To lube or not to lube dat is da ?

[mad mother]

I recently received a dillion 550. If I load five7 ( necked pistola brass) do I have to lube ?

[Bindernut]

Yup, it's a bottlenecked cartridge.

[JohnTheCalifornian]

It depends on whether you have carbide dies or not.

Carbide dies require no lube on the cases in order to resize.

If your dies are steel, then yes, you will need lube.(oops, saw you type out five 7... rifle dies... there are some carbide out there, but they still require lubing)

Chances are, your dies are carbide, especially if you purchased them new just rescently.

In any event, the question you are asking me kinda makes me feel as though you do not have a reloading manual or you havent read one yet. In the manuals are almost every answer to any question you could come up with. After reading one or 2, and you are still stumped by something, dont hesitate to come back and ask.

Reading the manuals is a must, because in the end of the day, it is your safety and others nearby thats at stake if you do something wrong.

[mad mother]

TY. I havent read manual. and havent reloaded in years. I like the tungsten carbied dies . When I used to load remember running some necked brass through with no lube and some Id have to lube. If it gets crunched time to lube. Very. excited to get back into loading and. casting .

[Alpo]

John - bottleneck cartridge. Carbide dies are for straight-wall cartridges.

So, yes, unless your plan is to get cases stuck in your sizing die, you need lube.

[gdmoody]

Yes you will have to lube them. I don't use my Dillon with the 5.7X28, I do it single stage on my Lee press. I bought a Lyman neck size only die for my reloads. If you are shooting them out of the FiveseveN or the PS-90, you cannot neck size them because of what those guns do to the shoulder and neck of the brass.

I shoot the 5.7 out of a custom made Thompson Contender barrel and that is why I can get away with neck only sizing.

[JohnTheCalifornian]

Alpo,

I realized it was 5.7 after I initially wrote my post and I edited it with a statement in parenthases.

Anyow, Dillon offers carbide rifle dies. Cases still require lubing.

Check them out Here

[American Leader]

George, you mentioned LEE! You know LD recently converted and now speaks very highly of LEE!

[JLA]

I noticed that AL. Hell hath frozen over it seems..

[American Leader]

Thrice JLA!

[muddober]

That little 5.7 cartridge is a bugger to reload and if the brass is coming from an auto loader pistol you will have to lube each case but you should not reload them more than a couple of times. The reason it is the 5.7 is a very high pressure loading and the cases are really deformed by the FN pistol and everytime you resize it work hardens the brass. Case ruptures are a very big and dangerous deal in the FN pistol.

I have no experience with cases that come from that funny looking FN auto rifle.

Ron

[LDBennett]

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LDBennett

[LDBennett]

mad mother:

Any bottle necked case requires lube as Bindernut indicated. Dillon (and others??) make carbide dies for bottleneck cases but they still require lube.

While some here prefer spray lubes I like the old fashioned RCBS lube pad and their squeeze bottle lube. It is so easy to roll the case on the pad as I pick it up to put it on the RL550B table. Spray lube is messy and inconsistent in application, in my opinion. The RCBS lube is water soluble and wipes off with a damp cloth as the last step of my reloading procedure. I also inspect each round at that point.

Now, straight walled handgun cartridges can use carbide dies without lube.

LDBennett

PS: Just to be clear, except for the LEE rifle Factor Crimp Die, LEE stuff sucks!

Are we clear on that, guys?????? :-) :-)

Anything but LEE forever!

[gdmoody]

Originally Posted by muddober

That little 5.7 cartridge is a bugger to reload . . . . . but you should not reload them more than a couple of times. Ron

Shortly after I first started reloading the 5.7, I did a test of how many times the brass could be reloaded.

Here is a link to a thread that I started when I thought something was wrong with the FiveseveN pistol and PS-90 carbine that I had. The last entry in that thread is where I tell about the test I did with the brass.

http://www.thefirearmsforum.com/show...ghlight=5.7x28

EDIT: Oh yeah, guys, I have read several times where LD says that the FCD is the only Lee stuff he uses and that he likes that one, so he is really not converted.

[NEILT]

I still use lube even with carbide dies, it seems to go faster

[JLA]

There is some merit to lubing every 10th or so case for sizing with carbide dies. I learned that trick processing .30 carbines. And use it on all my pistol brass.

[muddober]

[QUOTE=gdmoody;882727]Shortly after I first started reloading the 5.7, I did a test of how many times the brass could be reloaded.

gd: I went back and reread your post, and from what I gleaned out of it is all of your case life testing was done with a single shot pistol chambered for the 5.7 cartridge. Would you agree or not agree that case life would be much shorter had you been shooting your reloads through an FN pistol as opposed to your single shot pistol?

Thanks,

Ron