cleaning castboolit loads

[irishtoo]

hi, i cast and reload for a .45-70. i lube with a 50/50 mix of beeswax and olive oil. after loading i wipe the excess lube off with an old rag and windex. it is long and getting painful work (arthrictic hands) does anyone have a faster easier way of cleaning reloads? i would be thankful for any advise. irishtoo

[waco]

How do you lube? Are you using a lube sizer? Maybe try a different lube? White Label offers several great lubes at very good prices.
You could always try your hand at powder coating. Very easy and super clean.

[gray wolf]

You should explain how you are lubing the bullets.
There are ways to lube bullet along with the proper case mouth flair that leave the bullets clean and ready to shoot.
Are you hand lubing ?

[irishtoo]

i dip them into hot liquid lube and stand them upright. i place them into the case by hand, push the boolit down and crimp. the case shears off some of the excess lube but not all. irishtoo

[country gent]

I wipe mine down after loading I pan lube with SPG or emmerts improved. A bar towel with a dampening of accetone works well for me. I also wipe bases before hand seating them. I pan lube and remove with a cake cutter .005 bigger than bullet dia so not as much extra lube as you have to deal with.
How heavy is the neck tension on your rounds. You might try a medium sized pill bottle with a flannel lined sponge in it ( wrapped around the inside) Ideally this would be a snug fit on the round. dampen it with acetone insert round and twist a few times. May work but you will need to watch the flannel so it dosnt get loaded with lube and just smears it. A 1 1/2" dia pill bottle with a 1/2" sponge and flannel wrapped should be close. 3" tall would allow for insert to be flipped once then turned to new face and flipped again giving 4 uses before cleaning.

[runfiverun]

with your soft lube your not gonna get away from wiping the loaded rounds.
keeping it simple is gonna involve some extra hand work.
I'm sure I just told you nothing you didn't already know.

about the only way around it is to use a little harder lube and a lube sizer to apply the lube.

[bangerjim]

Use a harder grease-based commercial lube. There are also several home-brew hard lubes documented on here. Do a search. That stuff you are using never gets hard!

Or try powder coating for a no-mess load.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Powder Coating is the wave of the future for lead boolits. I started a year ago and will never go back to pushing boolits thru a Lube Sizer again.

I PC the boolits and then push them thru a sizing die. A Lee Push thru die will work just fine. They come out perfect, and there is no lube to get spread around. (Lube Creep!) Also if you leave your ammo in the sun the PC doesn't melt off and contaminate your powder like normal lubes do.

This is easy to do, you can read up on it in the "Coatings and Alternatives" forum below under Shake and Bake Process. Many threads of this.

It requires a plastic container which you probably already have, some Airsoft BB's, some Powder, and an old Toaster Oven. You can literally be set up for $20 !

There is a short learning curve but anyone can handle it.

This will eliminate all your problems with lube creep. It will also make your gun a lot easier to clean after shooting. Typically each shot cleans the Powder Residue from the preceding shot out of the barrel. In the end you will push one clean patch thru to remove the Powder Residue from the last shot, and maybe an oiled patch.

There is never any leading to contend with, as the lead never touches the bore.

You should try this !!! It is better than sliced bread !!!

Randy

[Wayne Smith]

Take an old shell and drill out the primer, thread and put in a piece of all thread. Use this as a lube cutter, using the all thread to push the boolit out of the shell.

[crackers]

"You should try this !!! It is better than sliced bread !!!"
Spin, dump and bake.

[blikseme300]

hi, i cast and reload for a .45-70. i lube with a 50/50 mix of beeswax and olive oil. after loading i wipe the excess lube off with an old rag and windex. it is long and getting painful work (arthrictic hands) does anyone have a faster easier way of cleaning reloads? i would be thankful for any advise. irishtoo

Are you using black powder or smokeless? Perfect lube for black powder but is somewhat messy so wiping the reloads is needed. I just take my time and wipe each cartridge before they go into the ammo boxes. I feel your pain as I also have arthritis.

For smokeless I use a Star to lube & size but have also dipped my toes into powder coating. It does work and is easy to do and very clean to work with.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Using a Kake cutter should clean up the boolits so they won't make a mess.

Or as Wayne states, you make you own

Take an old shell and drill out the primer, thread and put in a piece of all thread. Use this as a lube cutter, using the all thread to push the boolit out of the shell.

Making your own can be as simple as a fired case and piece of wood, shown at buffalo rifles (scroll to bottom of page for photos).
http://www.buffalorifles.org/bpcr.html

[irishtoo]

Powder Coating is the wave of the future for lead boolits. I started a year ago and will never go back to pushing boolits thru a Lube Sizer again.

I PC the boolits and then push them thru a sizing die. A Lee Push thru die will work just fine. They come out perfect, and there is no lube to get spread around. (Lube Creep!) Also if you leave your ammo in the sun the PC doesn't melt off and contaminate your powder like normal lubes do.

This is easy to do, you can read up on it in the "Coatings and Alternatives" forum below under Shake and Bake Process. Many threads of this.

It requires a plastic container which you probably already have, some Airsoft BB's, some Powder, and an old Toaster Oven. You can literally be set up for $20 !

There is a short learning curve but anyone can handle it.

This will eliminate all your problems with lube creep. It will also make your gun a lot easier to clean after shooting. Typically each shot cleans the Powder Residue from the preceding shot out of the barrel. In the end you will push one clean patch thru to remove the Powder Residue from the last shot, and maybe an oiled patch.

There is never any leading to contend with, as the lead never touches the bore.

You should try this !!! It is better than sliced bread !!!

Randy

you got me interested. ill have to do some reading. thank you irish too

[pakmc]

I also use powder coating bullets now, it's so much easier then white lube(very nice people and up to just a while back that's all I used.) but powder coating is so much better(no leading in the barrel, no, have to tear down your dies to clean the lube out of the bullet seating die, etc.) I pour in morning, let them cool off a bit .powder coat them (30 minutes from start to cool down.) and them reload the cases with these bullets. all in one day.(ok, I do use a Dillon 550B for reloading) and yes, I can load a 100 38's in about 10 minutes.

[murf205]

Attachment 208806

you got me interested. ill have to do some reading. thank you irish too

Take it from a notoriously cheap boolit caster--me, if you decide to powder coat boolits, get some of Smoke4320's powder. It is a LOT better to get even coverage with the "shake and bake" method than using Harbor Freight powder. Here are some in Carolina Blue.

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

Not trying to be a wiseass, but why are we wiping off the excess?

[RustyReel]

Attachment 208806

Take it from a notoriously cheap boolit caster--me, if you decide to powder coat boolits, get some of Smoke4320's powder. It is a LOT better to get even coverage with the "shake and bake" method than using Harbor Freight powder. Here are some in Carolina Blue.

I agree. I've used some of the cheap powder from friends and Ebay, some works well & some OK, but Smoke's works very well every time. Start with a pound of his stuff and you are pretty much guaranteed success if you follow the instruction on this forum. After you have had some success you can wander off the path if you wish, but you'll probably come back to Smoke.

[runfiverun]

jay hawk.
it will blow back all over the case and get into the action if there is a bunch of it.

[waksupi]

jay hawk.
it will blow back all over the case and get into the action if there is a bunch of it.

Plus, it is a lubricant that prevents the casing from grasping the chamber wall as it should, raising pressures.

[irishtoo]

Plus, it is a lubricant that prevents the casing from grasping the chamber wall as it should, raising pressures.

bingo!!!!! they look better too