Does anyone lube their Cartridge Cases

[Tbag]

A friend claims that he lubes all of his cases with lithium grease prior to firing them. He claims that this decreases case stretch, and increases case life. Does anyone here lube their ammunition prior to firing it?

 

[jwh20]

Never heard of such a thing, never done such a thing. I also can't imagine that it's a good idea. Lithium grease is not designed for this purpose (i.e. temp or pressure) and it seems to me that it will likely burn or harden and make a difficult to clean mess in your chamber. But that's just my opinion, I'm sure your friend has all sorts of anecdotal "evidence" to support his theory.

 

[jinks]

A friend claims that he lubes all of his cases with lithium grease prior to firing them. He claims that this decreases case stretch, and increases case life. Does anyone here lube their ammunition prior to firing it?

From: http://www.lymanproducts.com/lyman/presses-and-kits/pdf/IntroToReloading.pdf

Reloaded cartridges which do not have the resizing lubricant removed will generate
increased thrust on the breech/bolt face of your gun. This might cause malfunctions or, in
extreme cases, damage your gun.
At best, shooting these uncleaned slippery cases is bad reloading practice because the case
and chamber are not allowed to interact properly. During the firing process the walls of the
brass cartridge case are intended to expand as pressure quickly builds. This expansion is
stopped by the walls of the gun’s chamber and the case is pressed firmly against the chamber
walls, gripping them and resisting the rearward thrust of chamber pressure. The presence of
resizing lubricant on the cartridge denies the cartridge case its “grip” and causes an unusual
amount of pressure to be transferred to the breech/bolt face.

 

[patience0830]

Your friend is askin to get his head blown off. Part of what keeps your rifle from having excessive pressure against the bolt locking lugs is the fact that the brass expands and "sticks" to the chamber walls on firing, sealing the chamber and taking some of the rearward thrust so the bolt doesn't have to do the whole job by itself. Over time, his practice could result in shearing the locking lugs. Catastrophic failure of those could mean eating the bolt.

Jinks beat me to it.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

I lub my cartridge cases but I lub my guns more. So no, I don't lube the cartridge cases before shooting.

 

[17 squirrel]

Maybe

Alex, for 10,000 I'll go with yes it will happen..

 

[bulletsmith]

Survey says!?

 

[1775usmarine]

 

[pipelinen]

I always lube belts going through belt fed guns with clp or Wd-40 Just saying

 

[17 squirrel]

I always lube belts going through belt fed guns with clp or Wd-40 Just saying

I've owned a few for over thirty years and I have never lubed links before firing.
What would be the reason ??

 

[mdemetz]

http://www.gunvaluesboard.com/the-low-down-on-lubricated-ammunition.-2471.html

 

[pipelinen]

I've owned a few for over thirty years and I have never lubed links before firing.
What would be the reason ??

To reduce friction in the feed mechanism and lubricate chamber to prevent case separation or hang ups. This is especially a problem when shooting lacquered cases. When a case gets hung up in an M60 the only way to get the bolt unlocked is a milling machine. Understand though this is a night and day difference from what the original poster is referring to. I would not recommend lubing cases in just anything.

 

[17 squirrel]

As the owner of a E1 Pig, I have never seen any information in print from Saco or Uncle Sam that the belts and chamber need lubricants.
But then again Uncle Sam and I don't shoot lacquer coated steel ammo either.

Let's just think about using belts on the battlefield that have wet lubricant on the links and ammo ? Hey boys, don't drop those belts for Bobby's 60, we don't have a power washer in the sand box to clean them off. And so on..

I find it I interesting that someone who would a 35 + thousand dollar MG and they would shoot basement quality ammunition out of it.
Lubricating chambers with centerfire ammo is just not a good thing..

I tend to believe that some firearms are designed to run steel cased ammo and the rest are not.
About everything on this side of the pond, was designed to run brass cased ammo.

 

[Tombs]

On a 5.7x28mm case that has lost its teflon coating, yeah that's an application where the case needs lubricated somehow.

On practically every other round out there, this is a massive no no that can result in you being injured at worst or a ruined casing/malfunction at best.

 

[Dentoro]

I lub it! I'm Kraken up here!

I lub my cartridge cases but I lub my guns more. So no, I don't lube the cartridge cases before shooting.

 

[searpinski]

Your friend may not know what he's doing....

 

[natdscott]

Your friend may not know what he's doing....

You give him more credit than I do!

-Nate

 

[mrortega]

I've seen people at the range literally squirt oil into the breech, bolt locking area and chamber of AR15s. I usually just walk a safe distance away while they bang away.