lubing cast bullets

[Kyle M.]

A man who was good friends with the owner of my lgs recently passed away, and his wife sold all of his hunting, shooting, and reloading stuff along with all of his guns to my lgs. In this there were 5,000 .430 240gr. lswc's that he had cast over the years, I am being offered them by the owner for $250 for all 5,000. Now the problem these bullets are not lubed, in order for me to use them would I need to buy a luber/sizer or is there a simpler way to lube them. I see this as just too good of a deal to pass up.

 

[NeuseRvrRat]

tumble lubing is also an option and doesn't require any real special equipment. google it.

 

[kelbro]

.429s are too small for my 44 Mags or 44 specials. Measure them before you buy them. They may actually be .430 or .431. .431 is a minimum in my pistols and rifles.

 

[rcmodel]

If he wasn't using a tumble lube Lee bullet mold?

It is very unlikely the bullets are really .429" as they fell from the (probably) Lyman mold.

They call it sized & lubed for a good reason.

That reason being, the cast bullets are not .429" until they have been sized & lubed.


But regardless.
5,000 240 grain bullets = 171+ pounds of lead.

You can sell the freaking 171 pounds of lead bullet alloy for way more then that!!

rc

 

[Kyle M.]

yeah sorry about that I went back and edited that there between .430-.431. Which is exactly what all the presized prelubed bullets I've bought in the past are.

 

[TonyT]

Ky\le M.,
At $250 for 5000 you are basically paying for the lead. It's a bargain! I use a Star lubricator/sizer but Lyman also made one. Check the Midway website for lubricator/sizers.

 

[Yarddog]

Tumble lube will work fine on any hand gun bullet ; )
H/D

 

[jjjitters]

They can be sized without being lubed,Lee push through sizers. To lube them you can stand them up in a pan with melted lube. the lube should be juat above the lube groove. Let the lube cool and harden, then find an old rifle cartridge or something that is a couple thou. over the bullet dia. and cut them out of the lube cake, like a cookie cutter. Some lubes you can just pop the whole cake and bullet out of the pan and simply push the bullets out,but I never had it work very good.

 

[Duckdog]

Just get some Lee liquid alox and tumble them. If your shooting them out of a pistol, usually once is enough. If your running them hotter, the give 'em a second coat. I tumble lube all of my bullets, and that's 25 plus calibers. I get zero leading even in a 30-06 running 2250 fps chronoed.

For 50 bucks a 1000, thats a pretty good deal.

 

[res7s]

Try this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBDFO0ftCQc

 

[Kyle M.]

I'm gonna be pushing them pretty slow my favorite load is actually 1 gr. below what most loading manuals recommend for a starting load with a 240gr. lswc and 2400. I'll probably just try the tumble lube method.

 

[noylj]

1) I haven't sized a .44 cast bullet, or any other cast bullet, in a little over 3 decades. Found that sizing did not improve accuracy and I don't have a single gun that complains about as-cast bullets.
2) Lee Liquid Alox is all I have used for lube for 10-15 years and it works great--except for the smell, sometimes.
3) I have considered, as lead is harder to find, that I might try ordering as-cast lead bullets and see what I save over buying sized bullets (many times the size offered is too small any way).
4) If you do decide to try your hand at sizing (why, I have no idea), you need to slug your barrel and determine the throat IDs of your cylinder. The bullet, generally, must be at least 0.001" over barrel groove diameter (as I remember, S&W uses 5 grooves and lands and measuring the slug can be a problem) and the bullet should be a tight/snug slip fit in the cylinder's throats. You may find you want to order a custom sizing diameter from Lee--they can do this for a reasonable cost.

 

[dragon813gt]

The lead value is right around $171. You can find lead shipped to you for around $1 per pound. So if you aren't going to shoot them it's not a good deal. Tumble lube and shoot them. I suggest using 45/45/10(Recluse Lube) over straight LLA. It dries a lot faster and works just as well. Most people use way to much LLA and the 45/45/10 is more forgiving with dry time. Here is a link on how to make it: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=67654
I tumble lube non tumble lube design bullets with no leading.

Brought to you by TapaTalk.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/466811/lee-alox-bullet-lube-4-oz-liquid

Get a bottle of this and follow the instructions on the label. Piece of cake. If you need to size them, the Lee push through sizer is less than $20.00. And do lube them before sizing. It makes life a lot easier.

Dragon is correct. Most people use way too much Alox. You can put them in front of a small fan and dry them plenty in a couple of hours though.

 

[jcwit]

If you do use Liquid Alox be sure to keep the base of your seating stem cleaned off every few rounds so as not to keep seating the bullet deeper and deeper into the case.

This is my main gripe with Kiquid Alox, the stuff gets on the head of the bullet and makes a general mess.

 

[res7s]

To avoid getting lube on the noses, use a dip tray to lube your bullets with LLA. Pour some diluted LLA in a pan. Stand the bullets on their bases in the tray. Lower it in, to the desired level. Raise it back out. Let it drain, and sit the tray on some newspaper, or in an empty pan. Let it sit overnight and they are ready to load.

The tray/pan from an old can of Chemdip Carb Cleaner will do nicely.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Berryman-Chem-Dip-Carburetor-and-Parts-Cleaner/17491945

 

[Uniquedot]

The lead value is right around $171. You can find lead shipped to you for around $1 per pound. So if you aren't going to shoot them it's not a good deal.

I was sitting here reading the posts and wondering if i was the only one that didn't think this was such a good deal. I guess it would be a pretty good deal for someone that isn't a bullet caster though assuming of course the weights are consistent. BTW lead can be bought from recyclers for $0.50-$0.60 lb, but it usually requires alloying which will of course raise the cost.

 

[noylj]

jcwit:
You are using too much LLA. If your bullets are NOT still silver, but rather amber/brown, you have used way too much LLA.
Most of MY seating stems have a hollow where any excess lube will collect. This leaves, at most, maybe 0.002" of lube on the surface of the seating stem and MOST can't seat a bullet within 0.002" and no gun can "see" that slight change in COL.
Difference between individual cast lead bullets will exceed this.
For me, L-SWCs are the best bullets and a seating stem that contacts the bullet shoulder, rather than the bullet ogive or just the bullet nose, are best.
I do not like to rattle my bullets against themselves. Any dings to the bullet base will destroy accuracy.
I put about 500 of my cast bullets into a glass casserole dish, put all bullets on their sides, squirt a little LLA over the bullets, and then shuffle the bullets around like dominoes (with some rotation to get all the bullets to pick up some lube all around). This takes no more than a minute. If all bullets are shiny/wet looking, then there is more than enough lube on them.
Pour them out onto wax paper or aluminum foil and let them "dry." I don't bother to stand them up and they have so little lube that very little transfers to the paper/foil.
Other people like to put the LLA in a bowl and dip lube each bullet over the bore bearing surface (and then wipe off the bullet base). This keeps the nose clean, but is slow and uses more LLA than required.
I still don't understand the "problem" with tacky bullets. I have never had the lube build up on the seating stem and the bullets go from lube/dry to a cardboard box, then are seated and boxed, and then loaded in magazine and shot. At no time does tackiness create any issue and the ease and end-results are more than good enough to make any "concerns" too minor to worry about.

 

[James2]

I am using a Lyman lubrisizer. A friend makes our lube from beeswax and alox. Since I keep bees there is plenty of beeswax. I size them to .429. This has worked well for me in 3 different guns.