Has anybody Lubrisized a Tumble lube boolit

[ozzy1038]

Has this been tried and was it successful? I only ask because my fiance bought me a lyman 4500 and I have already cast about 1000 tumble lube boolits. It seems to me like it may work, but the grooves could be too shallow. I may try it for the heck of it. Otherwise I could always remelt these boolits and recast them once my new mould gets here.

I think it would look kind of cool to see all those little bands of lube. I would think all the tinkering and testing I read about here it's surely had to have been tried.

Thanks!

[Wally]

It will not work as the grooves are far too shallow & small to hold the bullet lube onto them. You can lube with LLA then size in the Lyman

[sundog]

Don't know which boolits you've tried it with, Wally, but I have done it and works just fine.

The latest has been with the Ranch Dog 323-170-FN, and I pushed them well of 1800 fps with good accuracy and no leading.

Also done it with TL 38 wad cutters, and they worked just fine, too.

If the loob falls off, try a different loob. I use FWFL and it's sticky enough to hold on just fine.

[dubber123]

Depending on how much you size, it works fine. I have a few tumble lube designs, like a .32 WC, and Ranch Dogs 425 gr. 45-70 boolit. Neither have EVER seen a tumble lubing. I have shot the RD boolit to 1,900 fps. lubed conventionally with no problems.

If you have to size too much, the shallow grooves disappear pretty quickly. Give it a try.

[GrizzLeeBear]

Hey Sundog, I just got that mold as well to try in a 8mm. Haven't cast any yet though. What size does your cast at? What are you sizing them to?

[sundog]

Grizz, not to high jack the thread, but a quick reply. I have a prototype and a production run of the RD 323-170-FN. A .325 sizer will shine a boolit, that is they drop +.325. I've shot them in both Win Mdl94 32 WS and a K98 with a 2X scout scope. Good results in both.

To keep on thread. Even sizing the reference RD boolit to .323, there is still enough groove to get the job done. What dubber is saying about not sizing down too much is a consideration. But then again, they weren't meant to size to begin with. LLA, load'em, and shoot'em. So, even if you run them thru a size/loob die, use the largest die practical.

[leadeye]

I have run the RD 432-265 through my RCBS sizer taking it to .431 with good results.8-)

[Wally]

I use a homemade concoction of 50% lithium grease & 50% candle wax (which is 51% Beeswax/49% Parrafin)

[Larry Gibson]

I do it all the time with .314, .358, .41 and .44 bullets. The trick is to do the initial size and lube to "as cast" diameter. This doesnot swage down the small bands into the grooves and leaves plenty of room for lube. Once lubed the bullets can then be sized down further. For example the TL314-90-SWCs drop at .314-.315" from the mould. I initially run them through a .314 H die to size and lube them. They then work fine in a myrid of .31 cal rifles. However for use in many .30 cal rifles I push them base first through a Lee .311 sizer. The lube does not compress and keeps the grooves from being swaged away. I also tumble lube those bullets and push througha Lee .314 sizer serving the same purpose. With the revolver bullets I use H die sizers of .360, .410, .431 and .454. The tumble lube bullets then size and lube like any other cast bullets in the Lyman 450.

Larry Gibson

[blackthorn]

OK I understand that the lube in the groves does not size down so the groves do not colapse and close up. Where does the excess lead go? Does the whole bullet elongate?

[madsenshooter]

This is something I was wondering myself, but haven't gotten around to trying. I'm using the Lee 160gr TL designed for the 7.62x39 in my oversized bore Krag rifles. I have a .312 sizer, will just have to give it a try. The bullet fits the throat of my Krags very good with two of the lube grooves out of the case, and has shown some very promising accuracy at velocities that LLA won't stand up to. I've been dipping the bands in melted Carnauba Red, warming the bullets to the same 225 degrees, then pushing them through a .311 Lee sizer.

[Shiloh]

Has this been tried and was it successful? I only ask because my fiance bought me a lyman 4500 and I have already cast about 1000 tumble lube boolits. It seems to me like it may work, but the grooves could be too shallow. I may try it for the heck of it. Otherwise I could always remelt these boolits and recast them once my new mould gets here.

I think it would look kind of cool to see all those little bands of lube. I would think all the tinkering and testing I read about here it's surely had to have been tried.

Thanks!

I tried it one time after lubing some Lyman 358429 Keith boolits. The results were
below average as the TL grooves collapse and ther is no place for the lube to go.

The whole reason I go with TL boolit molds is so I DON"T have to lube them in the lubrisizer.

Shiloh

[Larry Gibson]

OK I understand that the lube in the groves does not size down so the groves do not colapse and close up. Where does the excess lead go? Does the whole bullet elongate?

If there are air pockets in the bullet of in the lube grooves the lead is swaged into those. And yes, the bullet will elongate.

Larry Gibson

[GrizzLeeBear]

Thanks Sundog! I have used Larry's method of running a .30 cal. boolit (311466) thru my 450 with a .311 die to lube them at "as cast" dia. and seat the checks, then run them thru a .309 Lee push thru sizer for my .30-06. Works great to deform the boolit less and keep the lube grooves as big as possible.
Ozzy, you could do the same with the TL boolits, or if yours works at the as cast dia. just get a lube die for that dia. When you run the boolits thru it will just lube them without sizing.
Many will say this is defeating the purpose of TL boolits, but with GC boolits you have to run them thru a sizer to seat the GC, even if you don't need to size the bullet. Also, using a lubesizer you don't have the mess or wait for the TL to dry. Just goes to show, more than one way to skin a cat!

