbling the loaded cartridges for a short while afterwards in dry ground corncob.
 
I do it (the plastic shoebox method) with handgun cases larger than .38 special--not for the sake of my crankin' arm or for better cartridges, but for the sake of my press. My little Dillon SDB has loaded 10's of thousands of rounds and has already had a replacement frame (gratis from Dillon) along with a few other worn out parts; I just want it to keep running as smooth as possible for as long as possible, and reduced friction=reduced leverage=longer life for the whole system, as I see it.
 
All lube needs to be removed. Hornady's assertion that there is no need to remove "One Shot" is just wrong. (albeit it's one helluva selling point) :banghead::banghead::banghead:

Read your reloading manuals folks. :eek:
 
I just started to load for .44 mag, Got the dies in the mail. I went with Lee carbide for the price and I didn't see me loading 500+ rds. a week. I just sized my first case without lube and it just felt wrong. Then I saw this thread! I have loaded several bottleneck rifle calibers for 20+ years and settled on Imperial lube applied by hand. The feel of that cleaned and dry .44 going up in that dies made me feel...strange. I have some Dillion spray lube on the bench from years ago that I will try. I always save the polishing part of case prep for after sizing as it removes the case lube. When I was young I had a batch of '06 that really concerned me and found the problem was case lube still on the case. Now I tumble at least an hour to make sure that slippery stuff is gone! ;)
 
When loading .45 colt, I sure get lots of friction sizing new Starline cases. I'm going to give this a try. Not sure why I haven't!?
 
I've tried both Hornady "One Shot" and Dillon spray lube, and the difference is like day and night.

When I noticed enormous differences in the two, I experimented with both using both pistol and rifle cases.

The Dillon spray lube is so far superior to the Hornady IME, that it's hard to find words to describe it.

I now use the Dillon lube on everything except the very largest belted magnum cases. On those, I use Imperial sizing die wax aplied with the fingers.
 
Not to derail this thread too much, but:

All lube needs to be removed. Hornady's assertion that there is no need to remove "One Shot" is just wrong.
Click to expand...

Well, Hornady, one of the largest reloading companies and author of one of the most popular reloading manuals, says it doesn't need to be removed. I think I'm ok with that, even if there are a few individuals that don't agree with Hornady.

I do think that Hornady One Shot ranks pretty low on the lube scale, but for its purpose it works well. Plus, I don't have to tumble it off. lol
 
B rian10, The few individuals that disagree with Hornady are the ones that write all of the other reloading manuals.

But if you choose to believe that Hornady is right, and everyone else is wrong, then that's cdertainly your right.
 
CraigC:
Go ahead and try it...you don't have to tell us:uhoh:.
Besides we don't know who you are:).
We all belong to case luber's anonymous and you don't know us either:eek:.

I used to wet my pants, it gave me a nice warm feeling...for a while, then just cold and wet.
Then my mother taught me another way.
 
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