Are tumble lube bullets good?

[txshooter524]

Yes or no for pistol.
Thanks

[looseprojectile]

are bout all I use at present. I have about thirtysix moulds and have just about completely switched over to TL boolits.
Ranch Dog moulds is in your corner of the world. Try some.
Been running the RD .44 and .50 cal. boolits at 1300 fps in two handguns. Great accuracy and absoutely NO leading.
Also use the .44s in the Puma .44 mag. Shoot great and No leading at 1600 fps.
I have made some 190 grain .360 RDs for the .357 Rossi, will see how they perform when this dang weather clears up some.

Life is good

[35remington]

They do the job.

For the very highest velocities I'd like a little more lube capacity to let pressure get to work, but for 99.9 percent of what I do they're suitable.

[HeavyMetal]

I used some form of tumble lube long before Lee made a name for it. Some was alox based and some was Moly based.

Both worked well in standard velocity loads but the alox seemed to smoke a lot!

My real "beef" was the mess, I just didn't get leaving bunch of wet boolits out to "dry"!

Add a few playful cats in the mix and I generally spent more time picking up than I liked.

Made the move to a lube sizer and was real happy. These days you can by liquid alox from several sources but I haven't gone back, this should say something.

If your just getting started and on a "shoestring" budget I see no reason not to try tumble lube!

If you shoot a little you'll always be happy, move into some type of match shooting and you might change your mind.

Just remember: I did start with tumble lube and now have two Stars, two Dillons, 4 Mec's, 3 Tru lines, a Lee challanger and a big ole box of Molds!

[Shiloh]

Love 'em.

Cast, run through a LEE sizer for uniformity, Tumble lube, Load and shoot.

Very fast and convenient. Accuracy of the LEE .38 cal. 148 gr. TL is superb. Same with the 200 gr. SWC in .45. I have other molds that I run through the Lyman 450 and they are accurate as well. But for sheer volume of .38 target loads that I mostly shoot, they can't be beat.

I'm like to try the .45 TL. Truncated cone. I've heard good reports about that also.

Shiloh

[skeet028]

I've shot some of them(they were given to me free) and they seem to do ok for me. How about the Lee Sizer?? Is it pretty good..or just passable? Was thinking of purchasing one....or 2 or more if they work ok!

[cbr]

The tumble lube bullets work great for me, much faster and easier than running them through a lube sizer. Skeet028, I use the Lee sizers or shoot them as cast. I have a lube sizer, but the Lee system just seems faster IMHO. Either system works fine.

[Cloudpeak]

I've shot some of them(they were given to me free) and they seem to do ok for me. How about the Lee Sizer?? Is it pretty good..or just passable? Was thinking of purchasing one....or 2 or more if they work ok!

They work great and only cost around $13.00. I'm not sure if you know exactly what they are so, it's just a sizing ring die that screws into your press. You install the supplied ram, screw the die into your press and put the plastic container on top of the die to catch the sized bullets. Place the bullets on the ram and run them through the die and they collect in the plastic container.

I usually spray a very, very light dab of Hornady One-Shot case lube on the bullets, use the push though sizer and then tumble lube.

Cloudpeak

[Boerrancher]

I only have a couple of the TL designed moulds, but I tumble lube a good deal of the boolits I shoot. I have a lube sizer and use it as well, but for my 30 cal rifle boolits I like to tumble lube them in JPW run them through the Lee sizer to install the gas check, tumble lube them again and let dry. These are not even TL boolits, but I seem to get good velocities and good groups by doing it that way. I may try the lube sizer on my 30 cal boolits some day, but I am getting Sub MOA groups quite often at 2200 to 2500 fps, so why change what works.

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[skeet028]

Well, guess I have more stuff to buy:roll: Do it ever stop??:-D I hope not. Thanks for the replies. I keep learnin and one day I might know sumpin....Naw

[k8bor]

I have 5-tumble lube molds. A couple of them are RD's and the others are lees. Even the non-gas check bullets (.38 cal) shoot great thru my 1894 at up to 1300 with no leading. Wonderful accurate plinker/light hunting loads.

All these bullets are more accurate than I am. FWIW.

[Shiloh]

I've shot some of them(they were given to me free) and they seem to do ok for me. How about the Lee Sizer?? Is it pretty good..or just passable? Was thinking of purchasing one....or 2 or more if they work ok!

