Dusty Boolits

[brassell31]

I bought about 500 cast boolits for my .45/70 at an estate sale recently. They are various weights and already sized and lubed. They were stored for quite a while in open top boxes, and there is a fine coating of dust on all the boolits. A bullet casting friend of mine suggested that the dust might actually put a lot of wear on the barrel, kind of like the barrel lapping compounds used to coat bullets for fire lapping a new barrel. Anyone have any opinions or suggestions on that thought? I'm thinking I'll either wipe the surface off with a rag and some mineral spirits or just recast the whole lot.

[Cherokee]

I'ed be incluned to dust them off and use them.

[docone31]

Although there is some abrasiveness involved with dust, I would just wipe them off.
If it is airborne dust, it is not that heavy.
I would wipe them off when you load, or just plain handling will rub most of it off.
I am doubtful there will be that much wear on firing.

[mroliver77]

I would not use them. Some dust from stone driveways can be very abrasive. Sand from the fields while fine is still sand dust. If there is enough to mess with you can boil them in some soapy water. I use a screen basket to handle them. Pull them out hot and rinse with clean hot water. They are then ready to be relubed.Not worth the damage they could cause. My shooting pal gives me funny looks when he drops a boolit on the shop floor. I tell him to put it in the remelt bucket and move on. He has a hard time remelting boolits that LOOK good lol. No diferent than melting an ingot.
Jay

[DLCTEX]

I'd wash the lube off and relube them.

[qajaq59]

They sell dusters that you spin in your hand so they build up a static charge. Just dust them with one of those and you wont have any dust to worry about. My wife has one and if she runs it over a table top it doesn't leave even a trace of dust, so I know they work.

[Down South]

Only problem with dusting is some of that dust will be embedded in the lube and will be impossible to remove. It's going to boil down to personal preference but if it were me and I wanted to salvage the boolits. I'd boil them then rinse them well. You will have to relube them after that.

[brassell31]

Thanks, guys. I boiled them for starters. The wax all rose to the surface and hardened when it cooled - no mess, just picked the wax off the surface, mostly in one big piece. There is still some lube on the bullets, I'll rinse them off with some more hot water and I think they'll be good to relube.

[jonk]

I'd have just shot them, but your call totally.

The old lube will make good pot flux- make sure it's dry first though!

[mdi]

I've read that fire lapping will only remove .0005" from a bbl. That's one half a thousandth with a system designed to be abrasive. Regular household dust isn't any where near as abrasive.