To Lube or Not to Lube, That Is The?

[ChristopherO]

I've cast and lubed for other calibers and am now starting the foray into the midbore arena with the 35 Whelen. Trying to decide if I should dirty my new .360 lube/sizer die with lube or consider PC, as I would like to realize between 1900 to 2300 fps with these 250 gr gc boolits.
I have a spare toaster oven. I also have and use the old Lyman 450 with some White Label 2500 in the reservoir. What to do, what to do....
Granted, I may be asking too much but a man has to dream. Give me your thoughts. Is Carnauba Red a better choice if sticking with a wax based lubricant? Venture into PC, or PP? I appreciate your input.

[centershot]

Christopher, I have entertained thoughts of going to PC from time to time but have thus far resisted the temptation. Why? Well. there are a number of people on this board who are able to shoot cast boolits at velocities of 2300 fps and waaayyy beyond using grease groove boolits and conventional lube. I am satisfied that it can be done and that I don't need to accumulate more "stuff" in order to do it. I'm not saying PC is evil or anything like that, it's just not for me.

You should be able to achieve your goal with the 2500 in your lube-sizer. I would recommend using a balanced alloy (equal amounts of Sb & Sn) such as 94-3-3 if expansion is desired, or Lyman #2 (90-5-5) if you just want speed and accuracy and expansion isn't required. Search for Larry Gibson's work with the 30 XCB, it's pretty impressive what he's accomplished!

If you want full throttle speeds with just about any lead alloy then paper-patcing is he way to go! And it also brings with it it's own set of....ummmm....peculiarities.

Have fun, stay safe!

[bmortell]

It'd be easy to try PC, a sample pack of colors and some bb's from smoke isnt expensive, and then your equipped to coat several thousand boolits with 3 different colors whenever youd want to. Definitly not a bad deal and gives you options.