Very fast to size.
I can shoot as cast and lubed, but get the occasional round that won't or is hard to chamber. Most boolits just get kissed in the LEE sizer, but there are those that take a slight effort to put through. I pre lube with about a short tablespoonful of mineral spirits if at all, for a coffe can full of cast boolits

Shiloh

[Castnshoot]

How about for grease groove bullets? Is it best to tumble lube them, or pan, size, then tumble?

[44man]

I have some TL boolits but I lube them with Felix. Regular lube works fine with them.

[Cloudpeak]

Very fast to size.
I can shoot as cast and lubed, but get the occasional round that won't or is hard to chamber.
Shiloh

This is why I routinely put everything through the Lee push through die. I've had two 45 cal SWC 200 gr SWC dies and still own a Lee 124 gr RN and a 105 gr SWC 6 cavity die. It seems every once in awhile, I'd get "fat" bullets out of any of these molds. I noticed when putting them through the push through that they required much more effort.

I figured loading oversized bullets wouldn't enhance consistency, might lead to them not chambering and, if they were loaded in higher loadings than I use, might lead to a spike in pressure. I don't know for sure what causes this. Perhaps crud on the mold faces, getting tired and not keeping the handles closed tightly, problems with the locating pins (I had a pin fall out of my 105 gr SWC mold the other day) or just an attack of the mold gremlins. Anyway, for uniformity's sake, I decided that they all go through the sizing die.

After casting several thousand 45 cal 200 gr SWC out of my 4 cavity Lyman mold, I've never experienced this but they still all go through a push through sizer just in case.

Cloudpeak

[Cloudpeak]

How about for grease groove bullets? Is it best to tumble lube them, or pan, size, then tumble?

I use LLA on the bullets I cast out of my 4 cavity Lyman 200 gr SWC mold which has one lube groove. I lube with a very light squirt of One Shot, size and then tumble lube and it works fine in my 45's with virtually no leading.

Cloudpeak

[Castnshoot]

I use LLA on the bullets I cast out of my 4 cavity Lyman 200 gr SWC mold which has one lube groove. I lube with a very light squirt of One Shot, size and then tumble lube and it works fine in my 45's with virtually no leading.

Cloudpeak

Mmm, so LLA is good for tumble lube bullets and grease groove bullets, and the Lee sizer works fine with both. That means that I can get me either type of mould and should be fine. At what velocities are you loading? Also, have you heard of homemade lubes 50/50 wax and LLA?

[Cloudpeak]

Mmm, so LLA is good for tumble lube bullets and grease groove bullets, and the Lee sizer works fine with both. That means that I can get me either type of mould and should be fine. At what velocities are you loading? Also, have you heard of homemade lubes 50/50 wax and LLA?

Hangs head in shame:cry: I don't have a chrono.

I load the 105 SWC's in my 9mm with 3.9 grains of W231, the 124's in the 9mm with 3.6 grains of W231 and the 200 grain Lyman SWC's for my 45's with 3.6 or 3.8 grains of Clays which are all mid range loads.

Cloudpeak

[kamikaze1a]

I like the ease of tumble lubing, the results I get with tumlbe lubed boo's but do not like the profile of the Lee TL molds that I have tried. For some reason beyond me, they have sharp shoulders on some of their boo's, on the weights that I like anyway. I find that the shoulders catch in my chamber and caused me feeding problems. I went to Lee non-TL molds with conventional/single lube groove and feeding problems went away. I still use LLA on those boo's but sure wish they had the micro-grooves. I am considering ordering a custom mold TC mold with the microgrooves (.452 200gr and .401 175gr). Alox is good!

[superior]

The instructions for my Lee 401-175-swc say that tumble lubing is superior to the old method of lubing.

[bart55]

I cast and shot about 4thousand 38 tl wadcutters ,cast out of a 6 cav lee ,I did not size one of them and I won a lot of matches with the same . I also used the 6 cav lee 230 rn Not a tl bullet and I fonnd that I really need to run them through a sizer( push thru) as it seems that some of them will not chamber in my commander . but that is still easy and fast . I use both as I have two lyman one rcbs and one saeco sizers. they are all good but for sheer speed and ease the lla and tl bullets are the easyer way to go .

[medicstimpy]

I only use TL design boolits for my NEW handgun molds (45 and 357) except for the little 105gr SWC I use for 9mm. They work great. I got a few used RCBS for my other calibers but would have bought TL designs for them.

I am not a fan of LLA like some of the users here so you can still run the TL designs through a lubersizer if you want to do it that way.