Polishing necked cartridge resizing dies?

[Racer X]

Would this make resizing easier, and lubricants less touchy?

Almost all of my straight wall cartridge dies are carbide, but .357 Sig and rifle dies are all steel.

I know to keep them clean.

 

[STORMINORMAN]

First I run the 357 SIG brass through a 40 S&W LEE carbide (or Hornady Nitride) sizing die, then through the 357 SIG die: basically neck-sizing them. A quick check in the Wilson gauge and they are good to go. Have not lubricated them in the past but may well use a touch of Hornady's Unique from now on: it really works great!

All my 357 SIG cases are nickeled: SPEER & Starline.

Cheers!

 

[jcelect]

Clean brass

Clean brass is important! I tumble with corn cob media but use about a tablespoon of Nu Shine in my big Dillon tumbler. The Nu Shine reduces the dust and leaves the cases slippery! I like to start the tumbler in the evening and leave it run over night. I forgot to spray a batch of 50 222rds the other day and didn't figure out why the press was running a little harder until the next batch of 50rds! No stuck cases and I believe the reason for the press working harder was the inside of the neck(no lube)!
jcelect

 

[Paul in Nevada]

Would this make resizing easier, and lubricants less touchy?

Almost all of my straight wall cartridge dies are carbide, but .357 Sig and rifle dies are all steel.

I know to keep them clean.

I asked a similar question here and received some very good suggestions. I will also endorse the advice of tumbling before sizing. I am a convert to lubing pistol brass.

 

[Drm50]

Running bronze brush in bottle necks eases sizing. I don't tumble every loading and shot a lot of 222 & 243 Ghog hunting. I did run brush in neck.
I load everything from 22 cal to 375 in bottlenecks and never considered polishing out die.

 

[ironhead7544]

Polishing firearm chambers can help with extraction. Might work with dies.

Be careful how you do it.

For bottleneck cases, I clean before sizing and use Hornady Unique wax. Then tumble again for 20 minutes using media with one ounce of mineral spirits and two capfuls of Nu Finish. Let the mixture run for 20 minutes before adding the brass. They will come out dry and with the wax gone. I use the Zilla brand ground walnut shells.

 

[Enigma]

Varmint Al has advocated polishing the inside of sizing dies for many years. What he says makes sense to me, anyway.

Varmint Al's Handloading/Reloading Page

 

[Nevada Ed]

I don't mess with my metal rifle dies...............

however I do clean my brass rifle cases in a tumbler and then clean any carbon etc. off the case neck and shoulder area, before putting any lube on it and a touch, inside the neck with a Q-tip or nylon brush, which ever I have on hand, at the time.

I never lubed a pistol/revolver case on the inside...............

If you ever feel heavy pressure ........... stop.
Something is wrong or bad and about to happen, in the reloading stroke.

Clean and lube are two good things in reloading !!