Tumble lubing traditional-shape bullets

[ThinkOutsideTheBox]

I know there are specially shaped bullets these days that are specifically designed to be tumble lubed (such as having narrower and shallower lube grooves than bullets designed for traditional lube) but what I want to know is if it's possible to tumble lube traditional shaped bullets too instead of hand-lubing or pan-lubing. Because I'd much rather do that than those two methods. I have some liquid alox sitting around that I feel would work really well for this, but if anyone has any experience tumble-lubing traditional bullets, I'd like to know how well it works.

One thing that might be relevant is that the bullets I'm considering tumbling are part of an experimental batch; 100 9mm bullets made out of pure, unmixed linotype. So these are REALLY hard bullets that I don't expect to expand in the bore AT ALL. I'm not entirely sure if that'd make a difference in whether tumble lubing would work here, but any insight would be nice.

[daloper]

When I started casting all I did was tumble lube with Lee's Alox. They were traditional bullets. I did that until I started to PC coat. I did not do any that were that hard so I cannot say anything about that. Just remember that a little alox goes a long ways. When I started I used much more than I needed.

[Elkins45]

Bullets don’t care. The TL groove designs don’t actually make much difference.

[Yodogsandman]

Tumble lube designs are a farce. They are no better than traditional lube groove bullet designs for using tumble lube.

[Bookworm]

I personally believe that the tumble-lube grooves are designed more for "no need to size before loading", than for holding lube.

Although, the tumble-lube grooves do seem to hold the lube just fine.

I have used tumble-lube on traditional boolits, but I'm another that has never shot, or even cast, pure linotype.

[psweigle]

I still use the alox tumble lube on non micro groove boolits. Works just fine. But I would watch how fast you try and push them. 25acp 32s&w long 38 special 44 special and 45 colt work just fine. I powder coat all the magnum calibers and 9mm.

[243winxb]

Tumbling- I used Xlox on traditional 45 acp lswc as cast .452" diameter bullets for a test. Works ok. Watch for lube build up that may change COL. in the seating die. I prefer to use my Lyman 450 to size and lube over tumbling.

I have cast 45 acp & 44 mag, using Rotometals linotype for a test. Can a alloy be to hard? No.
The bullet diameter has to fit the groove diameter. Same or up to .001" larger. The standard sized bullets of .452" & .430" worked well in my Gold Cup & M29.

I have not tried Xlox and linotype together.

https://lsstuff.com/store/index.php?...products_id=11

[John Boy]

what I want to know is if it's possible to tumble lube traditional shaped bullets too instead of hand-lubing or pan-lubing.

Yes ... These are Ideal 311413, cast with 19.5 Bhn alloy and shot in a 30-30 at 2050 fps ... zero leading with Alox TL'ing

[Froogal]

I still use the alox tumble lube on non micro groove boolits. Works just fine. But I would watch how fast you try and push them. 25acp 32s&w long 38 special 44 special and 45 colt work just fine. I powder coat all the magnum calibers and 9mm.

Thank you. I've been tumble lubing my .38/.357 with micro grooves, and pan lubing for my .45 Colt. Pan lubing is a pain. I'm going to tumble lube some .45s and see what I think.

[psweigle]

Thank you. I've been tumble lubing my .38/.357 with micro grooves, and pan lubing for my .45 Colt. Pan lubing is a pain. I'm going to tumble lube some .45s and see what I think.

Glad to help. Good luck and be safe.

[mdi]

As noted several times above, yes you can lube "traditional" bullets with alox. I didn't like the mess on the noses on the bullets I tumble lubed (and every thing else they touched; ammo boxes, plastic bags, fingers, etc.), so started "dip lubing". I have a small metal container (kinda like a tuna can) and warm some alox. Then I grab a bullet by the nose and dip in the alox, base first and set them on a piece of alum foil, base down. Some bullets are hard to hold onto, so I use big tweezers. I have found this method to be less messy and works just as well as tumbling, except the noses are clean...