Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Turret press and lubing

I know that you should clean and lube your brass before running it thru the dies -- I have a turret press (4 station) coming and will be using carbide dies for the pistol rounds so no lubing questions about that. But when I clean and lube the rifle rounds (223 for my AR 15) and run them thru the loader how/what method can I use to get the lube removed??? Do I dare use my regular method of turbo/corn cob material to clean loaded rounds? I am using Midway Minute Lube right now. I am up grading (??) from a single stage and going to a turret press and lube cleaning I did before was after I had trimmed and resized full length and would use corn cob material. All the other rifle calibers I will be loading are for bolt actions and just use a collet die. Not to start a verbal war but all my dies and presses are Lee Precision made. Appreciate "most" comments -- others will be buried in salt!!!!

I have a Dillon, resize rifle or cases that need to be lubed on the single stage press I prefer the power offered, and corn cob after resizing, may or may not load with the Dillon but don't want to wipe each round as its made

I'm not comfortable with tumbling loaded rounds, although powders have pretty good coatings nowadays.

One trick I would recommend if you are FL sizing and concerned about lube, no matter the press --

With 223 needing FL sizing, unless you SPLASH the cases with lube, you run the risk of a tear-off. So when I do FL batches, or any cases that need FL sizing, I will deprime separately, then run them into an FL size die without the decapper rod or sizing ball. Run the batch through, then take the cases and tumble them to clean.
Since I have a Dillon 650, I just set up two stations, deprime at station 1, and FL size at station 4 in front where the seater "should" be. Then if disaster strikes, everything comes straight out with minimal swearing.

This leaves me the option of using a nice big punch to blow out and trash a stuck case. The decap rod is not a good punch, don't ask how I've learned that the hard way.

Then, with tumbled clean cases, I will put the decapper and ball in the FL die way up high, like just short of the neck. There are two setup options there, just running the ball in and out, or sizing the neck, which works the brass more. The deciding factor is controlling runout. If just popping the sizing button in and out works, I'll do that. I prefer to use the elliptical Hornady balls for this process as they have a nice taper and are more forgiving, especially if you give them a polish.
But it saves me the aggravation of a stuck case, which I have learned the hard way to really hate.

Thanks for the tips -- I have gotten into some other forums and it is a split decision on the cleaning process but it seems that if a guy only tumbles 10 - 15 minutes there should not be a problem. Seems like there are a few commercial manufacturing brands that tumble some after loading and before packaging. There have been some "tests" done and it seems if the loads are tumbled for extreme time (4 to 5 hours up to "days" or over night) then that's when a person could be surprised when pulling the trigger!!!

There is no problem tumbling loaded rounds in a vibratory tumbler for 10 minutes.

But there does need to be a procedure to check case length and trim the brass to a consistent case length somewhere in the process, whether loading on a single stage, turret or progressive.

I run all range brass in the tumbler until clean and de-prime in the garage, then resize, trim, chamfer and clean the lube.

There is more detail to the process, but only fully prepped brass that is ready to load makes it to the loading bench.

I always check OAL --- was thinking that was a given -- I know I have to trim this next batch as what few I spot checked for length were over spec's -- these are all military -- looks like twice fired. Will check interior with Lyman Borecam. Was just mainly trying to get some feed back on tumbling loaded rounds -- it was an interesting experience reading some of the other forums I checked out.

I use Hornady One Shot, making sure to get inside the mouths, and use enough. Then when I am done I spray the loaded rounds with a little Outers Nitro solvent, spread them out on a big rag towel and rub the lube off en masse. Works great. I even use a little One Shot on pistol rounds with carbide sizers and it makes sizing much easier.

That was actually a typo in my original post...I fixed it...

I was referring to "case length" not OAL.

The point I was making was that since the brass has to be removed from the press after resizing for trimming anyway, the remaining lube can be cleaned off at that point in the loading process, so that precludes any need to tumble loaded rounds.

In order to facilitate that I organize brass prep and loading as separate processes. I resize and clean the brass again as the final step in the brass prep stage and start assembling ammo with clean, fully prepped brass.

Years ago loading rifle cases on a progressive, I discovered I could load just as many rounds in ‘batch’ mode as I could doing it on the progressive; piggyback 2 or 3, I forget now.
Anyway, as most rifle cases need to be checked for length AFTER sizing, the progressive is not set up for this, as Boogaloo points to. On my turret press, RCBS, I have many heads set up so that I can just size, charge and seat in separate operations. By doing this, I can size 100 cases in half an hour, wiping off lube as I go, check for length and trim if necessary.
When I used the progressive on AR fired 223 cases, I had carbide dies, so lube removal wasn’t an issue, BUT as I was crimping for AR use, the crimps would be all over the place and some would get bulged shoulders which would not be discovered until the rifle failed to chamber during an IPSC match. The reason was due to not catching the longer cases as they were being loaded and making the crimp too deep.

I honestly believe if you are loading rifle cases and need to lube then not only is lube removal a PITA, but the case length problem is just as dire if you intend crimping.

Just as a piece of advice, any of the wax type case lubes are easier to remove than the liquid types, just a rag will do the job.

Cheers.

I have an old single stage press i use for de-capping primers. It has a nice catcher so they don't fall on the floor and get into my kids hands.

Next i tumble the brass in the gargage to get it clean.

Then i do all the brass prep stuff that makes bullets shoot good and then tumble them again for an hour in the garage. This takes the brass shavings and all lubricants interior and exterior out of the list of variables.

Then i load them up when i can.

I don't recommend tumbling loaded rounds.

Your turret press will change your life. Next you can get the 7 hold Redding T7. I love having 2 sizing dies set up, and not having to mess and fiddle with them.