Cleaning bullets

[BigSlick]

OK, so it's time to clear up some of the excess clutter in my shop.

I got a small coffee can of bullets from lube sizer adjustments, culls, left overs from a run, freebies, pulls from ammo in the bad bucket at the range etc..

I got all the culls and pulled stuff in the melt pile, but have a few with lube on them from some ... um... experimentation. OK, it wasn't exactly an experiment but they have lube on both ends and the middle. Since I don't happen to have any bidirectional brass, I gotta get the lube off these.

I would melt these too, but I need these for a range trip tommorrow since I screwed around and got off on the .313 stuff, now I'm outta 10mm 175gr bullets.

Some are lubed with ALOX, some with Lar's Red, some with 50/50. So, to get the lube off, I'm thinking about just pouring some boiling water over the bullets and skimming off the lube. I'll reuse it if it looks useable, if not, I'll use what I can scrape off as flux.

Then let the bullets dry a couple of hours then run them thru the Thumlers with some walnut in it to get the rest of the grime off.

Have any of you ventured into tumbling bullets to get the garbage off ? I know lots of people tumble lube, or moly coat, but that ain't what I'm talkin about. I'm trying to start over with these bullets. They're already sized, so I will either run them thru the Star again for a shot of Lar's Red of just hit em with some XLOX.

This also brought to mind, that some of my cast bullets are pretty grungy when they drop, from the smoking of the cavities or mold release.

This grunge makes the lubing process a tad dirty. Not a biggie, since I sure ain't prissy about that, but if I can tumble them before I lube and eliminate some cleanup work, then that is great.

What do you do to clean up a batch of bullets before lubing or to remove old lube ?

Thanks

'Slick
________
Suzuki escudo (http://www.suzuki-tech.com/wiki/Suzuki_Escudo)

[Pepe Ray]

Waste of time.
Toss 'em into the pot!
Pepe Ray

[Shiloh]

Waste of time.
Toss 'em into the pot!
Pepe Ray

I would probably take the Pepe Ray approach. If there are a lot of usable boolits in there though, xylene will cut the wax and alox. Finish stripper will probably also.

The lab rats in the research lab use xylene to cut paraffin wax.

Shiloh

[mtgrs737]

You could meltem and recast to the right configuration in the time it takes to mess with cleaning them up. And it sounds like you aready have the flux you will need to cast them a new. Walnut might embed on the surface and give your barrel a new finish?

+1 on what Pepe Ray said!

[montana_charlie]

While some say that a round contour in the bottom of a lube groove has it's advantage, I have never heard someone state the same is true for the corners at the top.
I don't see how you can expect to run lead bullets in a tumbler without rounding the corners off.

Instead of spending a lot of time and effort making sure bullets get ruined...I would just recast them.
CM

[Slowpoke]

While some say that a round contour in the bottom of a lube groove has it's advantage, I have never heard someone state the same is true for the corners at the top.
I don't see how you can expect to run lead bullets in a tumbler without rounding the corners off.

Instead of spending a lot of time and effort making sure bullets get ruined...I would just recast them.
CM

FYI- In the CBA there are some that routinely tumble their boolits in a vibratory case cleaner to find hidden voids near the surface, they shoot some pretty small groups at 200 yrds with these boolits.

good luck

[Dale53]

The easiest way to clean bullets of lube is to boil them in water. Then let the bullets sit in the water. The lube will float to the top. Take off the lube and either save for flux or toss. Lay the bullets out on an old towel and dry. Re-lube. Shoot...

I would NOT tumble the bullets.

Dale53

[shotstring]

I wouldn't tumble the bullets either. But if you must, or want to clean up the lube off of loaded rounds, just tumble them briefly in a rotary tumbler with torn up pieces of newspaper. Cleans the lube off very well and puts a bright shine on both the bullets and the brass.