new rifle caster with lube and boolit ?'s

[quickshot]

I have been casting for pistols for a while and now have jumped into rifle casting. I am using the lee 311-150-fn boolit and pan lube with carnuba red. I was wondering just how much lube is really necessary. When I seat the boolit in the case (seated so the base of the boolit is NOT below the case neck) one of the lube grooves is exposed. (There is a space b/w the check and the body of the boolit that holds lube that sorta acts like a lube groove) Could I get away with leaving that top lube groove empty or is that a really bad idea? The velocity range I am going for is 18-22k ish area. Wadda ya think?

[Onlymenotu]

filling the groove..... will make for a stronger boolit.... better to much lube? or not enuff lube?.... I'd fill it

[quickshot]

[QUOTE filling the groove..... will make for a stronger boolit.... /QUOTE]
that is a very interesting statement. Would you be so kind to explain in a little more detail please?

[Pat I.]

The amount, temperature, and type of lube on a bullet makes a much bigger difference to accuracy than most people realize. You don't say what alloy you're using but you might find it shoots better with just one band or just the groove over the check lubed. CR is a premium lube and you'll get away with using a lot less than something like NRA.


If it doesn't lead and shoots good with just one groove filled try lubing just the space over the check and see what happens. You can lube all the grooves and wipe the lube out of one groove at a time to check it out.

[quickshot]

I new I forgot something!! the alloy is a\c ww with a possible venture into quenching/ heat treating.

[Pat I.]

I think at the velocities your going after ACWW might be a little too soft. I never found an advantage to air cooled WW anyway to be honest. Why wait around for 2 week age hardening when you can mould quench a bullet and shoot it the next day. Maybe in some applications the softer alloy would be better but since I'm predominantly a rifle shooter and don't hunt much I drop all my bullets in water. Even the few times I did use cast bullets to hunt I used a big caliber and a large meplat bullet so I quenched them too.

[Larry Gibson]

[QUOTE filling the groove..... will make for a stronger boolit.... /QUOTE]
that is a very interesting statement. Would you be so kind to explain in a little more detail please?

The lubricant does not compress and the bullet is supported in the groove; ergo the bullet will suffer less unwanted obturation in that groove area during accelleration.

Larry Gibson