cleaning Bullets?

[BT Sniper]

Quick question,

After the final point forming process with jacketed bullets how are you guys cleaning the lube off? Talking on a large scale here. I have around 500 to clean and one at a time with a cloth takes to long. Have tumbled them in ceramic media and liquid hand dish washing soap with water works good but turns the exposed lead dull grey form the nice shiny silver it was.

Any thoughts?

Thanks guys,

Brian

[NSP64]

Have tumbled them in ceramic media and liquid hand dish washing soap with water works good but turns the exposed lead dull grey form the nice shiny silver it was.

This may be the method the big companies use, That's why the JHP bullets are grey colored.

[Ballard]

I have used lacquer thinner and rolled them in a big towel. Have also shot them with Brake cleaner and used the same method.

[Jimlakeside]

I do the same as Ballard, form a hammock, sprinkle a small amount of paint thinner over them, and rock the bullets back and forth for a couple of minutes.

Also be careful and make sure that you clean your seating die often if you are reloading lubed bullets because the seating die can become filled with lube and force your bullet deeper into the case. Since lube builds up gradually over time you really don't notice it until it becomes a problem. Don't ask me how I know this one. Took me weeks to figure out what was going on.

[Crooked Creek]

I make bullets for benchrest competition (my use, not sales), so they are hollow points with no exposed lead. As such, I don't want anything getting inside the internal cavity of the hollow point. I only use the towel (hammock is a good description) method with nothing added. It takes me a lot longer than a couple of minutes, more like a half hour or more (I've never really timed it, I simply watch them till they are "done"), but what better do I have to do while watching the TV in the evening and it's good arm exercise to boot ! I use a large bath size towel (4' long or so) and roll/tumble them pretty much from end to end. They come out very well polished and dry of any lube, and look beautiful as a side effect. I can "run" between 500 and 1000 7MM (90 to 120 gr.) or 30 cal. (135 to 150 gr.) at a time without a problem, the more the better as far as the end "polish". Personally, since I'm making benchrest bullets, I would not use any sort of abrasive tumbling media that could add the risk of changing the dimensional accuracy and characteristics (including any residue whatsoever in the HP cavity) that you strive so carefully for in the jacket selection, core forming and seating, and the point up process that you use to achieve a final product that is as near to perfect as you, the individual, can get. If I were selling them by the thousands, perhaps my beliefs would be "subject to revision"!

[454PB]

Castrol Super Clean is bio degradable degreasing detergent, and that's what I use. It doesn't make them shiney, but it removes all the lubricant. Be careful with the full strength stuff, it can burn you skin.

[madman]

Just plain ole simple green full strength and a clean rinse in filtered water.. I do mine in a large plastic tub. I don't beat them around to much just gently with a wooden spatula. Dawn also works very well. Simple Green is great for allot of other things also. It makes a great steam cleaner soap.

[Ballard]

Crooked Creek,
Interesting post. I will try your longer "hammock method" of cleaning. I am assuming you do not shoot coated bullets?

[Ballard]

Crooked Creek,
Interesting post. I will try your longer "hammock method" of cleaning. I am assuming you do not shoot coated bullets?

[teddyblu]

Crooked Creek:
do you use steel dies for your bullet making or carbide?

LarryS

[Crooked Creek]

Ballard,
Correct, I do not coat my bullets. I started just before that came into common (sort of) use and I never recognized the need, for my purposes. I know a lot of guys swear by it, while complaining about the mess. I know some that have abandoned the extra step of coating. To each his own, for me...I just don't want the mess and cleaning chores. My method may take a lot of time and elbow grease, but they sure come out nice looking and shoot as good as or better than anything I have bought commercially from the big houses. If you are going to give the longer towel a try, my method is to hold my hands straight out in front of my belly with elbows to my side. Hold hands pretty close together, raising one while lowering the other. This gets the batch into a good "rolling mass", and I take them virtually from one end to the other (or hand to hand if that makes more sense). As I stated earlier, get a fair number in there so there is enough rubbing against each other...500-1000 should work well, or more depending on what cal. you are making, 22's don't weigh nearly what 150 gr. 30 cals. do, so adjust the quantity based on how much exercise you're up for ! Last point, I use lanolin as my swaging lube, and a very, very stingy quantity is applied to the jackets to begin with. So, keep in mind that I am not soaking up a lot of lube, just wiping the bullets dry and contact polishing them. I've found the least amount of lube possible, to prevent sticking, yields the most consistant [diameter] bullets. Best of luck, let us know how it worked out for you.
Roger Allen

[Crooked Creek]

teddyblu (Larry),
I use both. I have a set of steel dies from Larry Blackmon in 30 Cal., with two point up dies, one each with .070" and .090" dia. ejection pin (the HP diameter). Two sets of Corbin steel dies, 7MM and 30 Cal. and one set of carbide 7MM dies, that are limited to about 120 gr. max.weight (in bench rest HP configuration). I use the above "wiping" and polishing method on bullets made from either the steel or carbide dies with equal result/success.
Roger Allen

[BT Sniper]

Crooked Creek, It took me a while but I guess you are talking about moly coating the bullets.

Some things I have tryied lattly, bought a large container of "airsoft" plastic 6MM BB's threw them in the tumbler with hand dishwashing liquid. Couple minutes and bullets were clean and bright but wet, so now have to dry them. Hammoc is good, have done the same thing with a large tube sock noted at end so I'm not pron to drop bullets on concrete floor.

