First-timer observations: requesting your thoughts

[hardlyworking]

I have sloooowly been acquiring reloading equipment on a $100/month budget. The wait has been rather excruciating, but it has given me a lot of time to prepare and read.

Typical starting sequence of decap, corncob tumble, spray lube 30 cases at a time in a ziplock bag (Midsouth Shooter Supply Lanolin/IPA) set on the table to dry head down, and resize.

Lee case holder in the drill + lee trimmer.

Debur and chamfer with lee tool and re-tumble to remove lube.

Some things that I observed and I'm looking for comment on if you have anything to say are (1x fired 223 only here):

A) GFL headstamp brass had almost no brass shavings from the trimmer
PPU, Federal LC, and Wolf all had plenty of brass shaved by the trimmer. Is this normal?

B) I was getting lube extruding out the bottom of the resizing die, not a lot, but enough that I could gather it up with a kleenex ever 5 cases or so. Too much lube?

C) After the lube > size > trim I popped the cases back in the tumbler and my GFL cases came out clean, the next day the PPU (60) LC (10) Wolf (10) cases had loads of sticky crap (lanolin lube + cob dust I assume) that needed to be hand polished off with a rag. Not so fun. Is there a way to reduce this? Tumble longer? Different/Less lube?

D) Beggers can't be choosers, I hit a sale on CCI-41 primers at Selway, and eating the $28 hazmat (over 1/4 of my monthly budget) means I really needed to buy powder from the same place. The ones I chose were (Accurate) LT-32 for light bullets (I recieved a gift of 500 nosler 40gr) and 2495 for heavies (gota wait for June allowance... presumably 69-77gr). Hopefully these are decent enough choices given what was available at the time

Would love to hear your thoughts!

[bsumoba]

You forgot to mention that you will see crimps on the primer pockets. You will need to probably ream or swage out the primer pockets, otherwise you will have a very hard time seating new primers.

Before you trim and deburr/chamfer, you will need to resize first

A) Yes, this is normal.

B) Yes, probably too much lube. Are you getting dents on your brass shoulders? If so, then for sure you have too much lube. Make sure you use 99% IPA.

C) I never had issues with the lube coming off in corncob media. 1-2 hours and its usually gone. Probably excess lube first of all. You could wet tumble with some dishwashing liquid to help emulsify the lanolin a bit.

D) Never tried those powders, but if there is load data for these two powders in the loading manuals, then its okay to use for .223.

[stilly]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Seems legit.

A. YEah different brass makers have different thicknesses and all...

B. TOOOOOOOOO much Lube. If you do not have too much invested in case lube, you might want to make a note to switch over to the imperial sizing wax or the Hornady Unique case lube wax. They are both excellent products and it is really hard to mee up their application as long as you have some on your hands...

[Divernhunter]

Try RCBS Spray Lube. Toss the brass into a old baking pan, spray one spray, shake, spray again, shake again. Start resizing/de-capping. When all done toss them into an old towel. Fold towel over them and rub back and forth a few times. Lube is removed and you can go to your next step.

Simple as can be and brass will not stick in dies. I do 204 ruger up to/including 50BMG this way.

[hardlyworking]

Thanks guys!

The IPA/Lanolin drys fast, and on my second batch of cases I used the same ziplock bag as the first set, which had visible cloudy lub on the inside of the bag. I probably re-dissolved it and over concentrated on the cases.

Case shoulders didn't seem dented. I did have one neck that was visibly not "centered" or concentric, whatever the term. Neck hole was round, but one side much thicker than the other. I gave that one a 1/4 turn and sent it back up, which seemed to fix it. On reflecting on this now... I probably should have pitched it.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I know this lube is not the best, but it seemed to work OK, and was crazy cheap. But I do plan to upgrade in the future. I've heard nothing but good about Imperial and Oneshot as you guys have mentioned.

[stilly]

Yeah there are all kinds of things on the market. I heard imperial was the best and that hornady was similar, but I was able to buy hornady unique and try it and I am a believe that it is some excellent stuff. I also like to side with making my own and I HAVE made my own, lanolin and castor oil actually, I forgot the ratio, but it is a liquid. And as asoon as I tried the hornady, all else went on the shelf.

I heard Dillon was good stuff too. I have not used it yet but lots of people swear by it.

[bsumoba]

Some ARs will need a small base die. Make sure before you do a crap load of them, that they fit in your chamber.

My LR-308 needs a small base die and regular 308 dies will not bump the shoulder back or size the body enough to chamber.

Watch out for Hornady One-Shot. I found that even with ample amounts of this stuff that it will still cause the cases to stick. This was in the small base die.

All the wax's are good. I use lanolin/IPA and reuse a tupperware container. I do NOT clean the container. I just spray a couple times for a few hundred cases. The IPA will dissolve the excess lube on the walls of the tupperware container and I will get more that way. Throw the brass in there, couple sprays and shake or tumble. Let dry, resize, GTG.

[chknlyps2]

Watch out for Hornady One-Shot. I found that even with ample amounts of this stuff that it will still cause the cases to stick.

I like to call it One-Stuck Case Lube.

[SoCalGoldenBearsHPRClub]

Buy components in bulk, check out Powder Valley

[pdq_wizzard]

Watch out for Hornady One-Shot. I found that even with ample amounts of this stuff that it will still cause the cases to stick. This was in the small base die.

I like to call it One-Stuck Case Lube.

^^ this, it works great for pistol brass with carbide dies. other than that you better get a tap and die set.

[hardlyworking]

IPA/lanolin, you say a couple sprays for a few hundred cases... I was doing 6 sprays for 30. I'm seeing some of my errors now. I suppose there will also now be left over lube up in the resizer so I can dial it way back

[stilly]

I also noticed the Hornady spray lube sucked one night. I switched over to some Lyman or something else and things went better. Then I got that hornady unique (ISW copy) and I was like, OMG! that stuff is great. but I will use their one-stuck now for cleaning and light lubing of the primer ram on the press.

[bsumoba]

IPA/lanolin, you say a couple sprays for a few hundred cases... I was doing 6 sprays for 30. I'm seeing some of my errors now. I suppose there will also now be left over lube up in the resizer so I can dial it way back

that's a lot of sprays!

I also do a ratio of 10-13 oz IPA to 1oz lanolin.