Lubing 9mm Brass?

[mr surveyor]

Other than .30-30, everything I currently load in straight walled handgun brass (with Lee carbide dies). I did have a short stint loading some 9mm with the "Classic Loader" several years ago, which definitely required a dash of case lube. I figured out early how to mix one part of Lee Case Lube with 8-9 parts of plain old rubbing alcohol in a kitchen type spray bottle, dump 50 or so pieces of brass into a ziplock, give it 4-5 squirts of "lube", and rattle it around in the bag to give it all a good coating. Worked well for the need, either wet out of the bag or after it had dried. A couple of years ago I reached the stage of little interest in the bottom feeders (particularly the wonder nines), although I will NOT refer to JMB's wonderful invention as a bottom feeder . Three years ago there was still a bit of 9mm ammo on the shelf and components costs at the time with jacketed bullets (almost required for the Classic Loader due to the method required to "flair" the case mouth) weren't a whole lot less in cost. Now with factory 9mm ammo running $25-30 per hundred and components as little as $13-15 per hundred, it made sense to order dies. I'm still a wheelie guy, and occasionally carry a 1911, but I do still have one Kahr 9mm I carry about 10% of the time. My son carries his Kahr about 90% of the time, and he talked me into buying the dies so he could borrow them .

Since I've wasted bandwidth with the set up, I'll get to the question. I just got through checking the sizing die running clean once fired brass through (single stage press) and it was as tough as running .44 mag brass through that nice straight walled carbide die ... or tougher. I sized the first fifty pieces bone dry, then decided to try lubing a few in a ziplock and running one lubed case then 3-4 dry ones. Man, what a difference it made. I alternated 1 lube with three dry and did another five hundred in a very short time.

So .... Lube of No Lube?

JD


oh.... and since the wonder nine is a tapered case, can the sizing dies actually be carbide? I don't really think they are, and they sure don't look like it. Not sure there either?

[Steve]

Most fellows I know reloading 9mm lube the cases with Hornady one shot lube. I don't load 9 myself, so I am just stating what I have seen others doing. I personally would not want to clean the lube off the brass after loading.

[62chevy]

I lube my 45 acp even thou Lee says you don't need to.

[mr surveyor]

with the "for sure" carbide Lee sizing die, my .45 acp squirts through as easy as .38 spl brass. Heck, even the .44 mag I resize in the "for sure" carbide die is easier than the 9mm I just sized in the new dies unless I added a tiny bit of lube.

I was just wondering how other guys handled their 9mm brass in the Lee dies.


JD

[mr surveyor]

I guess I found my answer.... remembered reading it somewhere in the past and went looking:

Lee Second Edition: "Tapered cases such as the 9mm and 30 M1 Carbine need some lube. Usually lubricating an occasional case will leave enough lube in the die for a few without lube."

I guess that's why the one for three ended up working so well

JD

[wscywabbit]

Nice find! I just finished reading the Lee book, and I vaguely remember reading that lol... Of course I'm not loading for 9 yet so it probably didn't stick to the back of my mind

[larryw]

Well, I will say that since getting a few years on my hind part's
& a lot of arthritis in a lot of part's, I to us a "little" lube every
tenth case or so. Even with carbide, it is much, much easier.
Just be sure your lube is not one of the concoctions that
contaminates your powder &/or primer. Good luck.

[Model 52]

I use it only when it feels like it needs it, and it usually ends up being on a schedule of 1-10 or so.

You can feel some "chatter" when the die needs some lube and when running my Dillon press, I'll keep two boxes of brass to pull from most unlubed and a handful that tool a roll over the lube bad.