Powderman
Member
Lube it up!!
OK! So, now we have this pile of cast bullets—made by our own hands, and chomping at the bit to go shoot that perfect score, or to take down that game animal, or for practice or just plinking. Maybe they’re 185 gr. LSWC, loaded to make major for IPSC. Perhaps 200 gr. HG 68’s for the long line in Conventional Pistol, or 250 gr. LRN for .45 Colt in Cowboy Action Shooting. On the other side, you could have some long 180 gr. 30 caliber bullets sized to .309 for that Schuetzen match—or some 400 grain heavyweights for your .45-70.
Whatever they are, we now have the task ahead of lubricating the bullets, and sizing them. Why do we size bullets? In a nutshell, the answer is consistency. You can lube without sizing but it is a real bummer on the firing line to have rounds that won’t chamber.
So, we lube! The process is simplicity in itself—you must get something into the grease grooves of the bullet to ease the passage of lead down the bore.
One of the biggest complaints about shooting lead is that for some people it makes a mess out of the bore, and is hard to clean. Lubrication will help to prevent that problem—however, the real culprit is likely to be a rough bore, or one in which you have fired a quantity of jacketed bullets without cleaning. Either of these two will leave deposits in the bore.
First, let’s decide what type of lubrication process we will use.
1. Hand lubing has been used since man first cast bullets—and believe it or not, it remains a viable option today. You will find that hand lubing is preferred when casting precision bullets, such as those used in Schuetzen rifles. The molds are cut to exactly .001 over bore diameter—sometimes a bit bigger, and the caster has perfected the precise alloy mix to achieve the desired weight for his or her bullet. So, the bullet comes from the mold in almost pristine shape.
The process used here for lubing is a shallow pan, and a cutter, usually fashioned from a cut-off cartridge case. Bullet lube is melted and poured into the pan to cover the grease grooves. When the lube solidifies, the individual bullets are cut from the lube cake.
The main advantage to this method is that you will have the bullet, as cast, in almost perfect condition. The disadvantage is that you MUST have a custom mold for this. Regular molds and wheelweights are too inconsistent, and will yield different weights and diameters.
2. The most common type of lubrication by far is the machine-assisted lube. With this, you purchase a lubrisizer and dies of the correct diameter—for cast bullets, this is usually .001 over bore diameter. The lubrisizer is loaded with the lube of your choice, and bullets are processed through the machine. The lubrisizer does three operations—it sizes bullets to the same diameter, applies lubrication to the grease grooves, and if desired will seat a gas check. Gas checks are little copper cups that are applied to the base of cast bullets to prevent flame cutting of the bullet. They also provide a uniform base to the bullet. Gas checked bullets have a big advantage—they can be pushed to significantly higher velocities than regular cast bullets. NOTE WELL----gas checked bullets take bullets cast from specific molds!!! These are easily identified by the presence of a stepped down heel at the base of the bullet.
The very best machines, IMHO, are those which push the bullet through the die nose first. In this case, again IMHO, the Star is the ne plus ultra of hand operated machines. It has significant advantages—constant lube pressure applied by a spring loaded plunger allows lubing lots of bullets before adjusting lube pressure; the push through design, and a big plus—to my knowledge it is the only hand operated sizer that can be upgraded to fully automated operation. Everything from bullet feeders to air pressure systems are available. Check out www.magmaengineering.com and you’ll see what I mean.
This is not to say that other manufacturers do not make good machines. The Lyman sizer is well known for ease of operation and versatility. The RCBS lubrisizer does a good job too—I still have one for small runs of different calibers.
But the one which in my opinion has been overlooked is the Lee sizer. This sizer—which is nothing more than a hollow die and a punch which fits into your press ram—only costs a few bucks, and if you decide to use the pan method of lubrication is the ideal tool to size a previously lubed bullet. Simply place the bullet on the ram, and lower the press handle to push the bullet through the die. That’s it!!
Dip-lubing (also known as tumble lubing) has a tendency to be really messy. Here, the liquid lube is placed on bullets in a small container, which are swished around and allowed to air dry. I don’t do this one because it is really, really messy. However, there is one other alternative which I’ll talk about later.
2. Types of lube
Here we have the conundrum—ask people what the best lube is, and you’ll get answers ranging from pure beeswax to arcane mixtures that are conjured up with black hat and broomstick. Here are the ones that I have had good luck with, and some others that I have heard really good things about.
