cleaning round after reloading??

[wfsdno]

Okay, finished casting my .45acp boolits, lubed with Lee Bullet Lube and completed loading 5 rounds to test.

But, they looked dirty, sticky, just plain yucky with that lube. Gets on your fingers which gets on your brass. SO, I took a towel and cleaned them up.

Then went out to shoot. PERFECT! No feed problems, no eject problems, just a loud bang and a hole in the target!:Fire:

Anyone else do that? Is that okay to clean off the extra lube? I like my ammo to look nice.

Thanks! Roger

Round Details: Clays Powder, 3.5grs, Winchester primer, Winchester brass, W/W Lead bullet, 230 gr. from Lee Bulllet Mold TL452-230, Lee 4 Carbide Die Set.

[leftiye]

Not being a smart @$$ - "if it works it works!" There may be some advantage to light lubing on the loaded boolit nose while feeding or engraving, but most cartridges don't have any.

[38 Super Auto]

Okay, finished casting my .45acp boolits, lubed with Lee Bullet Lube and completed loading 5 rounds to test.

But, they looked dirty, sticky, just plain yucky with that lube. Gets on your fingers which gets on your brass. SO, I took a towel and cleaned them up.


Another option you have is to use a harder lube. There are a number of them out there. I started with Lee brownish lube, but have switched to Jake's hard lube. I am using a Lyman 450 and a Star - both have heaters. I have had good results with Jake's and his prices ar reasonable.

I like the ability of lubing mass quantities of bullets immediately after I cast them.

[Cloudpeak]

I use LLA but don't clean the lube off the exposed part of the bullet. Life is just too short for that over thousands of rounds:-D

I generally cut the LLA with a bit of "low oder mineral spirits" which I think might make the lube dry a bit more. I let the bullets dry on wax paper for a few days & then store them. By the time I get around to loading them, they seem dry enough.

I played around with lubing with Johnson Paste Wax, heating the bullets a bit and putting a spoonful in the container and tumble lubing them. The JPW dries very nicely and I got some good groups in both 9mm and 45 ACP the also got some leading. I intend to play around a bit more with this when I get time.

Cloudpeak

[wfsdno]

Thanks, seems like lots of trouble cleaning but little things like that bug me (can you say OCD).

I'll try your suggestions, anything to make it easier and cleaner.

Roger

[pumpguy]

I don't clean LLA off any boolits for my revolvers. I do for anything I shoot in an auto or lever. That lube can flake off and I don't want it jamming up the works in my autos and don't want a build up of it in my tube in the levers.

[Three44s]

Did you allow your LLA'ed bullets to dry before you loaded them?

Three 44s

[tall grass]

I've used mineral spirits or naptha on a rag and wiped the boolit off after reloading. Usually left just a little film of lube in case it needed it for feeding. Don't know if this is right or wrong but not as sticky.

I have went over to the Johnsons paste wax way of lubing.

Jim

[shotstring]

I aways clean the lube off of my finished rounds using a "thumbler" type tumber rather than a vibrating one with torn pieces of newspaper in it. 5 or 10 minutes and your loaded rounds are looking like new with no damage to case or powder granules.

[DLCTEX]

I've about quit using LLA due to the above noted problems. I find it much simpler to run them through the lubesizers with a little harder lube. I traded off my Lee micro groove molds, except one in 40 cal. which we are not loading for at present. I like Lar's lube, the red one, but have a lot of 50/50 to use up, but I'm melting it and adding carnuba wax to stiffen it. I have to add a little heat to get to flow properly until the weather is warmer. DALE

[Tom Herman]

Hi Wfsdno,

It's OK to wipe the gunk off the outside of the boolit. It's supposed to be [I]inside[I] lubricated.
What you've done is what's SOP around my bench. In fact, i just got done casting sizing, lubing, and loading about 350 .45 LC's.
After I got done with the loading, I wiped the excess SPG off the cases and heads.
Now everything looks like it should!
Good Luck!

-Tom


Okay, finished casting my .45acp boolits, lubed with Lee Bullet Lube and completed loading 5 rounds to test.

But, they looked dirty, sticky, just plain yucky with that lube. Gets on your fingers which gets on your brass. SO, I took a towel and cleaned them up.

Then went out to shoot. PERFECT! No feed problems, no eject problems, just a loud bang and a hole in the target!:Fire:

Anyone else do that? Is that okay to clean off the extra lube? I like my ammo to look nice.

Thanks! Roger

Round Details: Clays Powder, 3.5grs, Winchester primer, Winchester brass, W/W Lead bullet, 230 gr. from Lee Bulllet Mold TL452-230, Lee 4 Carbide Die Set.