In handloading ammunition, as in all things, opinions are rarely scarce. The following is my experience and yours may certainly vary.
If you choose to use steel dies instead of carbide dies when sizing your pistol brass you have to lube the cases. If you do not the case will stick in the die at which point you are, well, stuck.
When I started loading 9mm I bought a can of Hornady One Shot Case Lube. It seemed to do the job, but it goes quickly and it is not cheap. I started looking for a homemade alternative and quickly found several. I settled on lanolin in a solution of isopropyl alcohol.
Now the official recipe calls for 99% isopropyl alcohol, but it turns out the stuff is not as prevalent as would be preferred. The idea is that the alcohol and water evaporate leaving a film of lanolin on the case, and the higher the alcohol concentration he faster this will occur. More importantly, if you use anything lorwer the lanolin will settle to the bottom of the bottle and have to be shaken until your arm falls off in order to reintroduce it to the solution. At least that is what you read on Facebook from guys that have never even picked up a reloading manual.
I bought the 70% isopropyl alcohol and guess what? You give it a little shake and you are ready to slicker up your cases. Considering that you really DO have to shake the living day lights out of Hornady One Shot for it to work properly I am satisfied with that.
I bought liquid lanolin on the Internets because it turns out it is even harder to find than 99% isopropyl alcohol. I added 1 oz of liquid lanolin to an 8 oz bottle and filled it the rest of the way with 70% isopropyl alcohol.
The proof is in the sizing. When I was sizing 9mm cases I could tell a difference (but not that much) between the two lubes with the lanolin being favored. When I started loading a handful of 38 special cases I decided to just grab the Hornady and spray them so I would not have to tumble them afterwards to remove the lube. Guess what? I quickly grabbed for the lanolin and my cases are now tumbling as I write this.
There are lots of things you will read about Hornady One Shot and lanolin from "zealots" of each. For the most part they are false in my experience. Hornady One Shot works but is not amazing, 99% isopropyl alcohol is not necessary, and you do not have shake forever just to get the lanolin to mix with the 70% isopropyl alcohol.
As for me and my reloads, I choose lanolin.
