Lubing Heel Bullets on 32 S&W For BP Use

[Good Cheer]

Reading with great interest.
Got an unfired Uberti 1849 up for sale on the interseine but I'm sure as heck thinking about putting a .32S&W cylinder in that rascal and having some bean can killing black powder fun in the front yard. Reckon that would mean disassembly and slugging the bore to make up my mind.

[John in PA]

You obviously have not done business with Bernie at Old West Molds - he modifies the Lee die to crimp the heeled boolits.

A very strong "second" on the heel bullet crimping tools made up by Bernie at Old West Bullet Molds. I liked the one he makes for .38 Colt so well I asked him about one for the 10.4 x 47R Italian Vetterli (1870). He'd never worked with it before. Cases based on reformed/trimmed .348 Winchester. I sent him a couple photos and some specs, and I had one in my hands in TWO DAYS. Worked perfectly. (Yeah, I DO like me some oddball stuff...)

[Grapeshot]

Try melting Paraffin wax and Crisco together, 60/40 mix, and dip your LOADED bullets into the melted lube over the grease grooves and set aside, The boolit will not get hot enough to cause the powder to ignite. It's been done with paper cartridges for C&B Revolvers and works well. You should get a hard shell of wax on the bullet and the grease grooves will be filled with lube.

[Exal]

Idk if this has been said since I read through everything very quickly, but have you thought about just adding a lube cookie under the bullet? Never messed with 32 S&W so don’t know if this is a bad idea or not but just an option.

[Wayne Smith]

Exal, if you loaded a lube cookie under the boolit there would be no room for the powder! If you are shooting Bullseye as I do maybe but he's using Black.

[GBertolet]

I am using black powder, 6 gr of 3F with a heeled bullet. Powder charge is compressed. There is an outside lube groove on the bullet, which I am trying to avoid having to smear lube on each round in the revolver, as I load it. it gets kind of messy while doing at the range.

What I have been able to learn, that melted SPG or equivalent, in a shallow metal container, with just enough lube depth to cover the driving band. Then stand the rounds, bullets down in the lube, maybe having a 3/8 mesh screen over top, to keep the rounds standing upright. Supposedly, after hardening, pull the rounds up, while twisting to free them from the hardened lube. How does that idea sound?

[barrabruce]

Maybe a rack like 22lr cases are held in.
Then place in tin and add melted lube to correct height.

I’ve tried dipping my loaded 310 cases in melted lube.
I ended up with more lube on the nose than in the lube groove if I had the bullet hot or a thick coating if a quick in and out dip was used.

I follow with interest.

I’m dip lubing standing upright then wiping the base to load over smokeless so the powder doesn’t stick to it.

[GBertolet]

I have an update on this adventure. I was able to locate a few 32 cal Speer HBWC bullets. No luck on the 327 federal or 32 H&R cases to try. I had some 32 S&W long cases. I did some measuring, and found that the nose of the 32 HBWC bullet was in the forcing cone of the barrel, before the base was out of the case. With a light charge of 231, I had no leading at all. This negated the bored through cylinder chamber issues. I read that some of the old BP loadings used HB bullets filled with grease, counting on obturation of the bullet to seal the cylinder. Success was achieved on the leading problem. I did have some light bullet tipping at 7 yards though. Still not as accurate as the BP loads with the heeled bullet. Maybe the bullet was not 100% straight going into the rifling. Maybe the longer cases would help accuracy wise, as there would be less freebore.

On another subject, I obtained a block of BP lube from White Label to try on my BP heeled bullets. I made a jig out of heavy gauge steel plate, and drilled a series of holes slightly larger than the cases. I inserted the loaded rounds, and placed the plate in a pan of melted lube. I only needed about 1/4" deep to cover the one grease groove. When the lube set up, I pulled up while twisting the rounds, and the plate scraped off the excess lube, leaving me with perfectly lubed rounds. Now off to the range.

[psweigle]

How do the lubricated over the powder felt wads perform in reducing fouling in revolvers? I see them advertised, but no serious critique on them. I just need a solution for 100-200 bullets at most. This revolver is not going to be shot enough to warrant a big time investment in bulk lube production, or additional equiptment. I just want to be able to go the the range a couple times a year and smell the black powder.

I woul just pan lube then.