Case Lube in gun/magazine?

[Jeff686]

I was just reading a thread about the Square Deal B, and heard that some people lube their pistol brass to make things run smoother. Makes sense. Comments were made about how to easily clean the lube off the completed rounds.

..break..

At a big match this summer, I saw a guy putting his ammo in a plastic bag with a rag and a little squirt of silicon(e) spray lube. He shook it around a bit, then loaded his mags. He said it makes the gun/mags run better, and learned it from a GM at a training class. Is this common? Anyone do it?

..combine..

So, would using lube (one shot or something), then not cleaning it off the complete cartridge have the same effect as the plastic bag spray lube trick? Is the case lube thicker or bad for the gun/mags?

Oh, and don't throw that 'deactivate the primer' thing at me. I saw an extensive analysis of this, including long term storage, and it found no adverse effect of oil on the ouside of the primer for a completed cartridge.

[Joe4d]

lubed ammo might move along better but any benefite gained would be negated by all the extra dirt that would end up sticking everywhere. unless you had enough magazines to not have to reuse one at a match.. I prefer my mags and ammo clean and dry.

[AlamoShooter]

I did that dry lube spray on the brass as I loaded for a month or so. I don't know if it was Vodo or what but i had all kinds of strange jams and ejection problems. Benny fixed my mags and told me to stop with the lube.

I did the very strange thing and followed his advise = the gun ran great I won my class and have not looked back. -= it does make the loading in the press easy though.

[JFD]

Case lube on loaded rounds seems more sticky than slick to me. I use the One-Shot pump. The thought of leaving that stuff on gives me shivers......

Of course I remember shooting tumble-lubed bullets ate matches in my earlier days. Drop a round and the round was covered in dirt.

[LPatterson]

There was a GM at a training class who mentioned that he did that, but he said he also cleaned his mags after every run even if it didn't hit the ground. He also had a lot of other gun handling quirks that he did that I am not sure he even know he does anymore.

If you want to clean a mag after every use then lightly rubbing the case with silicone might might help feeding in a tuned S_I mag or Para but I doubt you would gain anything with a 1911 mag.

[cpty1]

I've heard of this trick but don't know anyone who does that. I keep a soft fiber brush, sprayed with silicone, inside a ziplock, in my range bag. Not after every stage, but if a mag hits the ground, I run a hard brush thru the mag, then use the silicon sprayed soft brush. I run the mags "wet" so to speak, but don't want anything on the ammo. I do this with my open gun, but probably wouldn't with anything else.

Edited December 19, 2007 by cpty1

[ChuckS]

I use OneShot on the cases that I reload and leave the lube on. The only "problem" that I have had is a dirty(er) thumb when loading mags. I use silicone spray on a rag and wipe the mag tube innards and follower as a final step for cleaning before a match. At the match I just brush and/or wipe mags. Seems to work. I used to say that if a mag hits the ground, it gets cleaned. In practice, I have screwed this up so now it's if a mag gets used, it gets cleaned. I use the silicone on single stack mags also but I am not sure if it is necessary. I just can't help myself

Later,

Chuck

[Chills1994]

I think I have heard of using dry graphite powder (the kind you gingerly "squirt" into lock cylinders) as a way to "lube" up the inside of the mag where the follower rubs.

I think leaving lube on the bullet/loaded round is just asking for trouble.

[ChuckS]

I think leaving lube on the bullet/loaded round is just asking for trouble.

I only have used OneShot so there may be problems with others. When I first read about OneShot here in the forums, I noticed that Brian and others said to just leave it on the cases. I don't find reloading all that enjoyable so one less step appealed to me. So far I have about 50.000 data points saying that leaving OneShot on the loaded rounds is OK (except for the dirty thumb issue ).

Later,

Chuck

[JFD]

I also figured it must be OK if Brian is saying to leave it on. I just can't do it.