[Airweight38]

From the chronicles of, "Things they didn't mention in my reloading books:"

So last night, I loaded those factory-lubed 148gr LFWCs that I had the box of...

I assumed that I could use my bullet seating die to push the WCs down inside the casings, flush with the mouth, so I did. and I even got a nice little roll crimp so they looked perfect, seating and crimping at the same time. So, I made short work of my batch of 60 and all was well in the world.

Enter tonight. Long story short, I whipped up a batch of .38 JFPs and my seat/crimp die was just ramming them into the casings, no matter where I had it set. Finally, I took the die apart and it was seized up with lubricant from last night.

I got out my Hoppes and my bore snake and a few rags and got it spic and span and put a light coat of oil on the inside (I'm assuming that's a good idea?) Good as new. But now I'm curious:

1) Should I have used this die to seat my wadcutters in the first place?

2) Does everyone have this problem when they do this? Or am I doing something wrong?

and

3) What's the best thing to use for cleaning dies? I worry a little about using Hoppes in these--I saw at least 1 rubber O ring.

These are Lee carbide dies.

Thanks!

/J

[samuel]

Everyone has buildup from cast,lubricated bullets.The lube is wax.You keep it under control by checking oal and cleaning when necessary.You dont have to be that elaborate on cleanup.I don't advise using any kind of petrolium product on anything when reloading. sam.