Precast lead with lube

[b2riesel]

Today I was at a local reloading supply center and behind everything was a dusty box of 115gr 9mm 1000 count lead with one groove filled with a blue lube. The price was $19.99. I had the price checked and walked out the door along with the primers I was there to buy.

I've been casting some 120gr 9mm in the anticipation of receiving one of BT's 9mm to 40 S&W dies. With these new 115gr...I'm thinking of putting them into some 380 brass I have laying around...however...removing that lube appears to be a PITA. I pressed a few cores in nose down and the lube didn't squirt and wasn't visible from top view.

My question to everyone here is....would you just leave the lube on...swage these into hollow points...squirting out the excess lube....make them almost full jacket soft tips....or burn off the lube? Or something else?

[Ballard]

Sir, I would wash the lube off. When swaging a core into a jacket, you want a lubed jacket and a DRY core.

[deltaenterprizes]

You do realize that $2.00/lb for lead cores? And for a little more you could have bought a Lee mold and made a lifetime supply.

[b2riesel]

I come out to $1.21 for the lead with no work involved. I already have 8 Lee molds of various sizes. Washing will do nothing for alox and beeswax lube. I do have a few hundred pounds of lead...but it has to be cleaned up...and made into ingots. I felt that 1000 premade 9mm lead bullets for $19.99 would be an easy task to make 1000 rounds of 40 S&W Boolits. Maybe I was wrong.

[deltaenterprizes]

You are right, I did my math wrong! Forgive me, I went to public school. LOL
You did good.

[randmplumbingllc]

I think I would burn off the lube while they are in the 9mm jackets. A small propane torch will burn off the lube and anneal the brass at the same time.

[357 Voodoo]

Put them in a pot of water and boil. the lube will float to the top.
then allow to cool and remove the lube cap from the water.
remove boolits and allow to dry they should be nice and clean

[BT Sniper]

Well now it is interesting. One thing for sure you didn't loose anything on the good deal for lead at yes the $1.21 per lb.

Your 120 grain molds will be perfect for the 40 cal bullet. Don't know what to tell you about the lubed boolits though. Yes you generially want to keep lube off cores, but who here has actually tested this theory with prelubed boolits? What's the worst that could happen, accuracy is off a little, core seperates from jacket in target, I don't know??? The lube will take up a bit of space in the jacket compared to the same boolit without lube, don't think it is going to squirt out. This will mean a longer bullet, how much I don't know could be enough to matter though or make a FN or smaller HP point for shorter bullet.

Better test the hardness of the lead. Under 10 BNH you shoule be fine. Any harder it may stress the tools a bit. I imagine if it is hard it could easily be melted and mixed with some pure lead to soften.

Talked with the desk girls at CH the other day. Still no word as to how long before the 40 and 45 dies will be ready, soon I hope but I am not waiting for CH and doing what I can to someday offer my own dies to keep up with the demand here.

BT

[BT Sniper]

WOW, I like the sounds of 357s post if it will work. Just be sure to remove cooled lube before bullets like he said. Sounds good to me or atleast worth a try.

BT

[bohica2xo]

Cast & lubed bullets can be swaged into new shapes & diameters easily enough.

Swage them to 357 HP's or perhaps trade them to someone that wants 9mm bullets for some cast cores.

.

[b2riesel]

Well thank you 357 Voodoo...I decided to boil about 200 and it was much quicker than I thought...so I put in the rest next..and bam...there was bubbly almost popcorn gunk on the top of the water...and shiny lead underneath. I even took the 12 cases I'd already seated cores into and boiled them...and out came the blue ****.

I'll measure the lead hardness at work tomorrow with a digital tool in the shop.

[BwBrown]

The boiling water bath is the sort of advice and ideas that keep me reading and lurking here.
Depending on the lube in question, save it as flux for your next wheel weight smelting session.
Bob

[Dan Cash]

Put them in a pot of water and boil. the lube will float to the top.
then allow to cool and remove the lube cap from the water.
remove boolits and allow to dry they should be nice and clean

This works very well as long as you pay attention. I did this very thing yesterday but forgot the pot on my melting stove. My nose told me something was wrong but I could not figure out what. Suddenly, it hit me; the smell of fluxing lead. Pot boiled dry and now I had a bunch of melted alloy. Oh well.