lubing before shooting

[canuck4570]

my question is

I cast a lot of bullet and leave them like so

few days or even months after I lube them just before heading to the range

what does it do to the hardness of the bullets

I always cast air cooled

since I ham at it what would happen to water dropped and oven hardening....

thank you

[barrabruce]

I do the same.
I only lube as I need them.
40:1 to acww seem not to harden or soften I think after casting.
If I add Linotype they harden up after a few hrs or more.
I size after casting or they seem harder the next couple of days.

I can see no differences in the groups I shoot if I leave them for 4-6 mths.
More difference in the lube viscosity effects from winter to summer.

[canuck4570]

than you

[GregLaROCHE]

I think it would be an advantage to lube them just before shooting, especially, if the lube had a low melting point and they could be subjected to heat, from the sun etc.

[canuck4570]

I have medium hard lube..... and in my 30-06 and 450 Rigby the cast bullets used are inside the neck...... unless its so hot that the lube melts and gets to the powder.
but in Canada I would be surprised......

[LenH]

I lube the next day after casting and I store the bullets in bulk indoors.

[greenjoytj]

It is my understanding that cast bullets will only harden by quick cooling (water dropping) if there is Antimony in the alloy.
For fear of my lube drying out I won’t lube more bullets than a months needs. And those lubed bullets are stored tightly sealed to prevent air circulation.

[curator]

Air-cooled wheel weight (ACWW) alloy slowly hardens from about BHN6 to about BHN12 over the course of two weeks making them much more difficult to size. When I cast boolits from ACWW I often size them asap using a push through sizer if I want to store them sans-lube. Otherwise I size and lube within a day of casting and store in plastic food storage containers with lids. Alloys with a lot of antimony, like linotype need to be sized as soon after casting as possible because they harden more rapidly. Running them through a push through die first, allows for easy lube-sizing if you install a sizing die that is .001 over the already sized bullets. This system also makes for more concentrically sized bullets than base-first lube-sizing in a Lyman or RCBS lubrisizer.

[canuck4570]

curator

this is what I do I find it more ease to seize on a reloading press whit Lee die and after using the .001 over seizing die in my RCBS to lube