Pan lubing the first time - HOW?

[Naphtali]

We just cast a small quantity of specialty bullets for my .72-caliber muzzleloading rifles. I have neither a pan for lubing bullets nor a pan/pot that serves as main unit of double boiler. I have my SPG lube, but neither I nor my shooting partner has ever pan lubed a cast bullet. Is there anyone in Missoula County, Montana, who pan lubes who can show me how it's done?

[lead-1]

My first batch of boolits were pan lubed with Barry Darr's lube but I don't know if that is a good choice for your muzzelloader.

I just took a 9 in round metal pie pan and stood my boolits up on their bases,
I then took an old electric skillet and put a little water in the bottom,
I put a small sauce pan of lube in the skillet of water to melt,
When melted, I poured the lube into the pie pan of boolits till the lube grooves were covered, then I put the pie pan into the skillet for a few minutes to heat up everything.
After five minutes or so I turned off the skillet and let is set so it could cool slowly.
The next evening I turned the pan upside down and the lube/cake came out and I used a small dowl rod to push the boolit out of the lube/cake.

What is nice is I put the lube back in the pan and I can put new boolits back in the holes and reheat the lube in the skillet and start another batch, after a couple of batches just add a little more lube to bring the level back up.

Hope this was a little help.

Here are a couple of videos,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_vYYoArHtE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBDFO0ftCQc&feature=related

[Omnivore]

I didn't even know what pan lubing was when I started casting for my muzzleloaders and percussion revolvers, so I made a basket out of 1/4" hardware cloth (metal screen) that fit into a small aluminum bread pan. Heated the lube (bee's wax, venison tallow and olive oil) directly on the electric stove and dipped the bullets. Worked just dandy, but a little messy. You vary the amount of lube that sticks to the bullets by varying the dip time - the hotter the bullets get, the more lube drips off when you pull 'em out.

My first attempt at actual pan lubing, as defined in this forum, was a total failure - the lube cake with bullets in it would not separate from the pie pan for anything. Tried heating it just enough to separate the cake, but the bullets got hot just as fast and they all fell out at the same time. Huge mess. Then I tried one of the silicone pie pans and that worked very well.

Search this site for pan lubing, and check the stickies. There are several excellent threads on it, but so far I haven't seen the bit about using a silicone pan for certain lubes that like to stick (my sticking problem was with White Label Carnauba Red).

I haven't tried pan lubing, in the proper sense, for the muzzleloaders yet. Maybe I'll just stick to the dipping technique for those, but proper pan lubing for the metal cartridges works fine. Some day we'll all want a lube sizer or two though.

[JRHYS]

Omnivore, What was the ratio of bees wax, venison tallow, and olive oil? Thanks, Jerry

[MtGun44]

Use the lid from a cookie tin, put boolits in it standing on their bases. Melt the lube in a
non-metallic container (unwaxed heavy paper cup works) in the microwave. Pour it around
the boolits to reach the level you want lubed. Multiple pours are OK if necessary to get the
qty right.

find a thin walled metal tube (cartridge case for boolits for use in cartrides - you'll have to
use your imagination for your big muzzle loader) that closely matches the ID to the boolit
diameter and sharpen the end with your chamfering tool. Push the tube over the boolit down
until it hits the pan, twist a bit and lift out, boolit inside tube. Go to the next boolit and
repeat, boolits are pushed out of the top of the tube (cut off case for cartridge calibers).

For the second run, set boolits in the holes and warm the whole thing up slowly with a
hair dryer until you reflow the lube, let cool and repeat. Add a bit more lube as needed.

Bill

[midnight]

Pan lubing with some of the harder lubes is sometimes a bit of a challenge. I have to pan lube my BMG bullets cuz they are 2in long. As the lube solidifies I have to watch closely and cut them out just at the right time. If the lube gets too hard it will crack between the bullets and lube comes out of the grooves. Work from the outside toward the center cuz the center cools slowest. The lube is a 2-1-1 mixture of Orange Magik, Lyman Moly, & SPG. Jake's Scarlet or BAC may work better, I will have to try it. My 2-1-1 mixture works though. I get zero leading with a 833gr bullet at 2300fps so I'm reluctant to change.

Bob

[Baja_Traveler]

You will find that success in pan lubing is dependent on the lube being used. Not all lubes work - but you can modify a harder lube by adding anhydrous lanolin. My lube recipe for black powder silhouette is 1 pound beeswax, 1/2 pound Lanolin and 1/2 pound canola oil (all by weight). It makes an excellent black powder lube, is very easy to work with and makes for an excellent hand salve or lip balm to boot! After pouring I wait 20 minutes and push the boolits out while the lube is still warm - really easy if you time it right.

I found that using a rice cooker to melt my lube works excellent - drop the ingredients in the pot, push the button and when it pops up you are ready to poor - it's like they timed it perfectly for pan lubing. The rice cooker will not overheat the lube, and should you get distracted while heating, it turns itself off.