Case necks and bullet seating: lubed or dry?

[biodsl]

This is from another thread:

As far as neolube the necks... its the same as powdered graphite except in a liquid/alcohol carrier. Q-tip and wipe it into the case neck and let it dry, don't do any more than 3 cases before re-wetting as the stuff dries really fast. I prefer the liquid lube as it's less messy than graphite and the resulting coating is more consistent.

This is my question to the horde: In your reloading process, do you lube the inside of the case neck or not prior to bullet seating? I lube with Hornady One Shot and have taken to brushing the neck to clean the lube. My thinking was this would increase neck tension in the ruff and tumble operation of the AR-15 platform. Looking at Zeneffect's groups, I wondering if I should just leave the One Shot in the neck, clean it or clean it and use another lube.

[GREYBUFF]

After resizing and prepping my brass, I always run it thru my tumble with clean media ( I have 2 tumblers) for about a half hour to remove all lube. The only drawback is that you have to make sure the flash holes don't have a piece of media stuck in it.

[Zeneffect]

neolube #2 is a conductive graphite/moly based lubricant applied to the inside of case necks prior to seating. Cases are 100% cleaned of any resizing lubricant before neolube + primers. It leaves a film coating and nothing rough. Powder does not stick to it once dry so neck lube, primer, powder, seat. It feels like you messed up the resizing when you seat them the first time as the effort to seat the bullet is drastically different vs without. Every force measurement test I have seen shows significant improvement in bullet seating consistency. generally I have noticed a reduction in group size overall, but it doesnt always work, and wont fix a bad group.

I only do this because I shoot local matches, and the requirements to get on the podium consistently is very high. We shoot at golf balls on the 500M line sometimes and every last little bit helps to make it a successful shot. This kind of brass prep is time consuming and I don't do it when I know it's going to be all "big" targets because holding 1moa is good enough to look awesome.

[CJW]

[Klem]

I don't lube the inside neck in this calibre.

The sizing die's expander ball is removed so I figure there is no need to lube the inside neck, and I want as much friction as possible to hold the bullet in place for a gas gun (no crimping). The outside necks gets a twirl of Imperial Wax however. I use a roll pad with RCBS lube for the bodies, and clean up is all the finished cases getting rubbed in an old towel at the same time - to save time.

I don't use spray lube on rifle calibres because I figure the lube gets inside the cases and will not be even around the inside necks. I use One Shot for handgun however; it's quick and easy.

[Zeneffect]

I should also mention "ruff and tumble" is not the way my ammo sees the chamber. Very often I'm beyond mag length so I have a Bob sled in and single feed everything now. The round doesn't have much forward movement to push the bullets forward with inertia. I haven't actually tried from a magazine, but I know the rounds i have loaded fit and can measure to see if there is any growth... will run the same one in and out 20x and see if if there is any difference before + after. I think there will be

[Klem]

I should also mention "ruff and tumble" is not the way my ammo sees the chamber. Very often I'm beyond mag length so I have a Bob sled in and single feed everything now. The round doesn't have much forward movement to push the bullets forward with inertia. I haven't actually tried from a magazine, but I know the rounds i have loaded fit and can measure to see if there is any growth... will run the same one in and out 20x and see if if there is any difference before + after. I think there will be

Zene,

Maybe, If the bullet weight exceeds the static friction then they will creep forward. But as long as that is the same every round then it's probably a non-issue.

I found in Blackout with super heavy 220gn bullets they creep forward in the carrier-slam more and more as the inside neck surface area holding them in place gets less. But if you were to use a fresh round each time then the surface area and the tension holding them in place will be the same.

Edit to this post...When you think about it the surface area of the long heavy bullet was not less as it crept forward with each subsequent slam feed, it is the same. Maybe it was moving forward more each time because of the grip loosening, or the interface becoming smoother with each rub.

[Zeneffect]

bullets creeping forward is a concern as it effects muzzle exit timing during harmonic oscillation. to me, hoping that they are all doing the same amount of growth during a slam feed relies on too many upstream mechanical events to be within a tight enough tolerance and setup too complex for me to measure then quantify some sort of result or correlation. My thoughts are, either it does, or it does not... and if it does, that is wrong/counterproductive to my reloading theory and methodology. I would basically be throwing seating depth test out the window

[rickt300]

Well I "lube" inside case necks if I am going to run an expander ball out them. I use a loose patch on a short section of cleaning rod in a split jag. I put a bit of Armorall protectant on the patch and run it in and out of the neck. I leave whatever residue is lsft after sizing in the case neck and seat the bullet.

[cceckhoff58]

Bolt gun here. I dip the bottom of bullets in graphite when I load new brass for the first time. Previously fired brass is not cleaned on the inside in any way. Necks are brushed with a nylon brush as the last step of brass prep. Carbon from firing serves as a lubricant.