Silicone As A Case Lube

[EricW]

Anybody tried using plain ol' silicone spray as a lube for straight wall pistol cases? One Shot is nice, but aside from the expense, it really gums up my mags and I'd prefer not to tumble my rounds after loading (because I'm lazy).

Thx!

[cpty1]

Yep. I've used it and thought it worked as well as One Shot.

[short_round]

I used it after the one shot. I would spray the silicone on a towel, then dump a layer of bullets onto one half of the towel, spray more silicone on top of that, fold the towel over, and rub it all down. Worked pretty well to get the one shot off and leave a light coating of silicone on the cartridges ... didn't take too much time either.

[EricW]

I just was messing around with it down in the shop. Predictably, a wet primer has weaker ignition. HOWEVER, this is a better situation than where with One Shot, a wet primer has *no* igntion until you dry it out. So, as far as inadvertently creating duds, silicone seems to be certainly no worse than One Shot.

I just loaded up 100 rounds. Will try them out this weekend and see. Cases seem slicker than One Shot. I think that with rifle primers, this will probably be a no brainer combination.

I hope this works because I've been having problems with One Shot coming out of solution and ending up with just carrier toward the last half of the can. That starts to hurt at six bucks a whack.

[Merlin Orr]

I really hope it works well... There has to be Something that will work well - at a resonable cost...

[kevin c]

I used it after the one shot.  I would spray the silicone on a towel, then dump a layer of bullets onto one half of the towel, spray more silicone on top of that, fold the towel over, and rub it all down.  Worked pretty well to get the one shot off and leave a light coating of silicone on the cartridges ... didn't take too much time either.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I do the same thing to my loaded ammo, but substitue rubbing alcohol sprayed onto the towel and rounds.

A little rub down and all the One Shot is off.

A little less alcohol or a little less rubbing and there is a slight amt of One Shot left on - no stickiness, but slicked up a bit for smooth running in the mag.

Leaned that here (benos' comment).

Kevin C.

[cpty1]

I gave up on One Shot for the same reason Eric noted. Every can I bought only gave up about half the product. I later upgraded to a 1050 and found I didn't need lube with it anyway due to the extra leverage. The 1050 is a beast!

[EricW]

I just don't want to post-process ammo. It takes enough time on the 550 as it is. If I have to clean off lube to get reliability, I'll just skip it altogether. The silicone *looks* really promising so far. Spray on and and forget it.

(of course, it will be a matter of a couple weeks before somebody somewhere decides that if a light mist of silicone is good, using half a can will be simply wunderbar, and the prerequisite internet freak-out/witch hunt/drum beating will ensue... )

[SmittyFL]

Eric,

A buddy of mine does it. Coats them in a pan prior to putting them in the 650 case feeder and that's it. They stay slick as hell, he's been doing it over a year with no problems.

I just learned it and am getting ready to give it a try.

[EricW]

Smitty,

That's the kind of news I like. I hate to seem too Scottish, but I really get the case of the wallet cramps every time I had to shell out for the can of "Half a Shot"

Anybody try silicone on rifle cases?

[PaulW]

I've been using spray siliconeforyears. Works great and you don't have tumble all that sticky case lube off.

[Flexmoney]

I shake the can of One Shot for at least a minute...and, spray it for less than 5 seconds. The can seems to last forever. I think I am just finishing up my second can (ever).

So...whatchyoutalkin'bout?

[Flexmoney]

And, it gums up your mags???

Sounds like you are using a hell of a lot more than I am. I have never had a gummed up mag.

[George]

I don't like to post process pistol ammo either so I have always just used a carbide die and loaded them dry (yeah, I know).

For .223 rifle, I only use 1x commercial processed for my junk 55gr ball and all my match grade SMK stuff is sized with Dillon lube in a separate step and tumbled clean before being bulk stuffed on the 550.

It's just easier this way and the ammo stays clean and dry in storage. I tried leaving the Dillon lube on rifle ammo loaded full progressive and it was fine if you didn't mind gummy ammo 6 months down the road.

Dillon spray lube is all I ever use for rifle cases. Pistol is a dry town called carbide where I come from ;-)

--

Regards,

[Run n Gun]

...I have never had a gummed up mag.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Me either, and I've been using the stuff for years!

Eric,

You haven’t been stirring your guacamole dip with your mags again, have you?

Ed

[ErikW]

I'm with Flexmoney. One Shot lasts forever and doesn't gum up mags. But about silicone spray...

I pre-sized thousands of Win .40 cases and cleaned them. Despite already being sized, while loading, they take a little effort through the sizing die. Spraying a quick shot of silicone into the casefeeder helped a lot. Also, just spraying the empty casefeeder plate, prior to dumping in cases, helped a lot.

And just to drift the thread, I pre-processed all those cases with standard lanolin/alcohol case lube. Like buttah! The lack of effort was almost like there was no case in station one to be sized. But it gummed up the casefeeder plate, tube, adapter, bushing, and shell feed.

[EricW]

And, it gums up your mags???

