Best Way to remove lube without removing carbon from the neck?

[muleystalker]

Yup, me too, kinda...

The small dab of Imperial applied to neck/shoulder is wiped right off, soon as the case is resized. So, it's a quick smear of Imperial, a trip thru the die/press, then a wipe with an old t shirt to immediately remove the lube...

Can get tedious, en mass, but a hunnert at a clip ain't terrible. And, given that I mostly use bushing dies (with no expander), no need to get lube inside the neck. And, a tiny bit of Imperial goes a long way! So, it's easy to wipe right off, and finish brass prep with a loop around the Case Prep to chamfer/deburr/clean pockets/etc...

Pretty much the same way I do it, Works good for me.

 

[savagedasher]

Don’t want to.... makes them shiny and removes carbon.

Works for me has for the last 60 years

 

[Clancy]

Works for me has for the last 60 years

That still doesn’t mean I want my brass high polished, now does it?

 

[savagedasher]

That still doesn’t mean I want my brass high polished, now does it?

Never said it did

 

[Toddmack]

Someone asked this earlier but I didn't see a response. Why keep the carbon in the neck? (Not a BR/PRS/Competetive shooter)

 

[dolek]

Someone asked this earlier but I didn't see a response. Why keep the carbon in the neck? (Not a BR/PRS/Competetive shooter)

Some folks believe it is a natural lubricant and inhibits the "welding" of bullet to brass .

 

[coldboreshot]

+ on the dry media tumbling. You can use untreated corn cob. It removes the sizing lube and you don't necessarily have to wipe any residue from the cases. The media is "untreated". I used to do this until I began wet tumbling with stainless media. Yeah, it may remove the carbon from the neck ID but before the powder and seating process, I use Imperial "dry" lube with the little spherical ball media. I do not subscribe to the carbon-in-the-neck idea. I've never had an issue with firing virgin brass. I don't see the need to add lay on layer of carbon to the necks.

 

[JimSC]

Someone asked this earlier but I didn't see a response. Why keep the carbon in the neck? (Not a BR/PRS/Competetive shooter)

some shooters think it may facilitate a smoother bullet release, my theory is that with 40K + of pressure pressing on the base of the bullet a few ounces more friction is irrelevant

That aside I am going to do another neck lube test this winter/spring, I did several tests early 2017 but never noticed much difference then. My shooting/reloading techniques have improved since then so maybe this time I will see a noticeable difference this time around

 

[Terry]

some shooters think it may facilitate a smoother bullet release, my theory is that with 40K + of pressure pressing on the base of the bullet a few ounces more friction is irrelevant

That aside I am going to do another neck lube test this winter/spring, I did several tests early 2017 but never noticed much difference then. My shooting/reloading techniques have improved since then so maybe this time I will see a noticeable difference this time around

Smoother seating is why do it.

 

[stifffingers]

some shooters think it may facilitate a smoother bullet release, my theory is that with 40K + of pressure pressing on the base of the bullet a few ounces more friction is irrelevant

That aside I am going to do another neck lube test this winter/spring, I did several tests early 2017 but never noticed much difference then. My shooting/reloading techniques have improved since then so maybe this time I will see a noticeable difference this time around

I agree with Bobby Lee. I wipe the case necks first with steel wool to take off the carbon, anneal, then tumble with ss pins, removes discoloration, size, remove IMP wax with paper towel. Will leave a protective coating to prevent tarnishing. Don't think for a minute that acetone is good for you or your brass. Read the chemical MSDS report and see how it will effect you. Also Google the effects it has on copper and brass. I used to clean the lube from my case necks after turning using acetone on a Q tip. Loaded up for fire forming, but the ammo sat for a few weeks until I was ready. Shot it but not by design waited to prep the brass for another two weeks. The inside of the necks were green. Do a little research. If you must get all the lube off just stir your cases in a small bucket with some simple green and water, that what the bullet makers do.

 

[stifffingers]

I agree with Bobby Lee. I wipe the case necks first with steel wool to take off the carbon, anneal, then tumble with ss pins, removes discoloration, size, remove IMP wax with paper towel. Will leave a protective coating to prevent tarnishing. Don't think for a minute that acetone is good for you or your brass. Read the chemical MSDS report and see how it will effect you. Also Google the effects it has on copper and brass. I used to clean the lube from my case necks after turning using acetone on a Q tip. Loaded up for fire forming, but the ammo sat for a few weeks until I was ready. Shot it but not by design waited to prep the brass for another two weeks. The inside of the necks were green. Do a little research. If you must get all the lube off just stir your cases in a small bucket with some simple green and water, that what the bullet makers do.

If you are concerned with bullet to neck weld, two choices. First, load the day before you are going to the match or second preload but seat your bullet ten or twenty thou long. Then the night before the match break the weld if there is any by seating the bullet to your desired length.

