Do I NEED a lubrisizer?

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

It's all about your time and how much mess you want to deal with.

A good lubsizer, the correct die adjustment, and having your chosen Lube the correct temperature and pressure...will make lubing and sizing hundreds of boolits a joy, where lubing and sizing hundreds of boolits without a lubsizer is surely a chore.

But as nearly everyone has pointed out, you don't need one.

[TXGunNut]

I probably don't need one but I have one & use it for any boolit I load over BP or any other boolit that I want to use SPG on. Whether or not you need one depends on you, the boolit and the gun. I use the Lee sizer for most sizing/GC chores but consider the Lyman sizer an essential tool for my situation.

[mdi]

I started casting about 17 years ago and found a Lee "kit" with a 4" shallow pan, a 'cookie cutter" tool for removing bullet from lube cake, and a hammer through sizer. I made up hundreds of .44 cal bullets for my 2, .44 Magnums and learned how to cast/size, lube/load/shoot with that little kit. I have been threatening to get a lubersizer for those 17 years, but ain't done it yet, and don't see one in my future. I pan lube. I usually do a run of 100 to 150 bullets and size in my Lee push through dies (two of which I've "customized"). I use the toaster oven method and with my choice of lubes, I cut the bullets from the cake (I made some cutters out of stainless steel tubing reamed to a few thousandths over cast bullet diameter). My methods are not messy, and I don't get lube all over my bench, hands, dies, etc. So, in my opinion a lubersizer may be faster, but not a necessity...

P.S., Pan lubing and tumble lubing are only as messy as you are. If you tend to be a slob, then you'll get lube everywhere. If you are one of those neat-freaks, you'll keep your hand/arms/clothing/dies/press/bench pretty clean. I'm a little over half way between slob and freak, and stat fairly clean...

['74 sharps]

Not wanting to fool around with another piece of equipment, I tumble lube and shoot as cast for my smokeless loads, and dip others in a beeswax/Crisco mix and run through a Lee sizer, those being used for my black powder cartridges.

[geargnasher]

Soft, BP-type lubes are easily applied with your fingers, provided your fingers haven't been afflicted with a lifetime of heavy abuse or have a joint disease. Push them through Lee sizer like .44Man suggested just to squeegee off the excess.

Gear

[dverna]

Some great answers. You really need to decide what calibers you will shoot and how many rounds a year and how much "hassle" you are willing to put up with.

I get no joy in lubing and sizing so I go for the highest production rate I can. But I would not change dies or lube in a Star for 200 bullets. To much of a pain for 200 rounds.

Powder coat or Hy-Tek will not work with BP. Like gear said, for small quantities you can finger lube if you don't mind the mess.

If you are leaning to working with other calibers and a volume of bullets you will never regret getting a lubrisizer. They last a lifetime, appreciate in value and you get the convenience of using a good tool for years.

Some people try to do this as inexpensively as possible and take pride in the accomplishment. Nothing wrong with that approach but it is not for everyone.

Don Verna

[labradigger1]

"Need", probably not. For me i have only pan/tumble lubed only once and will never do so again. Nasty, greasy and imho makes for ugly boolits. I have 2 lyman 45's and a lyman 450 now, i usually keep a 309 die, 358 and 429 installed in one of them all the time, for me i can have the lube i want in the caliber i want immediatley. I also get alot of satisfaction from seeing the beautiful shiny swaged, lubed and checked bullet come to life.

[sthwestvictoria]

This is a great sticky about not being able to afford (or choosing not to) acquiring a lubrisizer:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...can%27t+afford

For me it is not wanting to purchase one, not having another thing on the workbench and not having to have different nose punches for different projectiles. However I only shoot low volume rifle cast and pan lube or TL and Lee push through sizers do all my work well. If I was shooting large volumes then I would think lubrisizer or increasingly about powder coating.

[FishingFool]

I pan lubed for 2 days and the immediately called up Star and ordered a sizer/luber. Now i'm just cranking away.

[Old Dawg]

I have tumble lubed as cast for 30 years andnever seemed to need anything else. I don't see how anything can be easier than tumble lubing.