Tumble Lube

[saguaro]

I'm kind of new here and was wondering what the opinion is on tumble lube bullets. I always thought they should be sized for uniformity to help with accuracy.

So the question is, is it really that important or are the as cast TL bullets just as good?

Thanks,
Saguaro

[fecmech]

I use the 158 TLSWC in .357 unsized in both my rifles and handguns. It is very accurate for me.

[2ndAmendmentNut]

First of all welcome to the forum.

TL in general is considered to be an adequate lube. Sizing will make all your Boolits more consistent and in theory lead to better accuracy. However depending on what sort of shooting you are doing this gain in consistency may go unnoticed.

Your question could really be answered better with more details. What cal and what short of firearm are you casting for? Have you slugged the barrel?

[ShooterAZ]

It really depends on the die. Some of my dies cast right at the diameter I want them to be, and some don't. You will need to slug and measure and go from there. No two dies are the same...

[2ndAmendmentNut]

It really depends on the die.

I believe you mean the mold not die.

[MBTcustom]

I used to size. Now I don't.
My 230 grain RN 6 cavity mold dropps them @ .454 I just shoot 'em. I dont miss lubing, sizing, then lubing again. Its a waste of time for pistol shooting unless you are after precision accuracy in a rifle, in witch case you might get more accuracy with sizing your boolits to a certain diameter but not necessarily. I can cover a paper plate @ 30 yards all day long with my carry pistol and unsized TL boolits. Seeing as how most of my shooting is at 15 feet in a defensive style, that is plenty good enough for me. I also have an IAI longslide hardballer that I can walk pop cans out to 50 yards with the same setup. (or at least I used to could)

[williamwaco]

I find that abut 2 in 10 cartridges loaded with unsized bullets will not chamber and have to be pulled and reloaded.

If they will chamber, they shoot fine and accuracy is fine.

Lee Liquid Alox has completely prevented leading for me ( with a couple of exceptions) on everything I have used it on from around 700fps to 1950fps.

You can see actual test results of 58 different test loads here ( including the failures )


http://www.reloadingtips.com/pages/exp_111201a_lla_test.htm


I do not attempt to shoot them as-cast any more. For me, it is more trouble than sizing them.


.

[ShooterAZ]

I believe you mean the mold not die.

You are correct...sorry.

[saguaro]

Thanks guys for the help.

That's all kind of what I thought, but, is there an easy to tumble lube them? Did it once years back and it seemed time consuming having to wait for it to dry.

Maybe my technique was bad.

SK

[jonas302]

All ways to tumble lube are easy you can check out the lube section for recluse 45/45/10 mixture its a sticky there

I find LLA very easy to use cast a bunch of boolits thin your alox with splash of paint thinner heat it up in a cup of hot tap water put 3or 4 drops on 50 or so boolits roll them around in a container dump on a old paper plate and proceed with the next batch you should barely see the lube on them and sometimes 2 coats are better than one

If you cast ahead of time you will have no concerns of drying time a few times of doing that and pretty soon you will have thousands of boolits waiting to be loaded and the overnight dry time will not matter

[ku4hx]

I'm kind of new here and was wondering what the opinion is on tumble lube bullets. I always thought they should be sized for uniformity to help with accuracy.

So the question is, is it really that important or are the as cast TL bullets just as good?

Thanks,
Saguaro

I've used pretty much all methods of boolit lubrication at one time or another. Some worked for me; some didn't for one reason or another. I've sized the vast majority of my castings, but some I don't ... depends on what results I get with test loads.

All guns are unique and a large part of the fun in casting is experimenting and determining what works for you and your guns.

I tumble lube several hundred boolits in a heavy duty gallon plastic freezer bag. Just roll them around on a towel and pour them out onto my cardboard drying tray. Takes, oh, 3-4 minutes to get them all coated evenly with thinned LLA.

[Reload3006]

Tumble lubing is by far the easiest and least expensive way into cast shooting. as has already been pointed out if your rounds will cycle in your auto or load in your six shooter or in and out of the chamber of your rifle you have a perfect size die built right in to your fire arm. If however your rounds will not cycle, chamber then you can lube some up with case lube run them through a Lee size die then tumble them. or if you dont like playing around in a tacky mess then get a lube sizer. Lots of ways to skin the Lube Size cat. Welcome to the addiction.

[MBTcustom]

I lube all my boolits with 45/45/10 first thing. If I need to run them through a Lee size die (which has a lot going for it by the way) then the boolits are already lubed. I usualy lube them again, but Its not realy necessary. I have shot once lubed and sized boolits and they did just fine. I like 45/45/10 because it makes the lube last forever, and its not sticky like strait LLA is. Thats a problem if you are hunting or shooting out doors where dust will stick to anything sticky. Also, I like to load up a few hundred rounds and just chunk them in a butter tub or tuperware container and strait LLA gets rubbed off of the tips of the boolits and get all over the cases and that realy does cause jambs! 45/45/10 is slick, and much harder than strait LLA so it has none of those problems.

[Shiloh]

I run through a LEE push-thru sizer for consistency, then lube. A little dash of mineral spirits as a push thru lube works fine. Last fall I experimented with Alox cut more than 50/50 with mineral spirits as a push-thru lube. Works fine as well just a bit messier.

Shiloh

[mdi]

I'm kind of new here and was wondering what the opinion is on tumble lube bullets. I always thought they should be sized for uniformity to help with accuracy.

So the question is, is it really that important or are the as cast TL bullets just as good?

Thanks,
Saguaro
When you say "tumble lube bullets", I figger you're talking about the "micro-groove" type sold by Lee. In my experience, the T/L bullets are just as good. I have a Lee T/L
mold that drops bullets at .432"-.433" (which is mebbe .002" larger than the cylinder throats of two of my magnums.) that is perfect for shooting in my Puma that has a .432" bore. I have experience no ill effects from shooting these T/L bullets with mid- range loads of Unique in my Ruger SBH .44 Magnum (tumble lubed with thinned xlox, or 45-45-10). I also have a .38 Special that likes T/L style, but the important thing is what size they drop from the mold. I usually size the .38 bullets to .358" 'cause this mold drops about .002" larger than I want. Normally, cast, t/lube, load and shoot is fine with this bullet and sizing isn't necessary for consistancy...