Favorite lube for 9mm

[Arkansas Paul]

Hey guys. I've been attempting to cast for my 9mm and am not having a good time of it. I've tried Lee Alox in extremely heavy coats. I've tried 45-45-10 with bad results too. After about 20 shots leading is so bad its like I'm shooting a smoothbore.
The diameter of the bullet is fine. Bore is .356 and bullets drop from the mold at .3575 so that part should be okay.

So I'm going to see if pan lubing with a good solid lube helps. What do you guys like for the 9mm?
50/50? Carnauba Red?

Thanks

[AggieEE]

What is the make of your 9? I had a Astra 9mm and I pushed a cast bullet through it to check the bore size and I left lead in the barrel. Do you fell any grabbing when the barrel is clean and you push a patch through it? If you know somebody with a bore scope check the internaol finish of the barrel. If rough you might read up on fire lapping.

[Arkansas Paul]

It's a Taurus 709 Slim. Very short barrel.
I don't feel the patches hanging on anything but never really thought of that. I'll double check when I get home and do a good inspection on the bore.

Oh, and the leading is worse at the end of the barrel than at the chamber.

[cs86]

From what you described it sounds like a possible lube problem. I've recently been working loads for the 9mm and would also get leading with Alox and 45/45/10. I started pan lubing and the leading is basically gone. I notice a little grey haze on the inside of the barrel but nothing like the wicked buildup of lead when tumble lubing. I made some lube but I don't think its thick enough. Sometime plan to try Felix lube as it sounds to have good results.

[freebullet]

If yer bore is .356 you may need a bigger bullet dia. Like .358-.359. What is the groove dia.? A problem I had recently was the boolit was being sized down a bit because I had to much crimp, it caused bad leading in the last half of the barrel. Make a dummy round then pull the boolit & remeasure it. Over crimping .001 caused wild smoothbore type leading for me.

[aspangler]

Make your alloy harder. Sounds like they are stripping the rifling. My nephew has a 709 slim and I load his ammo. Cast coww with an oz of tin thrown in for good fill-out in the mold, sized to .356 tumble lubed with mule snot, load and shoot. ( I water drop all my boolits ) Try to get your alloy at least to a 15 and the leading should go away.

[Arkansas Paul]

These are 50-50 clip on to stick on wheel weights and they are water dropped. I'll try some just coww if the lube doesn't do the trick.

[xacex]

I tried LLA, 45/45/10, pan lube with JPW/bee's wax, ect, ect. All of them left some level of lead in the bore even sized to .357. I think I cast them to hard, and the case swages them down while seating in the case. But, I started powdercoating and my problems were solved. I won't use anything else if I have a choice for pistol boolits. My 9mm shoot great, no leading, and any color you want. With the different methods posted in this forum all you need is some powder, lacquer thinner, and a toaster oven from the second hand store. I prefer the powder gun method but it is more waste of powder in the end. I figure you get a couple thousand coated per pound.

[cja245]

Have you tried measuring a pulled boolit from one of your loaded cases? If I was to guess, its that you're swaging them down somewhere in your loading process. Could be the crimp die even if your not over crimping, since some of them have a post sizing ring at the base. Based on the description of your leading, it sounds to me like your shooting a .355'' cast boolit through a .356'' bore.

My father has a 709 slim, and I've had good results with boolits sized .357 lubed with rcbs pistol lube and felix lube. No leading, just a little wax and powder residue.

[somedude101]

Are you using the lee factory crimp die, I had terrible leading till I quit using my fcd for 9. The carbide ring was sizing the boolet in my loaded rount to about .354 now when I pull a loaded round the boolet is .357

[NuJudge]

Fifty percent Beeswax, 50% Alox 2138F. The first thing I would look at (again) is bullet diameter. Lead at just the muzzle would say lube problems. Lead the full length of the barrel says diameter. Pay attention to what is said above about cases and crimp dies squeezing bullets down.

Also check your measuring tools.

[Arkansas Paul]

Have you tried measuring a pulled boolit from one of your loaded cases?

I have not. I will do that and see if they're swaging down.

Are you using the lee factory crimp die

I am not, but its possible that I have the seating die screwed down too far, thus crimping excessively.

[cs86]

Are you using the lee factory crimp die

I am not, but its possible that I have the seating die screwed down too far, thus crimping excessively.

When using a seating/crimping die you usually run the risk of shaving lead. I've tried to do this but it never seemed to work. I always had lead tracing left at the mouth of the brass or left in the grooves of the bullet, consequently causing leading. Its in the best practice to have a taper crimp die that follows the seating die that is backed out far enough to prevent crimping. And from other remarks on the site it sounds like some have trouble with the lee factory taper crimp die, so I so would try another brand. If you are using the seating+crimp die during one stroke this could be the primary cause of your leading.

[RobsTV]

Boolit mold used or weight and type of boolit?

Powder used and how fast?

Have you tried softer alloy, around 12-14BHN?

If stripping, you should slow it down and also use softer lead.

Try to recover lead samples. Using cheap Rubber mulch available at Walmart, packed into a large tall bucket can usually work well to recover lead for inspection.

[Arkansas Paul]

Boolit mold used or weight and type of boolit?

RCBS 124 grain T/C

Powder used and how fast?

Bullseye. I'm at work so I don't remember the exact charge, but its right in the middle of the published data.

Have you tried softer alloy, around 12-14BHN?

These are clip on wheel weights water dropped so I figure they're around 12.

[RobS]

RCBS 124 grain T/C



Bullseye. I'm at work so I don't remember the exact charge, but its right in the middle of the published data.



These are clip on wheel weights water dropped so I figure they're around 12.

Water quenched WW alloy will be closer to 18 to 20 BHN at final aging but depends on your mold temp. I've seen 25 to 26 BHN when running a hot mold.

How long are you waiting before you load your boolits? Waiting until the boolits age is important as well and typically if water quenched a WW boolit is hard enough in 24 hours to load.

[Arkansas Paul]

I'll air cool some and see if that stops it. I know that too hard a boolit can cause leading.
Just curious as I haven't been casting that long, but how long should you wait from casting to loading?

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

I am using BAC lube on 125 gn Lee TC sized to .358. I cast soft, and bullets pulled from cases measure .356. Still no leading in Kel-Tek P-11, S&W M&P, Glock, or MechTech carbine. Powder is 4.0 gns Red Dot.

[RobS]

I'll air cool some and see if that stops it. I know that too hard a boolit can cause leading.
Just curious as I haven't been casting that long, but how long should you wait from casting to loading?

Water quenched then the next day the boolits will be hard enough not to swage down. Considering you are working with tough little case (9mm), air cooled then I would wait a week on the minimum end and better two weeks out. You can always anneal in an oven those water quenched to whatever BHN you want. You can also speed age air cooled ww boolits by placing them in an oven at 190 to 200 degrees F for a few hours. They will reach their aging potential in a day or so after you take them from the oven.

[Lights]

Are you using the lee factory crimp die, I had terrible leading till I quit using my fcd for 9. The carbide ring was sizing the boolet in my loaded rount to about .354 now when I pull a loaded round the boolet is .357

There is no way in hell the sizing ring on a Lee FCD is doing that. The 9mm case has plenty of tapper to the case. The ring is about .007"-.008" bigger than where your boolit sits.