My first attempt to pan lube. so so results...

[Dave Bulla]

Forgive me being new to this casting stuff and all...

I've been playing around with the casting for a little while using equipment all owned by a friend of mine and don't have so much as a casting pot myself yet. Didn't even know what pan lubing was until a short while back.

Anyway, my buddy turned me on to the little collar button boolits for the 45-70 and gave me about a hundred or so of them to play with. Talk about fun!

One thing neither one of was totally sure about was the type of lube needed. He talked to another friend who is supposed to be somewhat of an expert who said all they needed was the Rooster Jacket lube so that's what they got. To me it seemed a bit minimal and I also noticed that it was able to come off in flakes sometimes so I was afraid I'd be essentially shooting unlubed boolits in some cases.

But I need to back up a bit here. I make a leather dressing that has jokingly become known as "Bulla Bulla Boot Butter" among the friends I've given samples to. It's rendered deer tallow, beeswax and a couple other ingredients one of which is an oil. I generally try to make it about the consistency of shoe polish but I'd say it's actually a tad harder. It is similar in that when melted and allowed to cool it feels quite hard but if you mash it with a finger the disturbed stuff is real creamy and stays that way. Guys I've given it to have talked about trying it as boolit lube too but I never got back with them about how it worked. So, I decided to try it myself by pan lubing some collar buttons. Here are a couple pictures.

Don't laugh too hard....

My pan is a piece I picked out of the scrap bin at work. Somebody started making a guard for something then threw it away I guess. The one end is still "open" but I figured that would work great for pan lubing to get the cake out.


I didn't want to do very many boolits and they look awfully lonely in that pan so a divider was needed. It's the cardboard and duct tape thing in the first picture. My plan eventually is to use a piece of bar magnet with some rubber on the edge to form a seal but for now the cardboard will do.


This is more like it.


Here is a partially used tub of my boot butter.


A couple minutes in the microwave and it's ready to pour.


Looks about right but I can only guess as I've never done it before.


Not being very patient, I decided to sit them outside where it's nice and cool.


A few minutes later.


Pull the divider and it looks like the cake is done but a little fragile.


Now, I've read that you just hold the cake and push the boolits out with your thumb but that's not gonna work on this lube. It kinda falls apart. Some liquid inspiration and thoughts of the need for a golf club handle and I've got an idea!


Can't fit any more pics on here so continued next post......

[Dave Bulla]

Snip snip.


Trim a little.


Roll it up, grab some duct tape.


We've made a cake cutter.


A little crude but it seems to work.


Not as well as I hoped though. My lube is too soft and things got messy. The boolits fit too loose in the cutter but some clean up with my fingers helps them a bit.


That's about it. I was just kinda bored that night and same goes for right now. Figured you guys might get a chuckle out of the whole deal.

That boolit in the front left is a mess eh?

[fryboy]

trial and error is one of the best teachers ...... and empty case usually works pretty well as a cake cutter , the collar button boolits do seem like they'ed be about as easy to cut out vs. pop out even with a slightly umm thicker and more traditional lube , temp also can play a role when the lube is less than ideal , of course the only way to find that out ? trial and error :P loved the dam tho !! a small loaf pan is what i use to test lubes and to just pan lube a few for further testing

[Doby45]

I think you did AWESOME.. Congrats on your first experience pain lubing..

[unclebill]

a small loaf pan is what i use to test lubes and to just pan lube a few for further testing

i bought a whole stack of steel ones at a thrift store
i usually do 6 or 8 pans at a time.

[Shooter6br]

I use Emments lube with alittle lanolin for anything under 1300fps. Works great. I the push the bullets out of the block or use the "wack a mole" method of removel

[Shooter6br]

Like the bullet. I shoot 10 grains of Unique with a 350 g Ranchdog in my Ruger NO 1. Like to cast lighter bullet to save lead.

[Shooter6br]

Ruger at work

[stubshaft]

Very inventive. Try a little Bwax to stiffen it and lanolin to help with the adhesion.

[Dave Bulla]

Just curious about the massive amount of lube these boolits use and if there will be issues with just plain making a mess of my bore or creating a ton of smoke. Any thoughts?

[Doby45]

You shooting them in a 45-70? You aren't gonna hurt anything other than maybe accuracy. Too much lube is only going to cause the boolit to be slicker than owl snot and accuracy can be effected. But try a few first then work from there.

[Land Owner]

Very good with pictures. Loved the sense-o-humor.

Now my motivation is high to try some pan lubing (first time). I think I will ream out a bullet as a cookie cutter, add a punch through the primer, reduce the pan "floor space" quite a bit (conservative lubbin' and dense pack the boolets), and sub a scotch for that brewski.

[fryboy]

for cutting out dense packed will work but is the bane of whack and push thru removing ( often causing the cake to crack and pull the lube out of the boolits )

[63 Shiloh]

Your homemade lube looks very similar to SPG Dave, if it works you might be on to something there.

As stubshaft states, try adding a little more beeswax for adhesion.

I would be interested in how your lube would work on a 45-70 Postell type boolit charged with BP.