tumble lube or regular?

[sashultz]

New here today guys. I have been casting for many years but have lots to learn so please hang with me. My 1st question is everyones thoughts on the tumble lube Lee bullets as oppossed to regular. If I am not posting correctly please let me know. Thanks my lead slingin buddys!

[44man]

New here today guys. I have been casting for many years but have lots to learn so please hang with me. My 1st question is everyones thoughts on the tumble lube Lee bullets as oppossed to regular. If I am not posting correctly please let me know. Thanks my lead slingin buddys!
They can shoot wonderful but I use Felix lube on mine. I smear it on boolits by hand and run through a lapped out Lee die to remove excess lube without doing any sizing.
I am one of the few that hates Alox.

[fourdollarbill]

Welcome to the forum.

For my 38/357mag shooting I love the tumble lube because it is fast and it works. I do the 50/50 LLAlox/Johnson Paste wax mix and it works great. I did not sell off my luber sizer stuff yet but it has been setting for about a year now. And yes I can load magnum loads with it and it has very minimal leading (same leading as my lubrisizer bullets) that is easily wiped out with a gas check or two.

[Shiloh]

I have never used Alox on rifle boolits. I size and lube with a lubrisizer. There are those who use LLA on rifle boolits with fine results. Speed is the qualifier. I use Alox lube on pistol boolits with tumble lube grooves, as well as traditional lube grooves. I

The big advantage of alox lubing is speed. One can lube a small mountain of boolits in a few minutes, and be loading and shooting them the next day.

Shiloh

[Moonie]

I tumble lube my pistol boolits. I do not however like the TL boolit designs, I use normal lube groove boolits.

I too use the 45/45/10 formula.

[Char-Gar]

I am old school and use traditional soft lube for all bullets either rifle or pistol. My few attempt at tumble lubing didn't go well.

[parson48]

I've only been casting for about 3 years and have tumble lubed from the beginning. It has served me well thus far. I currently use the LLA, JPW, Mineral oil recipe.

Let me add that I only cast for handguns and pistol caliber rifles.

[mdi]

The tumble lube design boolits seem to be as accurate and leading free (bore leading) as most any I've heard of. RanchDog makes some well designed bullet molds that have the micro grooves, that I shoot at magnum velocities in my Puma. In my experience, mostly with .44s, I have tumble lubed and pan lubed both styles and get comprable results...

[sashultz]

WOW thats what I am looking for..thanks guys....only bad thing is that you all cost me some money cause I have made some decisions and am placing orders today...lol. thanks again

Sam

[goste]

Welcome...
I have had mixed results with the TL. boolits. It's my" go to bullet ", for .45. I load and shoot Lots of them, in 8 pistols, and a FA. No problems....I have had little luck with the 9MM,TL boolit I haven't tried my 38/357 yet..I also lube all my pistol boolits, with the afore mentioned Xlox/JPW, TL style or regular lube groove type. ..Works well for me....

[noylj]

Tumble lube or pan lube as-cast bullets.
Tumble lube jacketed and plated bullets.

[mpmarty]

I started tumble lubing about three years ago. Since then I've had no leading problems in 45acp, 10mm, 308 Winchester, 7.5X55 or 45/70. My Lyman 45 sizer and Star are sitting in a box under my reloading bench. Tumble lubing with 50/50 LLA JPW works for me just fine.

[Bret4207]

I'm not a huge fan of the TL designs from Lee, but I do like the TL idea. Ive even had luck with Mule Snot (Lee Liquid Alox) in rifles up into the 1600 fps area with boolits that fit. The TL designs seem to be a hit or miss deal, if they fit they do okay.

[littlejack]

sashultz:
Welcome to the CastBoolits.
I do not like the LLA, because of the mess. I dislike it so much that when I trade for boolits
and they happen to be of the Lee TL design, I use a small paint brush to put the LLA on the
boolits, one at a time. I stay away from the TL boolits as much as I can.
That being said, the TL design boolits shoot as good as any in my handguns. I do not shoot
lead rifle boolits in anything except my 45-70. In that, I shoot the 500 grain Government
boolit, and lube it with the Emmerts recipe. I use the Emmerts recipe to lube all of my
handgun boolits also.
Jack

[NuJudge]

I've had good luck with Lee Liquid Alox in the .40 S&W, but not in the 9mm or .45 acp. Your mileage may vary.

CDD

[chris in va]

REGULAR...skip the TL molds. I've had so much grief from those darn things.

As for the actual tumble lube, I switched to Johnson Paste Wax and mineral spirits with very good results in my 45acp. So-so with the 9mm.

[MtGun44]

Don't like the mess and smell of the mule snot (Lee Liq Alox) and we spend a good bit of
time here helping the MANY folks that have leading and inaccuracy with LLA on Lee TL designs.
I also don't like the LLA stickiness on the exposed part of the boolits. IMO it is a very
marginal lube system with the primary advantage being low first cost for the newbie.

My best comment about TL is "some swear by it, others swear at it"

Good luck, I hope it works for you. I much prefer the std soft lubes in a lubrisizer.

Bill

[jcwit]

Tumble lube got me started. Then I got my first Lyman #45 luber/sizer. Experimented with making my own lubes and never looked bact. I do use some LLA in my lube recipes tho.

[lwknight]

My lube sizer is just collecting dust till I find something that TL will not work on.
Alox is not as smokey as wax lubes or so it seems.