Reloading Tips According To Dicehorn #18

[dicehorn 38]

Your Dies

 

How many of you reloaders when reading this can say - "That's what I do every time" ??

 

I had a reloader phone me to say for some reason the latest batch he had reloaded were all over the place and the previous batch although better were still not where they should be. I asked him to bring some empty cases, powder, primers, bullets and dies over and I would have a look. When he arrived first question was "when did you clean your dies last?" "Cant remember" Took them to pieces and honestly, if I had chucked a handful of grass seed in them I would have been mowing it in 10 days. Gave the dies a good clean and sent him home - phone call two days later to say problem solved.

 

My tip is that after you use your dies and before you put them away, give them a good clean - this is especially important for full length dies where lube or wax is used or for neck sizers where people (insist on - why?) using lube on necks.

 

Matters not which make they are or how many parts there are to the die - strip and clean, the internals should always be sparkly when you put them away. And that also goes for your shell holder - you would be surprised how much gunk collects under the rim of the holder - push an end of a paper clip with some cloth around this area. If your shellholder is gunked up how can you expect your case to be perfectly aligned with the die workings?

 

[zx10mike 137]

what do you rate to clean them with?brake disk cleaner?

[dicehorn 38]

  On 16/10/2013 at 10:26, zx10mike said:

what do you rate to clean them with?brake disk cleaner?

Mike - if you clean them every time - nothing more complicated than a lint free cloth and using the cloth wrapped around a wooden dowel to clean the die chambers. When I have cleaned others that are black, I use rifle bore cleaner ensuring it is dried off using the cloth. Personally I use brake cleaner for an unstrippable moderator only