Have lurked and even posted on this forum for several years but yesterday was my first foray into casting actual bullets. I made up approx 100 lee 459-500-3R for my original 1888 trapdoor using 16-1 alloy as I believe the original rounds were in 1881
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Years ago I found a 1:1:1 Mutton Tallow, Beeswax, Gulf Canning wax with some lanolin recipe on this forum I think. I could not find the recipe but remembered some other people used the base recipe and added some Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
What I mixed was 1 lb Mutton Tallow 1 lb (approx perhaps a bit over) and 1 pound Gulf Canning wax, with 5 regular kitchen tablespoons (not measuring spoons) of Olive Oil and a Heaping Tablespoon of Lanolin.
I used that to Pan Lube approximately 90 of the 500 grain bullets in to breadpans, after several hours turned the pans upside down and tapped on table the block with bullets came right out and supporting the block on a 2 x 8 so that only one row of bullets was not supported was able to push the bullets out with my casting mallet and probably 90% ended up with all lube grooves filled.
Today I cast Saeco 452 .455 255 grainers from Wheel Weights (clip on) for my Colt New Service 45 long colt that started life as a .455 webley and shipped to England for the Great War. Pan lubed same will hit the range thurday to test both bullets..
What think you all of the Recipe?
I did notice today the block of lube with the bullets stuck to the pan and was harder to get out and would break easily resulting in maybe 30% non fills or partial fills of the single lube groove of the Saeco Bullet. The second bread pan batch I ended up just pulling the bullets out of the lube with about an 80% fill rate. (broke a nail ouch) Would it help if I either sprayed the bread pans with cooking spray or lined the pan with plastic wrap to make lifting the hardened lube block out with the bullets easier?
Last time I tried pan lubing some purchased as cast bullets I made a cookie cutter from an expended cartridge brass that I drilled out the primer pocket to accept a nail with a reasonably large head to cut bullets from lube block but think the push thru method is less of a hassle if I can get the block out of pan hole and support it close to the bullet being pushed out.
Again thoughts on my feeble attempt to cast and lube bullets.