With or Without Lube?

[Sport45]

When you buy cast bullets is the advertised weight supposed to indicate the weight of the lubed bullet? Or is is the weight of the cast bullet before being lubed? I see folks making their own that mention molds dropping bullets at a certain weight and I'm assuming they mean as-cast and not after lube application.

Is reloading data written for lubed bullet weights? I suppose it is since that's what determines the mass the powder has to get moving.

 

[Jim Watson]

The catalog weight is usually as cast. A grain or two of wax lube is not going to make any detectable difference in the shooting. Obviously the load data will reflect the as-shot weight. So if you have a 158 gr bullet from the mould and it carries 2 grains of lube, then the data is for a 160 grain projectile.

Differences in lead alloy and in the cutting of the mould cavities causes much more variance in bullet weight than the lube. That is seldom enough to affect the load data for bulk commercial bullets, either.
However, if you are casting your own, there is at least one mould out there that casts about 20 grains heavier than its catalog description. That is what the fine print in the manual about "starting loads" and "working up" is about.

 

[Sport45]

I don't drive cast bullets near maximum anyway, so I knew it wasn't a big deal. Just curious was all.