Lubing hollow base bullets

[abunaitoo]

I pan lube.
How would I lube a hollow base bullet????
If I lube it the same way I do regular bullets, would the hollow base fill up with lube????

[Windy City Kid]

If you are using a Lyman or RCBS lube sizer, you would lube & size them nose down with a top punch that fits the inside of the base of the bullet. It's like sizing hollow point bullets. The easiest way to size and lube them is to use a Lee sizer & tumble lube. Just push them through the Lee sizer base first so you don't deform the base of the bullet.

[abunaitoo]

I pan lube.
No sizing.

[Harry O]

I pan lubed a LOT of 41LC hollow-base bullets before getting a correctly sized lubrisizer die for it. If the hollow-base is formed correctly, the melted lube will not get into the base.

Place the bullets base down in a shallow pan, heat up the lube in a double-boiler, pour it around the bullets, then after it sets up, cut them out with a fired case (or a correctly sized kake-cutter).

You are correct to be concerned about getting lube in the hollow base. Any lube there will GREATLY reduce the effectiveness of the hollow-base. In other words, it will be inaccurate as hell.

[.41LC]

Harry, do you lubrisize your .41 Colt bullets upside down like Windy Kid City stated? And do you use Lyman or RCBS? They have correctly sized dies.

[Jack Stanley]

I would think that when pan lubing , there would be a bubble of air in the base that would prevent them from filling . Unless of couse the base is vented to a point higher than the melted lube .

The hollow base bullet I had I ran through the lubesizer nose up without a problem . I did go a little easy on the pressure though but it worked well .

Jack

[MT Gianni]

I run mine in a standard lubesizer with no problems.

[Harry O]

Harry, do you lubrisize your .41 Colt bullets upside down like Windy Kid City stated? And do you use Lyman or RCBS? They have correctly sized dies.

Right side up. To me that means the hollow-base is down on the plate. Again, my experience has been that if the hollow-base is filled out completely and correctly, lube will not get into the base. If it does get in the base, it hurts the accuracy, at least with the Colt cartridges that are smaller than the bore diameter, let alone the groove diameter.

I have a few hollow-base bullets for other calibers (38-40 and 44-40). I have a lot less experience with these than the 41LC, but it seems that they are MUCH less sensitive than the Colt cartridges when it comes to imperfections. That would include having lube in the base. Of course, the bullet size vs the groove size is a lot closer with these.

[noylj]

I tumble lube, but that isn't your question.
If you place your bullets in the pan and slowly add the lube, the lube will tend NOT to go under the bullet so the hollow base stays free of lube. Using a silicone baking pan works well as the bullets tend to push the silicone rubber down and create a seal.
I do not size my bullets. That is one of the reasons to tumble and pan lube.
If you must size, do it with the Lee sizing kit and order the sizing die in the exact diameter you need (and not the almost always too small for best results standard sizes available).