Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Removing sizing lubricant

If the RCBS lube is water soluble is it bad to just put it in a bucket and rinse with water and then put the brass out to dry?

Thanks to all who commented.

That's what I do. Been doing it ever since RCBS came out with the -2.

For those that water rinse the RCBS lube, do you get any dried residue in the primer pockets? I used to use Lee case lube that came in the squeeze tubes mainly because it was water soluble and you could just rinse the cases in a colander or some other container and set them out to dry. But after drying there would be a thick white residue left in the pockets even if you blew or shook out most of the water that would collect there.

Ronson lighter fluid on a paper towel....has worked well for me for 40 years... well, more than 40 years.... ok, closer to 50. Quick and it works well. I saw a while back that David Petzal uses the same method and he was was bemoaning the fact that lighter fluid was not as easy to find as it once was. He's a dinosaur too.

I place them in the chamber and fire the cartridge.

Cleans right up.




Dave

+1.

In the first place, I use lube sparingly. A drop on the pad does 20 rounds. Second, by the time they get a bullet jammed on the top, there's blessed little of it left.

What am I missing?

The objective of cleaning the lube off is so the case grips the walls of the chamber during firing and doesn't create unnecessary back thrust on the bolt. Do it or not, up to the individual.

Actually, cleaning off the lube is due to paranoia about dust clinging to the residual lube.

I sincerely doubt minute amounts of any of the lubes mentioned results in increase bolt-thrust. This conclusion was reached after some experiments conducted by a gunsmith friend with pressure-sensitive film, used for various industry purposes. His conclusion that quite a bit of high-viscosity oil needs to be applied to cases before there's any measureable increase in bolt thrust.

Which is exactly why I don't wipe One-Shot from the varmint rounds I usually use it on, and don't even wipe Imperial Sizing Die Wax from big game rounds that I've had to trim. Just handling them gets off most of the wax, and not very much is required for sizing.

However, I freely admit to not following a lot of supposedly necessary reloading steps, after experimenting enough to determine they were pretty useless. Which is why I usually use the deflave method: Shoot 'em.

I like pretty, presentation-grade ammo, at least when it's in boxes. When I'm hunting with it, I only care that it works when I want it to. I usually tumble batches of sized brass to take the lube off. If just neck-sizing, which is what happens most often, I generally do nothing but a quick length check and then load. In small batches, which happens rarely, I'll use a rag to wipe off the Imperial Wax. Presentation-grade ammo. It kills better. It just does.

Thanks, Gandalf.





Dave

I was going to try and copyright it.






Travis

An enlightening conversation.... one more comment, possibly useful:

Some lubes, like Lee, are water/wax emulsions. I think it's a good idea to let the water evaporate out of the neck before corking up the cartridge.

I'm not sure what is in RCBS #2, but I think it probably has glycerin. Glycerin is extremely hydroscopic, meaning it will pull water out of the air. So with that, I cork the cartridge immediately to avoid moisture collection in the neck. The lube itself is volatile enough that it will evaporate off the outside of the case after while.

Imperial Sizing Wax is different still. With that, I just lube, size, cork, wipe with a paper towel, and shoot.

Don't mention it dumbchit, at least you managed a post without profanity. Maybe there is hope for you, nah stupid is forever.

Cases go through the sizer and right into a running tumbler. I use really fine media that doesn't stick in the flash holes.

Squish, tumble, separate, then load or store prepped cases for later.

+1 for above post.

I throw them i the tumbler for a few minutes after they are loaded up.

Throw them in a parts bucket of lacquer thinner, swish 'em around, run a neck brush in them, blow out with compressed air.

A friend asked one time to identify some "gunk" he could see inside his cases. We sectioned one and it turned out to be sizing lube that incredibly survived being fired. The glob of lube had a crusty carbon coating but was still gooey underneath.

Since then, I have read of other handloaders running into the same thing.

Think what that does to the volume of a case after all the anal measuring and weighing the handloading looneys go through.............

Any idea of how a "glob" of sizing lube got inside the case?

Interesting how some of you put reloaded rounds into a tumbler to clean off the lube.....just wondering though, could a long stretch in the tumbler affect the powder in the case? Seems that I read somewhere a long time back ( In a galaxy far, far away...) that someone had some problems with this. Seems that the powder in the case was altered, perhaps broken up to the point where the burning rate changed significantly. In my fevered mind, I can see how stick powder might be affected by a few hours of being bounced around in a tumbler. Perhaps a reduced load where there was some room for the kernels to jiggle around?

I use the lighter fluid and paper towel method, so I never lost any sleep over this. Just wondering.