 

[JimSC]

Smoother seating is why do it.

I always trim and do a light hand chamfer on my cases after cleaning and annealing and my bullets seat smoothly without lube.

I tried the Imperial dry system with graphite, talcum powder, alcohol/lanolin case lube swabbed in the necks and on the bearing surfaces of the bullets and Imperial sizing wax also inside the necks with a QTips and lightly applied to the bullets. I also tested bullets with no cleaning with and no lube and stainless cleaning with no lube at all with just the necks wiped. Firing 10 round test groups there were no significant variations in muzzle speed or grouping. You guys test it yourself and see if you see any variations in velocity ES/SD or flyers with your loads. I would love to see more empirical testing of techniques instead of just relying on blind faith and repeating it as gospel

 

[dgeesaman]

Someone asked this earlier but I didn't see a response. Why keep the carbon in the neck? (Not a BR/PRS/Competetive shooter)

If you’re not already tumbling, the real question is whether to deliberately remove it. Its an extra step to remove it, in my case(s).

If you are pin tumbling where carbon is removed and using a bullet seating method that indicates actual seating force, then it’s hard to not look at the variance in seating force and try to sort them or take steps to reduce the variance.

Maybe someone has done rigorous testing to prove significance, but certainly shooters are observing variance in seating force and will happily attempt to reduce it as a possible performance advantage.

David

 

[David247]

I catch my brass as it is ejected from the gun. Since it never gets dirty, I decap, lube and size, then wet tumble, anneal, cut to length if necessary, chamfer, apply imperial dry lube to the inside of the necks, inside size with mandrel, charge and seat. This way I don't have to remove the lube because the tumbling takes care of it.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

I catch my brass as it is ejected from the gun. Since it never gets dirty, I decap, lube and size, then wet tumble, anneal, cut to length if necessary, chamfer, apply imperial dry lube to the inside of the necks, inside size with mandrel, charge and seat. This way I don't have to remove the lube because the tumbling takes care of it.

Im just asking here but why would you size before you tumble then anneal after you have sized and tumbled? Annealing is only needed to get consistent sizing and annealing after sizing relaxes brass at different levels leading to worse consistency when seating?

 

[JimSC]

Im just asking here but why would you size before you tumble then anneal after you have sized and tumbled? Annealing is only needed to get consistent sizing and annealing after sizing relaxes brass at different levels leading to worse consistency when seating?

What you say makes sense Dusty but in my experience I get pretty decent SD's and ES's by annealing afterwards or even at times skipping an anneal or two. I have to wonder after all these years why there is not a large scale test of annealing by AMP or other annealing manufacturer showing how annealing affects accuracy and velocity consistency in live fire testing using various cartridges from the small stuff to the big bores. It just might be just me but I honestly could care less about another views of cases cut in half and mounted, I want to see some groups and chrono data over the course of ten firings with and without annealing

 

[JFrank]

I'm not sure which is right annealing or not but since I've been a member there must've been 6-7 threads for and against.
They all seem to end up similar to discussing politics at Thanksgiving dinner. No joy

 

[Dusty Stevens]

I'm not sure which is right annealing or not but since I've been a member there must've been 6-7 threads for and against.
They all seem to end up similar to discussing politics at Thanksgiving dinner. No joy

Im always open to new methods which is why i didnt just say he was wrong because its not my method (like a democrat). We can have civil discussions like how he gave me his reason

 

[David247]

The reason I do it in that order is so I don't have to remove the lube. I also get great ES's and SD's doing it this way and it saves me a step. I also don't know for sure that annealing has that much of an effect but I feel that if I anneal every cycle, it really doesn't matter if it is before or after sizing. Now I do size the inside of the neck with a mandrel which gives me very consistent seating pressure and I do think that it is one of the more important things to do after annealing.

I also like to wet ss tumble before annealing because I don't like breathing the (more than likely toxic) fumes that puff out of my Amp with dirty brass. I may be a little over the top but I also like to get the carbon out of the necks and then use imperial dry lube so I can control what and how much lubricant is in the necks before seating the bullet.

There is a ton of math and science that goes into reloading but there is also some emotion to it. My method makes me feel like I am doing the best I can to create the most accurate rounds that satisfied me. Everyone else's may be different but when you go through as many steps as a lot of us do, I think our rigs and ammo far exceed our ability to operate them. Hell that's what makes both of them fun!!!

 

[Hengehold]

Use One Shot spray lube and then rinse in 90% Isopropyl alcohol. It takes the lube right off.

Or, just don’t wipe the Hornady One Shot off when you are done. Half the time i leave the one shot lube on after sizing because I am lazy. No negative side effects from it yet.

-T