Javelina ALOX—This is the one I use most of all. Comes in sticks, ready to put in the lubrisizer. It really does a good job on bullets fired at low to medium velocities. I use it for my Bullseye load—200 gr. HG 68 bullet, 3.9 grains of Clays, Federal 150 primers, with bullets sized to .452 inches. Crimp diameter used is .470. This load holds 2†or less at 50 yards, fired from a sandbag rest.
Saeco Gold—Another soft lube that does wonders for bore protection. Plus, I really like the ease of working with it.
RCBS lube—Comes in green sticks (of course!), and is comparable with the top two.
The lubes above have one characteristic—they are soft lube which do not require heating to apply.
Hard lubes require a heater under the lubrisizer. These have one big advantage—they are not sticky when cool, and don’t gum everything up like soft lubes tend to do. These have different brand names—the ones I have heard good things about are Rooster Red and Thompson Blue Angel. I have no personal experience with them—but they are used by a lot of commercial casters.
Remember the alternative I mentioned earlier? Here it is…
Bullseye shooters shoot a lot of lead bullets, and a few of us are casters. Consequently, we have no use for anything that leaves lead in the bore—the pistols used must be able to deliver the same accuracy on the last shot as the first. So anything that we can find that decreases leading is of use to us.
We already use the cleanest powders available—Titegroup, Clays, and the VihtaVouri powders—and finding good bullets and lubes are of great importance.
So you can imagine the excitement when one of the folks posted on the message board the salutary effects of a lube called Rooster Jacket lube—available from Graf and Sons, and from the company itself. From what I understand, the process is simple—swish bullets in it, and let them air dry. Tests done with everything from dead-soft lead to linotype have showed NO leading when this lube is used. One of the listmembers—a commercial loader—is in the process of trying this stuff out on totally un-lubed bullets. The possibilities that this raises are exciting indeed. I’ll post results when I hear them—but if you want to try yourself, do a search for Rooster Laboratories.
Well, that’s all for lubricating the bullet—in the next post we’ll talk a bit about sizing. After that, I will pass along some tips I have learned over the years for making the cast bullet work for me, and some QA/QC procedures you can follow to ensure good results. The final posting will talk a bit about load development for cast bullets. See you all later, and good shooting! Again, all comments are welcome.
OK! So, now we have this pile of cast bullets—made by our own hands, and chomping at the bit to go shoot that perfect score, or to take down that game animal, or for practice or just plinking. Maybe they’re 185 gr. LSWC, loaded to make major for IPSC. Perhaps 200 gr. HG 68’s for the long line in Conventional Pistol, or 250 gr. LRN for .45 Colt in Cowboy Action Shooting. On the other side, you could have some long 180 gr. 30 caliber bullets sized to .309 for that Schuetzen match—or some 400 grain heavyweights for your .45-70.
Whatever they are, we now have the task ahead of lubricating the bullets, and sizing them. Why do we size bullets? In a nutshell, the answer is consistency. You can lube without sizing but it is a real bummer on the firing line to have rounds that won’t chamber.
So, we lube! The process is simplicity in itself—you must get something into the grease grooves of the bullet to ease the passage of lead down the bore.
One of the biggest complaints about shooting lead is that for some people it makes a mess out of the bore, and is hard to clean. Lubrication will help to prevent that problem—however, the real culprit is likely to be a rough bore, or one in which you have fired a quantity of jacketed bullets without cleaning. Either of these two will leave deposits in the bore.
First, let’s decide what type of lubrication process we will use.
1. Hand lubing has been used since man first cast bullets—and believe it or not, it remains a viable option today. You will find that hand lubing is preferred when casting precision bullets, such as those used in Schuetzen rifles. The molds are cut to exactly .001 over bore diameter—sometimes a bit bigger, and the caster has perfected the precise alloy mix to achieve the desired weight for his or her bullet. So, the bullet comes from the mold in almost pristine shape.
The process used here for lubing is a shallow pan, and a cutter, usually fashioned from a cut-off cartridge case. Bullet lube is melted and poured into the pan to cover the grease grooves. When the lube solidifies, the individual bullets are cut from the lube cake.
The main advantage to this method is that you will have the bullet, as cast, in almost perfect condition. The disadvantage is that you MUST have a custom mold for this. Regular molds and wheelweights are too inconsistent, and will yield different weights and diameters.
