Dumb lube question?

[Doc1]

Hey guys. I recently acquired a batch of mystery 200 grain .45 LSWC bullets. I don't have a hardness tester, but using my old standby "thumbnail" test, they seem fairly hard. The odd thing - at least to me - is that there are no lube grooves on this bullet. Admittedly, I don't have a lot of experience with any 200 gr SWCs, having always previously cast and/or loaded 230 gr. RNLs or hardball.

Have any of you encountered bullets of this type and what - if anything - do you do to lube them? Last tight I tumble lubed about a hundred of them with LLA, but since the sides of the bullets are smooth, I don't know if this will do any good. I haven't loaded any of them yet, hoping to hear advice from wiser heads before I proceed further. Thanks in advance!

Best regards
Doc

[BBQJOE]

I came across a batch that I bought on sale some time ago and never got to loading. They are for 44. No lube groove either, but they have some sort of black coating on them that can be scraped off with a fingernail. I don't recall who made this bullet. I'll probably just melt them.

[BBQJOE]

Hmmmm. I just went and gave them a closer inspection. They were made by magtec, and upon closer inspection they do have a lube grove, it just matches the coating on the bullet, which you can see I scraped some off.
Sure looks like a crummy bullet.

74476

[MtGun44]

Speer and others made boolits like that. My experience was VERY good at
moderate velocities with this black or grey coating lube. Try a few.

Bill

[Doc1]

MtGun and BBQ, thanks. These may have some kind of grey coating. I'll load up a few and give 'em a try.

Best regards
Doc

[MtGun44]

Hornady makes a soft lead with rolled knurling on the full diam part with a grey
dry lube, slightly waxy. Works fine at moderate velocities, but I have never gotten
what I would call superb accy with them. Good to OK, but never great.

Some old Speer short nosed very soft .45 ACP swaged boolits with a dark black
waxy, graphite looking overall lube were some of the most accurate loads I
ever made for my various .45 ACPs and a friend that doesn't cast has had the
same results. I think the Speers were still offered in 500 bulk packs as
recently as a few years ago. I would highly recommend them to a non
caster for .45 ACP, possibly other cals too.

Bill

[jonp]

I have a box of the hornady 200gr swc boolits like the last poster described in .452. I cant get them to feed as they are both too long to seat to the correct oal for my kahr and soft enough that they jamb in the ramp. Im useing them up with light loads in my colt

[MtGun44]

I agree, the really soft Hornady boolit are much more suited to revolvers, for sure. this is
all that I have tried the Hornady ones in.

Bill

[nicholst55]

IIRC, that's a moly coating and it works pretty well for moderate velocities. I actually had a small sample of a similar bullet lube back in the early 80s sometime. You dipped the bullet into the lube and let it drain and dry. I used it on some Lyman 452460 SWCs and shot them. It seems like I got a bit of leading, but it's hard to remember. I doubtless didn't follow the instructions precisely, and I haven't seen that goop since then, either.