inside neck lube for bullet seating

S

snowking

New member
I'm new to reloading so please bear with me. I have a question about seating bullets.
I've purchased several reloading books and I can't find anything about "lubing" necks before bullet seating. BUT, I see people talking about mica and graphite. Do I need to lube the neck with a dry lubricant before I seat them? I could use some veteran expertiese on this. Like I said, I'm new to this and haven't as of yet tried seating anything.

Thanks in advance, Snowking.
 
The lube in the neck talk is usually to do with case resizing. The bullet itself will go in without any lube. You may have to champher/debur the mouth just a tad to help some some flat base bullets slide in.
 
SNowking,
I always lube the insides of the necks of all my casings using Imperial Dry Neck Lube. It is a fine charcoal colored powder mixed into a small jar of bee bees and I simply dip the necks of each casings about 5 - 10 times after lubing the outside of the casings just before running the casing through the sizing die. The idea is simply to make it easier for the bullet to be seated later and there is less "dry friction" and wear on the inside of your casings. Helps them last longer thats all. Some believe it in, some don't. Info only for you to choose.
 
Lube in the necks is more important when sizing than bullet seating, keeps the sizer button from stretching the neck when sizing, personally i wouldnt lube the necks for bullet seating, for a number of reasons, unreliable neck tension, bullets being bumped around in holders may seat the bullet shorter than they were when you seated them. ed
 
Originally Posted By: tuneredLube in the necks is more important when sizing than bullet seating, keeps the sizer button from stretching the neck when sizing, personally i wouldnt lube the necks for bullet seating, for a number of reasons, unreliable neck tension, bullets being bumped around in holders may seat the bullet shorter than they were when you seated them. ed

I agree I usually only lube the necks of cases when I need to and the die will tell me that. I have a hornady 300 win mag that is really hard to extract the case past the expander ball and when I use some wax it gets easier for about 5 or 6 cases then I will but some wax in another case and start all over again. I also have a RCBS 300 RUM that I have the same problem with.
 
Originally Posted By: snowkingI'm new to reloading so please bear with me. I have a question about seating bullets.
I've purchased several reloading books and I can't find anything about "lubing" necks before bullet seating. BUT, I see people talking about mica and graphite. Do I need to lube the neck with a dry lubricant before I seat them? I could use some veteran expertiese on this. Like I said, I'm new to this and haven't as of yet tried seating anything.

Thanks in advance, Snowking.

The dry lubing of the neck inside has nothing to do with seating bullets. You do that for the full length, or neck sizing, so that the sizing die expander ball runs through the neck ID smoothly, with minumized friction.
 
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See the Help New Reloaders thread that is a permanent posting at the top of this forum...lots of tips there for various steps in the whole reloading process.
 
While maybe a little lite graphite might not hurt, I want nothing between my bullet and case neck. Never have, never will.
 
Originally Posted By: Bigdog2While maybe a little lite graphite might not hurt, I want nothing between my bullet and case neck. Never have, never will.

Right on!
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After I size cases with graphite inside the case necks, I brush it out with brushes that RCBS sells for this purpose. Rifle powder has graphite put in it during the manufacturing process, so a little graphite down in the case body won't hurt a thing. I just like the inside of the necks perfectly clean, with no lube of any kind for bullet seating.
Graphite is put in rifle powder to improve flow characteristics.
 
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