Anyone ever tumble their jackets in swage lube as first step in process? Would think you would not want lube on inside for hunting bullet. What about target bullets would alittle lube on the inside have any advantages? I was thinking of fast way to coat several jackets before swaging, normally just run them through my fingers with lube on them. Was thinking of using the plastic BB's as a media and could get them large enough that they would not fit inside the jacket.

Any one know Mr. "Bughole" Lahr? An impressive setup he has and talks about process he uses. Probably beyond my needs but gets you thinking.

http://precisionballisticsllc.com/process.aspx

Not a plug but good information and pics.

Good shooting,

Brian

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

I make jacketed hunting bullets, using Corbin dies and a Walnut Hill press. Bad things happen to bullets if you do not clean A-L-L of the core lube off before seating the core in the cup.

Rich
Cape buffalo Killer (12-18-08 Zim)

[Crooked Creek]

I agree with Rich (Idaho Sharpshooter)....clean and dry cores and no lube inside the jacket. Also, IMO if you are lubing jackets individually with your fingers, you are most likely getting way too much lube on the jackets. This is way I was taught to lube jackets (after a thorough cleaning and degreasing) by a guy named Guy Chism in the 1980's who made/sold custom 30 cal. hunter class bench rest bullets. Take a piece of waxed paper, say a 4-5" square, put it on your scale and zero it, put about 25 grains of lube on the waxed paper, take a round Tupperware lidded bowl (about 8"dia., I'd have to check mine as it's been too many years for my aging memory), take the waxed paper in hand and apply the lube to the interior of the bowl all around (but don't worry about the lid) which will result in a thin film of lube (don't allow lumps or globs of lube) on the inside of the bowl, put about 500 cleaned/degreased jackets in the bowl and put the lid on tight. Now, start rotating the bowl in your hands in all directions so as to tumble all of the jackets into making contact with the lubed surface of the bowl. This will transfer, or deposit a very thin (but adequate) even film of lube to the jacket exterior without getting lube on the inside of the jackets. You may have to do a little trial and error on the amount of lube for your size and quantity of jackets being processed, but the key is the least amount of lube that will prevent sticking a jacket in the die is the correct amount. Sorry for the long winded explanation.
Brian, Yes, I was talking about Moly coating (sorry about that) as I assumed tha was what I was being questioned on, I should have made that clear.
Roger

[Ballard]

Roger,
Not Brian here, but that is what I was asking. If you used a different method of cleaning bullets that were going to be used with Moly or WS2. Do you re-lube after core seat and before point form, or do you find they are lubed enough from core seat?

[Crooked Creek]

Ballard,
Yes, I think you and I were on the same wave length when you asked if I shot coated bullets, but neither of us used the Moly or WS2 connotation, so Brian (BT Sniper) queried if I was talking about moly coating.
I really don't know what the cleaning requirements might be to ensure adherence of the Moly or WS2 to the bullet jacket. From what I've heard from those I know that have used Moly, they say it gets on just about everything around the work area (maybe they just weren't careful enough?) and then it's very difficult to remove. I have heard that WS2 is a little "nicer" (cleaner?) to work with than Moly, but I've never used either one.
Your second question is very appropriate and I should have completed my process when I was describing it above. So, here goes: When seating the cores I take the lubed jackets out of the Tupperware bowl and put them in/on the inverted lid of same (which now also has some lube on it from the "tumbling" process). When I have swaged the core to the jacket, I place that assembly back into the [now empty] Tupperware bowl. Once I have swaged that lot of cores to jackets I put the lid back on and roll them around a little bit more to redistribute the lube that remains on the swaged core/jacket and the bowel interior. Then it is on to the point up die, if I'm still in the mood for more work, if not, they are in a lidded container and will stay clean and contaminant free until I'm up to it. If I fumble and drop one on the floor, or even the "clean" bench top, it gets wiped clean to make sure there is no dust or grit that can find it's way back into the bowel, where it could ultimately damage a die. The old saying about "cleanliness is next to.." is appropriately opperative here, in spades !! I have not seen a need to clean and/or re-lube (meaning adding new/additional lube) between core swaging and point up, the redistributed residual lube has been adequate. Hope this helps.
Roger

[bullet maker]

Hey guy`s...
I use (spick and Span)...1part spick and span, to 10 parts water. I get the water hot to the touch , put in my bullets, and use a wooden laddle to stir the bullets....drain, rinse, then set outside in the sun to dry....works great.

[BT Sniper]

OK tried the "hammock" method with a large tube sock. The hard sharp edge of the base of the bullet made several small dings in the surface of the bullets as they banged into each other. They were 44 cal with the 40 S&W for a jacket at 250 grains if it makes a difference. So I'm still experimenting.

Thanks

[Crooked Creek]

A more gentle "rolling" of the mass of bullets is what you want to strive for, not an action that causes enough impact (dropping on each other?) to ding/dent the brass cases you are using. Those brass cases are significantly harder and thicker than the typical copper [alloy] jackets used for target type bullets. I've never had a problem with denting, dings, or blemishes of any sort using that rolling method, to the contrary, they end up looking polished. Any such imperfections would render the bullets unacceptable for BR competition. The action will slightly "break" the sharp edges at the HP tip and bullet base, but not so as you would notice much.
Your bullets look fantastic Brian, and should hold together well with that thick and heavy cartridge sides and base. Good luck.