[ozzy1038]

That is why I wanted the lyman 4500. I want clean non sticky boolits. I am somewhat of a perfectionist so a pretty clean boolit appeals to me. I have messed with LLA in the past sizing 50 BMG projos and boolits a friend had cast for me and don't like the sticky hassle. It works awesome though for sizing 50 BMG bullets! It just sucks cleaning it all off when you have 4000 bullets to do.

I will try to size a few and see, but I most likely will remelt and cast again. It's good practice anyway. My goal is the perfect silver boolit. If I cast hot and drop quick, I can get pretty darn close.

[zxcvbob]

Ozzy, are you wanting to lube pistol bullets? (of course you are, there are no TL rifle molds) Try using Rooster Jacket instead of LLA. It dries hard and clear, not sticky. I use it for .38 Specials at about 900 to 950 fps, and get no leading at all and it actually seems to polish the bore. (these weren't even TL bullets) I suspect LLA does a better job at magnum and rifle velocities. Rooster Jacket does better for pistol boolits and it's more user friendly.

[Kraschenbirn]

Yep! I've been running Lee 160 grainers through a .313 sizing die to lube and seat gas checks for use in my '09 Argie carbine (7.65x53). Boolits drop right at .313 from my mould and running them through the die just barely polishes the driving bands. Didn't encounter any significant leading with initial test loads (18.0 gr 2400) and 50-yd groups looked pretty good.

Bill

[shepherddogs]

I've lubrisized some .358 TL wadcutters. It works but they aren't that great to look at. They shoot OK though. After I got the RCBS sizer I sent back my unused TL molds and traded for conventional designs.

[Recluse]

The trick is to do the initial size and lube to "as cast" diameter. This doesnot swage down the small bands into the grooves and leaves plenty of room for lube. Once lubed the bullets can then be sized down further. For example the TL314-90-SWCs drop at .314-.315" from the mould.

I'm glad that works for a lot of people. I'm not glad, however, that I'm NOT one of those people. In fairness, I've only tried this with a TL230RN, but even then, it got swaged down too much--with or without the lube being done first. Gave me a mess, a headache and new foul words to shout. [smilie=b:

I'll tumble lube anything and not think twice about it. I have excellent luck with it, rarely get any leading even with the really sizzling loads (never get ANY leading with the lower velocity loads), and with the formula and technique I use, I do not get tacky, sticky boolits and what's more, I do not have to clean out my seating die.

Nothing against lubesizers, either. Am rebuilding the Lyman45 I bought off Madcaster a little while back. Love those old Lyman45's! But it cracks me up to hear people complain about the mess with tumble lubing and not say anything about lubesizers. Sheesh, until I get the lubesizer tweaked just right for the lube/boolit/sizing combination, I've made a pretty good mess. That's why I continue to add to the Lyman45 collection--one lubesizer per caliber, per boolit, per lube is my ultimate goal.

Both have their place, but I guess I'll always prefer to tumble lube TL boolits and lubesize boolits with lube bands--that is, if I decide not to tumble lube them too.

:coffee:

[44man]

Now, after reading all of this, you have ruined my shooting. Never again will my sized and Felix lubed, tumble lube boolits shoot for me. My .432 sized .44 RD boolit has seen the light and has now demanded LLA instead. I tried to hide my other TL boolits but they snuck a peak too. :veryconfu Why oh why did all of you ruin my shooting? [smilie=p:
It seems as if keeping dies clean is more important then accuracy so now all of my dies have hidden from me. I just do not know what to do now! :bigsmyl2:
All is lost, I gave away all of my LLA. :oops:

[ozzy1038]

Try using Rooster Jacket instead of LLA. It dries hard and clear, not sticky. I use it for .38 Specials at about 900 to 950 fps, and get no leading at all and it actually seems to polish the bore. (these weren't even TL bullets) I suspect LLA does a better job at magnum and rifle velocities. Rooster Jacket does better for pistol boolits and it's more user friendly.

I ordered 10 sticks of Lars Red ( Carnauba Red). It's supposed to be the cat's meow. Approximately how many bullets can you lube and size with one stick of lube? I know it is dependent on amount of bands and diameter of bullet. Most everything I'll be casting will be in the 40's (.40 s&w, .45acp, .44spl and mag). How smoky is the rooster jacket? I like to shoot IDPA so the less smoky the lube the better.

My mission is to stockpile and set myself up for life. I need to go on another WW hunt this weekend. :-D

[zxcvbob]

The rooster jacket is not smokey at all. It's like there's nothing on the bullets at all, except they don't lead (at low velocities, I don't trust it at high velocities.)

You get a lot of bullets from one stick of lube, but I don't know how many. I haven't used my 4500 in a while; been using up the bullets I lubed last year, commercial cast bullets I bought back when they wre cheap, plus using LLA and Rooster Jacket. I bought a bunch of sticks of BAC, but I've got blackpowder lube in my 4500 right now (that was a mistake because it's so messy)

[Huntducks]

IMHO it's a waste of time and energy I like the TL they are what they are and shoot just fine.

:Fire: