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Cleaning off Case Lube


Sarge

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After getting really dirty hands and a gunked up case gauge every now and then I finally took another posters advice and sprayed a little mineral spirits on a towel and wiped down my loaded ammo. WOW! What a difference. No more greasy grimy hands and no more powder flakes gunking up the gauge.

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I normally on rifle and pistol decap then tumble, on rifle brass I'll resize then run thru the tumbler again for an hour or so to get the lube off then go to seating bullets. On the pistol I just decap tumble then I took the decapping pin out of my die and load after the first tumble. Later,

Kirk

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How much lube are you using?

Unless you are loading up above 60ksi, the lube is not a big deal--except for using so much that you start to gunk up things.

You might want to try Dillon's and Lee's case lubes. No muss, no fuss.

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I use One shot. They are just tacky enough to attract things like stray flakes of powder. And one tiny speck of powder can jam up a case gauge pretty easy.

I don't use much. I think I loaded all year on less than a can.

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You can strip up and old Tee shirt too and put Mineral spirits on it = put the loaded rounds in the case separator that you would use if you were separating the media from cleaned cases. Roll it around a bit and dump them out on a dry towel / rag.

that will also give any louse primers a chance to fall out like the tumbler will.

My favorite if I have the time it the tumbler though.

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OK. here come the Clampett's! I cut the leg off an old pair of sweat pants and with a cord tie the ankle end shut. Pour in 300 or so rounds. Close the top with one hand and grab the ankle end with the other. Alternately raise and lower one hand, then the other, think "slinky". It tumbles them clean in minutes. When you notice it not working as well, turn the sweats inside out go at it again. No, I won't post a YouTube video! After further thought, if you never played with a slinky, talk to someone over 50!

Edited by TwoShot
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

i use one shot, and have never had a problem.

With that said, I'm only loading pistol ammo and use carbide dies so I don't use a whole lot of one shot. Just a very small amount slicks things up nicely.

I agree with your assessment of using One Shot on carbide dies and not having any problem with build up. A can lasts me a long time. That being said I recently (6 -8 months ago) started throwing my loaded rounds into a clean (no Flitz polish added) corn cob and walut shell mix and let that vibrate while I'm loading my next batch of around 200 rounds (when it starts over flowing the large bullet tray). I then remove the loaded rounds and seperate them out and start the whole process over again. My loaded rounds are nice an shiny and have no case lube on them which helps with the case guage process.

I recently tried another brand that I had picked up off the prize table at Nationals last year and believe me it was a mistake to use it. I ended up having to re-tumble the brass I had in the case feeder (300+) and clean all of the dies plus the powder drop to remove the build up from just over 100 rounds ran thru the press. Sometimes free is very expensive in time, energy and frustration.

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I tumble mine in what ever is in my tumbler at the time for 10-15 min. By the time i get everything put away for the night, they are done and i take them in to my recliner and watch TV while chamber checking.

I was told the can detonate in the tumbler but find it hard to believe there could be enough impact force to ignite a primer. I was also told that stick powders can break creating more surface area thus changing the burn rate. Since i use D2200, a small ball powder for .223, i don't consider that a problem either.

Just my $.02 worth. As always, you get what you pay for.

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Small brownie pan with blue shop towels in bottom with a generous amount of silicone spray on them.. Dump loaded rounds in pan and shake around using a shop towel on my hand, rolling back and forth.. Keeps a nice dry lube on the casings.

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2 hours tumbling when I get home from the range

Lube and resize

2 cap fulls of mineral spirits

2 used dryer sheets

2 hours in the tumbler with corn cob

2 clean and 2 ready to complete loading

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