I came up with a NOE Tumbled Lubes boolit. Is it possible to lube and size in a conventional RCBS luber?
I really don't want to get into tumble lubing. It is .359/190gr boolit.
Leadmelter
MI
Printable View
I came up with a NOE Tumbled Lubes boolit. Is it possible to lube and size in a conventional RCBS luber?
I really don't want to get into tumble lubing. It is .359/190gr boolit.
Leadmelter
MI
It will all depend on how deep the grooves are when run through the sizer and how well your particular lube sticks to the boolits.
The only real way to find out is to try it with a couple of them and see how it goes.
- Wipe and/or Tumble
- Dry (warm oven)
- Size
- Wipe and/or Tumble (warm oven)
- Shoot
Do it all the time with high-speed 30 cals, as well as some medium-high 45 rifles.
Tumble-Lube design and/or Grooved bullets no different.
Once dried, nothing gets ALOX off -- even sizing.
Thanks for the hints, alox I think is available from Midway?
Leadmelter
MI
Get X-Lox from White Label Lubes here on the forum. A whole lot cheaper, and I believe is the same stuff.
The lube grooves won’t be deep enough to hold any lube. Best to just tumble lube them. Use Alox/X-Lox, 45-45-10 or BLL and call it done.
Sizing is no problem, and the sizer lube makes that job easier. But it is an open question as to whether enough lube will hang on to avoid leading.
Tumble lube is really, really easy. I do it on bore riders, and boolits for rough throated barrels.
It "is" possible, but as others said above, the grooves hold very little lube. Here is a Ranch Dog 308 hunting bullet. These were sized .309" with a Lee push through sizer die, then got 2x coats of White Label's X-Lox. The one on the right was then lubed by my RCBS LAM2 (.311" die, so not sized, only lubed) with White Label's Blue Wax formula:
http://m3coupe.com/Firearms/casting/.../tumble308.jpg
An aside; I don't like the appearance and mess of "normally" tumble lubed bullets (micro groove or standard lube groove), so I dip lube. Not a big deal for me I just grab a bullet by the nose (sometimes with tweezers or needle nose pliers) and dip it into a container of alox, then set it on a piece of alum. foil to dry. This way the nose stays dry/clean and easy to handle. I shoot a lot of Ranch Dog design bullets in my 44s and lube them this way...
Jes 'cuz it says "tumble" don't mean you hafta swish/tumble the boolits in the brown goop...;-)
My rifles have explained to me that they shoot best if the boolits are sized to whatever diameter they prefer, so since these things are going through the lube/sizer anyway I go ahead and lube them (Star). I have never had trouble with insufficient lubricant, and one of my favorites is a Ranch Dog design that casts .314 that I take as far down as .309 (depending on which rifle will shoot it). Over the years I have used Alox, LBT Blue, some Lyman stuff, White Label in various iterations -- all with no "insufficient lube" problems.
My revolvers are OK with unsized tumble-lubed boolits but probably I am just not a good enough shot to hear them complain.
Funny I asked this question, I got my issue of "The Fouling Shot" has a article by C. E. Harris on tumbling bullets technique. It is issue #253.
Leadmelter
MI