I've been reloading pistol cartridges for a while but will soon be trying my hand at reloading for my 30-30. Looking over some material I see where it's recommended to lube the inside of the case mouth. Why is that? Sorry for what's probably a dumb question. I just couldn't find an answer.

I also reload 30-30 and I lightly lube the outside only, then use the sizing die . I then attach the shell holder with 1/4" drive /shell holder and trim the shells to length with the shell length trimmer and also wipe lube off with a cloth as the shell spins. You can get most of these parts thru Lee.
Don't forget to use carbide dies
Have fun

Bottleneck cases require an expander ball/button be pulled back through on the down stroke.

Without lube this is much harder on the brass and you.

Attached Images

rifle die expander.jpg (17.1 KB, 346 views)

__________________
GOA
USA Shooting Supporter

I used dry lube..Forgot what the name of it was...

__________________
NRA Benefactor

Mica lube powder

__________________
GOA
USA Shooting Supporter

Thanks guys.

I used a nylon bore brush with lube then switched to a Q-tip to apply a little less on my rifle cases, at times.

I don't lube pistol or revolver necks.

I stand all my rifle cases neck up in my 'reloading cake pan', than a quick spray of Hornady lube to the inside of the necks.

__________________
S&WHF 366

Depends on how much resistance there is between expander and case neck. If resistance is significant, lube the case mouth before sizing. If there is little resistance, lubing the case mouth/ neck does nothing but waste lube.

you will know if you need to lube when that expander button creates a difficult upstroke. Use an old bronze brush and hit the inside of the necks a couple of strokes before resizing, helps on the the amount of lube needed to make it easy on the arm.

Motor mica. I think it is/was used to lube electric motors where you didn't want oil around to attract grit.

I use it on match grade lead bullet reloads. I felt my cases were getting distorted when withdrawing the expander ball during sizing. One jar of it lasts forever. I think you can lube cast bullets with it, too. There has been some discussion that it is an abrasive, however.

I generally do not lube the inside of case necks. I run a nylon bore brush of the appropriate caliber down the neck and back out and seldom have issues. I tumble with ground walnut shells, but I can see where those who sparkle clean with liquids/steel can have a neck that is resistant to the expander ball. I also use Imperial case lube and about every 4th-5th case I run my finger across the mouth to leave a very slight amount of lube in the mouth. It prevents any chattering and such.

Long story short, if you need to lube inside case necks, do so. But bear in mind that lube will reduce neck tension unless cleaned out. Otherwise, try just brushing the necks and see it that works.

Don't overlube and tumble your brass sufficiently to clean out any lube. If lubing is necessary, lubing every third or fourth case neck should be sufficient unless things are really tight.

Hornady 1 shot.

I do lube the inside necks of my rifle cartridges. A tight expander ball can stretch the neck(lengthen the cartridge) if you don't. Never has been a problem over the years.

__________________
S&W Accumulator

Very rarely lube inside of necks, and rarely use an expander ball. Mainly when the case is going to be trimmed in a lathe style trimmer. And then use a carbide floating ball. Do use some plugs for some with thinner case necks

Expander balls can cause all sorts of problems, the worst being pulling the neck out of whack.

Also rarely lube inside of neck, but am not wet tumbling. What little ash remaining in neck acts as a dry lubricant.

Bottle neck rifle brass get a lubing with dry graphite. For sure makes the trip over the expander ball much smoother. I find burnt powder residue does not lube the case neck. Un lubed necks can screech loudly when pulled out and reportedly can stretch the brass.

I’ve got one of these mounted to my bench and use it on bottleneck cases.



I use Imperial sizing wax on the outside. A little dab on a clean finger goes a long way.

__________________
"I also cook."

Reloading rifle and pistol cases is different. Generally, pistol cases are not a big deal. Most can be done using carbide dies. Rifle cases require different steps. Full length or neck sizing is required. As the expander ball is pulled out through the neck after sizing, the expander ball tends to pull the brass in the neck making it necessary to pay attention to the overall case length. Trimming is required from time to time to keep the necks at the correct length. This is seldom a issue with pistol cases. Very lightly lubing the inside of rifle cases before sizing eases the passage of the expander ball making the process much easier as well as avoiding unnecessary stretching of the necks. Sincerely. bruce.

__________________
<><

As others have noted - I use either the Motor Mica or the graphite for the neck ID.

I see a lot of people talking about using Imperial sizing wax. This is a great product in my opinion. I have been using it for decades. And I also put a little on the inside of case mouths every 5-8 pieces of brass, as needed.

Redding sells a very small tin with graphite and small shot to lube case necks.

The ground up mica is more abrasive. I keep abrasives away from anything that comes in contact with the rifle bore!

If you must use mica, I suggest you wet clean the cases after sizing, this will remove the exterior lube also.

