BRASS AND DIE PROBLEM HELP!!!

Too much lube?

Obturation said:

Too much lube?

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Yep.

Hannah42 said:

Can I still use this brass. Will it hurt anything.

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Yep and nope.

Echo the comments above. Rolling on a good lube pad should mitigate the hydraulic denting caused by being under pressure in the die. Excess lube also has a habit of picking up debris, just wet enough to feel tacky but not see a glob of lube.

Obturation said:

Too much lube?

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Yes too much lube. As long as it will chamber it shouldn't be a big deal. It will fireform when shot. A picture would help to see how bad it is. As to wether you can use it or toss it.

Hannah42 said:

Need help please. I was full length sizing my 7mm08 brass and noticed a small dimple on the neck shoulders. I have a Lee press and Lee dies. I set the die to half turn is this to much. I had to set my 06, 308, dies this way. What do i need to do. I checked the die for debris. It's clean. Can I still use this brass. Will it hurt anything.

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Too much lube on the case shoulder. I tumble my brass with a lube saturated patch and frequently over lube the cases and will get shoulder dents. So, I wipe each case neck/shoulder with a paper towel just as the case goes on the shell holder. There is plenty of case lube on the sides of the case. When I do that, I don't get shoulder dents.

Brass that has developed shoulder dents is perfectly usable. I cannot think of a time where the shoulder has not blown out on the next firing. So your cases are not ruined.

Yes, what Slamfire said.

I tend to use a lube pad to lubricate my bottle neck rifle cases. I hand wipe the neck area to remove excess lube before resizing.

While it takes a "feel", I run a dry case or two into the sizing die every several cases and this helps minimize the build up of lubricant that might cause dents in the case necks.

To use this method, it is better to the cases be too lubricated than too dry. Removing a stuck case is a pain in the ass but not the end of the end of the world if you have a stuck case remover on hand.

Just be careful to not operate too far at the dry end or too lubed end of the spectrum. It takes some feel and learning curve to get to this point.

But, bottom line, run too much lubricant as opposed to too little until you get the proper feel of what is needed.

OP:
The number of folks here who have never done the exact same thing as you would be extremely small. (Perhaps none?)
We all 'Live and learn.'
Lots to learn right here.
(No such thing as a dumb question!)

I have the lube pad and lube for it but never used it, I prefer spray on lube.
I was useing Hornady One Shot spray lube at $10 a spray can and switched over to home made spray lube.
Ten parts red plastic bottle of Heet Dry Gas and one part Liquid Lanolin.




It is way cheaper and I like it a lot better. The Liquid Lanolin I bought on ebay and I ordered my second bottle from Walmart.com website with free store pick up.

For spraying the cases i bought my grandson a McDonalds Big Breakfast and kept the plastic container for lubing my brass.
I use the clear plasyic top to spray on the lube, after I spray the lube it goes in the higher sided black base to dry a few minutes before I resize my brass.

I will spray up two or three batches at a time and put them in black base for 4 or 5 minutes.

My experience w spray lubes has been mixed. Its easy, fast, and convenient. It also has stuck more cases than a lube pad.

Total time is usually the same but lube pad is slow and steady.

The only consistent sticking case no matter the method is 6.5 Carcano. Horribly designed rim and an epically awful rifle design. Keep the hacksaw handy, it rips the rim off the case and still has a stuck case. I got real good at sectioning cases by hand before I started neck-sizing only.

FWIW; dents in cartridges can be "shot out" if they aren't too big (distorting the shape/size of the case) and have no sharp corners/edges. Smooth dents, like those from too much lube can easily and safely be "shot out. Sharp corners of dents in a case weakens the brass at that point, toss any like this...

Lube dents happen to the best of us when we are not paying attention it seems. My RCBS 30-06 dies have vent holes in the neck area of the die to vent the lube and they work well. I dont know if any dies still have that feature or not though.

All my bottleneck dies have vent holes and they all end up directly under the lock ring. Worthless.

Try reading the front sections of a reloading manual.

I will say that the only lubes I've used that dented bottlenecks were RCBS roll-on and Hornady Unique.
'Operator Error' was the issue in those instances, and not the lubes fault.

Never have dented a case with One Shot or RCBS spray lube.

Currently using OS on bottleneck. Lay cases side by side on a cookie sheet. Spray on/in neck at 45 degree angle. Wait a few minutes, roll cases 180 degrees and repeat. Wait a few minutes / reload.

Regardless of the type of lube or application method, I have not (yet?) stuck a case.

YMMV

I agree with the others, you are getting dents from too much lube. They won't hurt anything unless they are extreme and will fire form out on your next firing. I keep a rag next to my press and I wipe the shoulder and neck off on each case before sizing it. I just twist the case between my thumb and forefinger while holding the rag and this still leaves enough lube to do the job.

I've used a lot of different lubes over the years and the thick stuff like RCBS on a lube pad seem to be more likely to make dents if left on the case. Its hard to not get too much lube on the case using a pad.

lightman said:

I've used a lot of different lubes over the years and the thick stuff like RCBS on a lube pad seem to be more likely to make dents if left on the case. Its hard to not get too much lube on the case using a pad.

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I agree, when I re-coat the pad with lubricant, I have to be careful when lubing the cases. I always hang the necks and shoulders over the edge of the lube pad to minimize the amount of lube that gets on the necks and shoulders. There is enough residual lubricant left in the die from the body of the case to lubricate the necks and shoulders.

Walkalong said:

I put a dab of RCBS Case Lube on the finger print of my left pointer finger, rub it with my hello finger and thumb (Last joint again), and wipe/rub it on the cases as I pick them up...

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Pretty much the way I've been doing it for years also.

Walkalong said:

I quit the CBS lube pad after the first couple of tries so very long ago. I put a dab of RCBS Case Lube on the finger print of my left pointer finger, rub it with my hello finger and thumb (Last joint again), and wipe/rub it on the cases as I pick them up to put in the shell plated. Hardly slows getting cases in the shell plate at all.

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pretty much how I do it, but I keep it on my thumb of my left hand. Then each case gets "rolled" through the lube on my thumb, braced by my left index and middle. Gets a nice and even, light smear over the whole body, but off the neck.
Set each aside in a row until the lube is gone from my thumb, then size and wipe all the lubed cases.

Barr said:

The only consistent sticking case no matter the method is 6.5 Carcano. Horribly designed rim and an epically awful rifle design. Keep the hacksaw handy, it rips the rim off the case and still has a stuck case. I got real good at sectioning cases by hand before I started neck-sizing only.

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I agree the carcano is just awful. Not much I like about it.
But, if you do reload that cagano, a 50/50 mix of 30wt and STP is a good and slippery (but kinda messy) lube to ease the tension