2. The most common type of lubrication by far is the machine-assisted lube. With this, you purchase a lubrisizer and dies of the correct diameter—for cast bullets, this is usually .001 over bore diameter. The lubrisizer is loaded with the lube of your choice, and bullets are processed through the machine. The lubrisizer does three operations—it sizes bullets to the same diameter, applies lubrication to the grease grooves, and if desired will seat a gas check. Gas checks are little copper cups that are applied to the base of cast bullets to prevent flame cutting of the bullet. They also provide a uniform base to the bullet. Gas checked bullets have a big advantage—they can be pushed to significantly higher velocities than regular cast bullets. NOTE WELL----gas checked bullets take bullets cast from specific molds!!! These are easily identified by the presence of a stepped down heel at the base of the bullet.
The very best machines, IMHO, are those which push the bullet through the die nose first. In this case, again IMHO, the Star is the ne plus ultra of hand operated machines. It has significant advantages—constant lube pressure applied by a spring loaded plunger allows lubing lots of bullets before adjusting lube pressure; the push through design, and a big plus—to my knowledge it is the only hand operated sizer that can be upgraded to fully automated operation. Everything from bullet feeders to air pressure systems are available. Check out www.magmaengineering.com and you’ll see what I mean.
This is not to say that other manufacturers do not make good machines. The Lyman sizer is well known for ease of operation and versatility. The RCBS lubrisizer does a good job too—I still have one for small runs of different calibers.
But the one which in my opinion has been overlooked is the Lee sizer. This sizer—which is nothing more than a hollow die and a punch which fits into your press ram—only costs a few bucks, and if you decide to use the pan method of lubrication is the ideal tool to size a previously lubed bullet. Simply place the bullet on the ram, and lower the press handle to push the bullet through the die. That’s it!!
Dip-lubing (also known as tumble lubing) has a tendency to be really messy. Here, the liquid lube is placed on bullets in a small container, which are swished around and allowed to air dry. I don’t do this one because it is really, really messy. However, there is one other alternative which I’ll talk about later.
2. Types of lube
Here we have the conundrum—ask people what the best lube is, and you’ll get answers ranging from pure beeswax to arcane mixtures that are conjured up with black hat and broomstick. Here are the ones that I have had good luck with, and some others that I have heard really good things about.
Javelina ALOX—This is the one I use most of all. Comes in sticks, ready to put in the lubrisizer. It really does a good job on bullets fired at low to medium velocities. I use it for my Bullseye load—200 gr. HG 68 bullet, 3.9 grains of Clays, Federal 150 primers, with bullets sized to .452 inches. Crimp diameter used is .470. This load holds 2†or less at 50 yards, fired from a sandbag rest.
Saeco Gold—Another soft lube that does wonders for bore protection. Plus, I really like the ease of working with it.
RCBS lube—Comes in green sticks (of course!), and is comparable with the top two.
The lubes above have one characteristic—they are soft lube which do not require heating to apply.
Hard lubes require a heater under the lubrisizer. These have one big advantage—they are not sticky when cool, and don’t gum everything up like soft lubes tend to do. These have different brand names—the ones I have heard good things about are Rooster Red and Thompson Blue Angel. I have no personal experience with them—but they are used by a lot of commercial casters.
Remember the alternative I mentioned earlier? Here it is…
Bullseye shooters shoot a lot of lead bullets, and a few of us are casters. Consequently, we have no use for anything that leaves lead in the bore—the pistols used must be able to deliver the same accuracy on the last shot as the first. So anything that we can find that decreases leading is of use to us.
We already use the cleanest powders available—Titegroup, Clays, and the VihtaVouri powders—and finding good bullets and lubes are of great importance.
So you can imagine the excitement when one of the folks posted on the message board the salutary effects of a lube called Rooster Jacket lube—available from Graf and Sons, and from the company itself. From what I understand, the process is simple—swish bullets in it, and let them air dry. Tests done with everything from dead-soft lead to linotype have showed NO leading when this lube is used. One of the listmembers—a commercial loader—is in the process of trying this stuff out on totally un-lubed bullets. The possibilities that this raises are exciting indeed. I’ll post results when I hear them—but if you want to try yourself, do a search for Rooster Laboratories.
Well, that’s all for lubricating the bullet—in the next post we’ll talk a bit about sizing. After that, I will pass along some tips I have learned over the years for making the cast bullet work for me, and some QA/QC procedures you can follow to ensure good results. The final posting will talk a bit about load development for cast bullets. See you all later, and good shooting! Again, all comments are welcome.