Several companies are making replacement neck expanding ball that are Carbide or Titanium Nitride. (Be sure the one you buy is compatible with your sizing dies as different brands use different size threads and parts.)

Ivan

As for lube, I've used many including Imperial and a water soluble lube that Redding sells (or at least used to sell). They all work well as do Vaseline and Vicks Vapo-Rub, the first lube I used in 1965. I used to form a lot of brass for various wildcat cartridges years ago. I can't remember what lube I used for forming.

I've tried the Imperial dry graphite lube but found it doesn't work as well as a conventional lube for lubricating inside case necks. However, brass needn't tumble nearly as long to remove the graphite residue as it does with conventional lube.

I lube case necks when I am reforming cartridges ie, 7 TCU from 223, 358 or 35 Whelen from 308 and 30-06 respectively. In most other situations the fired cartridge case will need little if any inside lube.

__________________
Front sight and squeeze

my reloading manual (speer) says to lube inside the neck.

The worst offenders I've ever encountered were the new 32 H&R and 327 Fed Mag cases from Starline. Their brass is very high quality and very consistent, but comes to you perfectly, squeaky clean. After fighting with it for a while, I used Lyman's neck lybing set up with white mica powder (the set looks a lot like the one from Forster in a previous post) and solved the problem. Reuse of the same brass didn't present the same problems.

My friend Dale53 discovered that if he put the new brass in his tumbler and ran it a few minutes, the dust or whatever in the used medium left enough "contaminant" in the brass so that it worked in the belling die easily... who'da thunk it?

Froggie

Get a can of Redding Dry Lube and a can of Imperial sizing wax.

Take a case, dip the neck into the dry lube, and then use your fingers to apply wax to the case below the neck.

That's all you have to do to size bottleneck rifles. This gets the outside and inside of the neck too. The inside is where you need the lubrication most if you're using a conventional set of rifle dies with an expander ball.

The other alternative that I've used many times is to use a body-only sizer (with Imperial wax on the body only), then use a Lee Collet die to do the neck resizing. There is no friction involved in neck sizing with a collet, and no expander ball to drag a tight neck back over, so no lube is necessary on the neck. This method takes more time but it's a lot easier on your cases and I've found it produces more uniform results (Less runout, less case neck stretching).

Finish up by tumbling off the lube for about 30 minutes and you're ready to continue with the next steps of your loading process.

For some reason the 30-30 isn't as bad about needing inside case neck lube as other larger , higher pressure , bottle neck rounds .

Polish your expander ball so it's very smooth and it will usually pull through easily . Maybe 30-30 brass isn't as thick and heavy .

But if you still want to use a lube ... saturate a dampened Q-Tip head with Lee Case Lube and rub around the inside of the case neck ... let dry ...the dry wax film doesn't have to be removed ... it will not contaminate ... it can be wiped off/out with a dry Q-Tip also . Good to use on all bottle neck cases .
Gary

__________________
Certified Cajun
NRA Member

Ditto on the carbide floating expander ball. I use the redding carbide floating expander ball on all my rifle brass. Works great without any lube

I load 30-30, 30-06, 25-20, and 7.62x39. Someone above mentioned a Redding thing with graphite and lead shot. I made my own for pennies. I bought a tube of dry graphite lube for locks for a couple of dollars, added to an old plastic bullet container with a lid, then added some #8 lead shot, which is basically a filler in the box. Dip the case about a quarter inch in the graphite and - voila - no more stuck expanders. The graphite should be benign on dies and chambers. This was, of course, a hint from this very forum some years ago.

__________________
Some collect art; I shoot it!

i use one of those little kits(it's blue so may be from dillon)that has a brush for different calibers and a little tray they screw into that holds some powdered lube(I use moly powder since i moly coated a lot of my rifle bullets any way). the brush does a light clean on the inside of the neck and transfers a bit of moly onto it. you can really feel the difference when the brush needs a little more moly on it

Dozens of long lines of brass gets rubbed onto the sides of my neck expander/flaring plug. Scraping off these lines of brass is difficult.
I’ve tried copper remover chemicals, they don’t work. Sanding the off the brass with 2000 grade grit aluminum oxide paper works the best and I am careful not to reduce the expanders diameter. Even though my expander plug is polished shiny like a mirror brass would still stick to it.

I found it best to try to keep the brass from sticking to the expander plug by Lubing the inside of the case necks.

I mix up a diluted solution of Zippo lighter fluid and Imperial Sizing Wax.
These 2 chemicals form an emulsion that slowly separates again. But they stay mixed long enough to swirl a Q-Tip in the liquid. I wipe the Q-Tip around just inside the case mouth. Now the neck expander doesn’t get brass sticking to it.

...and run across the rim. That's usually enough to make the expander go smoothly.

__________________
"He was kinda funny lookin'"

This and make sure the expander itself is highly polished and tapered.