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Case Lubing

Wow, thanks a lot for all of the info! I was looking for something besides a lube pad since that seemed like a messy PITA and I guess I was thinking in the right direction. Going to go ahead and look into regular liquid lube and go from there.

Only thing I do to primer pockets is debur the flash hole with a tool from the inside. You can do a whole lot more to them but its hasnt proven to make a noticable difference in performance. Benchrest shooters do all kinds of crazy stuff to their brass but in a practical world its not enough of a difference maker to make it worth the time it takes to do it to me.

Im using an RCBS hand primer and prime after I do all the brass prep. You will find that more time is spent doing the brass prep than anything.

to walk you thru my process I have some old 45 brass trays from somewhere that I use as a loading block. 308 uses the same shell holder as 45 so using the plastic trays that ammo comes in works great. I grab a case by the neck in my left hand, use my right hand to rub some lube on them and put them in the loading blocks case neck UP. I do probably 150 to 200 at a time. Then take a Qtip and put some lube in the case mouth on the first row of 10 in the ammo tray. Then when they go into the press I put them in the press by taking them from the front to the back in the block so that way every 5th round the expander ball gets lube. Once they are sized and deprimed they go back into a loading block primer side up. Then on to trimming, put em in the Lyman trimmer and trim to 2.005 =/- .003. Once trimmed they go into a general bucket that has a rag in the bottom and I spray em with some brake cleaner. Now take em from the bucket and chamfer and debur the case mouth then back into the loading blocks primer side down( if you need to remove crimp take the chamfer and run it in the primer pocket quickly and be done with it then). IF the flash holes have not been deburred I do it after Ive chamfer and deburrred all that I am working on at that time. At this point in time brass prep is done. I then prime with a hand primer and the brass goes into the loading blocks primer side UP so I can see that all brass is primed and without powder. Then its off to drop powder. Pick up a piece of brass and drop powder and put it in another loading block with the case mouth UP this time.... once I am throwing powder thats how I can tell which brass has powder and what doesnt is by how its oriented and I dont worry about a double powder charge. When it comes to loading and seating a bullet I usually work just one block at a time even though I may have 200 or so pieces of brass prepped. Throw an entire block of 50 then seat a bullet on that block of 50 and move on to the next one.

Hopefully that helps.

That helped a lot man thanks again. I like your method of lubing the neck, good info.

I use this method too. I also uniform the flashholes the first time. One word of caution on the M1A is on case life. My experience is after about 3 loads they're trashed. I tried Lapua and other expensive brass with no better life than with Remington, Winchester, or Lake City. The M1A is my choice when it come to the .308 autoloader, but everyone I've shot consumes brass quickly. I admit that factor slowed my shooting of them down dramtically back when I used to shoot a lot.

Yeah pretty much everyone I talk to about reloading for my M1A says it will be way tougher on brass than anything else. Looking at the action it is no wonder why really. As it is though I dont own a bolt action rifle and I shoot at River Bend's 100y clinic every few months so thats what I am reloading for, which means M1A or my 16" franken AR. M1A it is haha.

My gun likes the Hornady custom 150gr SST loads, which I am going to try to replicate for my first reloading recipe.
 
A friend on another forum gave me a recipe for a spray on lube. I made up a batch of it and it really works wonders.

Here is the recipe: Mix about a tube and a half of Lee lube with a quart of isoprophyl alcohol and shake it up until the Lee lube liquefies. Put your rifle brass in a one gallon zip lock bag and using a spray bottle, spray your mixture on the cases and shake the bag up. Repeat the spraying and shaking the bag, then take your brass and set it up to dry. I set mine up in a loading block with the mouth pointing down. The alcohol will evaporate in a few minutes and leave a fine film of lube on and in the cases. You will have to shake the mixture every time you want to lube more brass because the Lee Lube will settle to the bottom of the alcohol after a few hours
 
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