Sounds like you are using a hell of a lot more than I am.  I have never had a gummed up mag.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

All I know is that it gums the holy hell out of my mags, and I just give my cases a very light half to one-second spritz in the tray. My brass tray is now VERY gummy from the One Shot, so I am 100% positive that One Shot leaves nasty, sticky residue. And you've never seen the inside of my mags, so I think I'd know better than you, Mr. Knowitall Grandbagger. Maybe I got a very old batch, who knows. I would not at ALL be surprised if the cans I bought had sat on the shelf for a decade or more. (You'd have to be a White Elephant customer to understand.)

I do know that One Shot is responsible for trashing a rifle die. Once that stuff settles out of solution, no amount of shaking turns it back into lube again. There was no amount of One Shot that I could use to keep cases from sticking.

==============================================

Ed,

Beven told me the Guacamole made the followers run better. I swear!

[short_round]

My brass tray is now VERY gummy from the One Shot, so I am 100% positive that One Shot leaves nasty, sticky residue. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This happened to me too ... maybe I got hold of some of the same batch. That's why I had to wipe the one shot off with silicone. Eventually I just switched to the Dillon case lube ...

[Stumpnav]

O.K. Some of you rocket scientist out there need to edumacate me.

Firing pin hits primer, primer goes bang and ignites powder, powder starts to burn and create expanding gases, case gets pushed back against breach face and begins to expand, expanding walls of cases hit chamber and grab chamber walls, but wait...slicky stuff on exterior of case keeps case from having friction with chamber walls putting all of the pressure onto the breachface. (might explain trail of dead sights).

Seriously, shouldn't the case be free of any lubricant to prevent all of the pressure being exerted on the breach face? It should not affect the amount of pressure produce by the load, but would affect where the pressure is distributed resulting in a slide(or bolt) operating at an increased speed.

Like I said, I am not a smart man, but my mind does tend to wander.

[EricW]

Stump,

I don't have dead sight issues, FWIW. I and lot of other guys on the forum have been shooting lubed pistol cases for years with no problems. Most of us got the trick from Brian. I've heard about the case sticking to the chamber as a necessary thing for rifles, never pistols.

Silicone-lubed ammo feeds a LOT better through STI mags, so it's a practice I plan to continue.

[Stumpnav]

Eric,

Sorry, the comment about the sights was, as it turns out, a weak attempt at humor about Erik's avatar. I had recently read the thread regarding his trouble with sights and the thought hit me that there might be some tie in.

[Sterling White]

Sillycone spray works well but so does WD40 if you find yourself without lube.

[gm iprod]

WD40 should be kept away from reloading. The damn stuff kills primer DEAD.

I have used,

1. Good old fashioned Lyman / RCBS oil based lube for rifles. Not bad, but bugger me slow. Good for short runs of rifle ammo loaded the old way, 1 at a time.

2. One Shot, great stuff and easy to apply. I had had 2 cans go all the way to the last drop and one stop at about 2/3 used. Will not harm primer and powder. They now have a pump spray (ala Dillon) and I am giving that a go at present, I got a bottle free from the local agent and it works how it should. Although with the pump spray it tends to get a little gummy on the bottle.

3. Dillon, love the stuff. I don't know how many bottle I have churned through, lasts much longer than an Aerosol. Can get a little gummy.

I have always removed the residual case lube off the loaded rounds, regardless which brand of lube is used. I have never tried silicon spray, given that it works on pretty much anything I should expect it to work for case lube. I will however be sticking with either Dillon or Hornady lube for the foreseable future. I just prefer them, used right they work right.

[shred]

O.K. Some of you rocket scientist out there need to edumacate me.

Firing pin hits primer, primer goes bang and ignites powder, powder starts to burn and create expanding gases, case gets pushed back against breach face and begins to expand, expanding walls of cases hit chamber and grab chamber walls, but wait...slicky stuff on exterior of case keeps case from having friction with chamber walls putting all of the pressure onto the breachface.

You hear that alot, but IMHO it's an old wives tale, especially for pistols. Polished brass is slippery and chambers are cut smooth and not knurled to start with. You'd think that if friction were important, we'd hear dire warnings about not polishing cases and recommendations to put a little rosin on each case for hot loads, but that doesn't happen.

And light 'steel' loads lots of the time don't seal the chamber, yet any dedicated steel gun can survive a ton more swiss-cheesing of the slide than a full-pressure gun can. What's up with that?

Reading Hatcher's Notebook, a number of early machineguns had little oiler pads that would oil-lube each round as it fed into the chamber just to make them work better.

I've put almost 80K of One-Shot-not-cleaned-off Major loads through a number of different Open guns and not had a problem.

My brass-spraying box gets a little gummy after a while, but even my rare mag-cleanings don't seem to turn up any undesired stickiness.

[Sterling White]

The 40 will kill primers! Found out the hard way but there is a way that it will work. Lay your brass out on a towel flat on the floor and spray a soft mist over the brass letting it settle. Pick the towel up and dump the ready brass into the loading tray.