lubing a tumble lube boolit--help please.

[jlchucker]

After spending yesterday afternoon with my new Ranchdog 44 magum mold (half gascheck and half plainbase), I spent this drizzly afternoon trying to lube my new boolits. I've read that even though a boolit may be a tumble-lube design ( like most of Ranchdog's are), I promptly sat down at my Lyman 450 sizer lubricator to prepare them for handloading. I seated the gaschecks on the boolits disigned for them, then attempted to size/lube with Javalina Alox like I do everything else.

PROBLEM!! I was unable to adjust my sizer depth to fill those tiny little grooves without making a big mess--usually at the base of the boolit being sized-lubed! I ended up finger-lubing with the grease that leaked into the sizing die! Is there a trick to using a Lyman or RCBS unit on a tumble lube boolit? Or should I get the stuff to do it the Lee way? Or pan lube? I've cast for years, but have never experienced such lube problems. No problems casting with those Ranchdog molds--the boolits looked great. What's the secret to lubing them up using standard methods, if there is one? Any help would really be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[fishnbob]

When I tried lubing bevel base boolits, I had a overrun of lube on the base. I took some styrofoam meat trays and punched out some holes with the cartridge type I was lubing and put the circle cut out in the sizing die and lubed them. I don't know if that will help you or not but I would try it and use 'VERY LITTLE' pressure 'cause them TL grooves don't hold much.

[geargnasher]

The secret is to use TUMBLE LUBE on them. Either make 45/45/10 lube per the tumble-lube sticky in the lube forum and follow the instructions to the letter!, or dip them in straight LLA or Xlox per Ranch Dog's instructions. Search "Ranch dipping" or "Dip lubing" here for lots of tips, and I think Michael puts a description of the process on his website, ranchdogoutdoors dot com.

Gear

[runfiverun]

the pressure must be low.
and the holes must be right.
i only have two holes open on my star dies and the best i can do is three grooves lubed.
a little dip lubing [the g/c area],or tumble lubing really is best with those type of boolits.

[jlchucker]

Thanks, guys. I think that today I'll load up what I finger-lubed and see how they shoot. Ranchdog's mold works very nice, and casts nice looking boolits. I've only cast and lubed 20 of each, plainbase and gascheck and want to see how they shoot out of my EMF Rossi rifle. I casted up a bunch more boolits with that mold the other day, and if the shooting shows the promise that I suspect that it will, I will follow the advice of you guys and get set up for dip lubing. I want some good hunting ammo for this particular rifle. I've reached the point of old geezerhood that I'm starting to need to use my longer rifles more in order to be able to see the front sight clearly. So--it's going to be the EMFer in 44 mag, or the ol' 30-30 Classic, I guess-from now on in.

[mdi]

I can tell you that Ranch Dog's bullets work great in my Puma. I have both the 265 gr. and the new 240 gr. and still working up loads for Trail Boss. I don't own a lubersizer so I can't help you there but I have tumble lubed the 265 with xlox and 45-45-10 and pan lubed with Speed Green. I haven't tumble lubed (actually I "dip lube" as Ranch Dog does) the 240 yet but have pan lubed with Speed Green. Just got a higher front sight (I installed a Williams Receiver sight) so I'll be back out there shooting my RD 240s soon...

[fecmech]

I was able to lube the RD 100rf for the .380 in my Star. I had been running them through to size and decided to try and lube. Worked out fine and saved the TL step in the process.

[EDK]

I seat the gas checks with the NOE gas check seater tool and a LEE hand press while I'm watching the tube. You can cull the bad ones out while you're doing this.

Next I tumble lube and run the boolits through a STAR sizer WITHOUT using the lubricator feature.

Tumble lube a second time.

:redneck: :cbpour: :2gunsfiring_v1:

[jlchucker]

I seat the gas checks with the NOE gas check seater tool and a LEE hand press while I'm watching the tube. You can cull the bad ones out while you're doing this.

Next I tumble lube and run the boolits through a STAR sizer WITHOUT using the lubricator feature.

Tumble lube a second time.

:redneck: :cbpour: :2gunsfiring_v1:

Good info. I have a 432 sizer from Buffalo Arms, and have been using a Lyman 450 luber for several years now. After reading this thread I'm going to get some Lee Liquid Alox, and try it. After reading what you just posted, I think my first step will be to gascheck and size my boolits with the Lyman 450 but not lube the boolit, then tumble-lube after sizing. I've never tried pan lubing but that's an option I'll think of trying as well. I'll need to rig up a kake cutter for that though.

[EDK]

Tumble lubing and the LEE press mounted sizer is an entry level set up that will work well for you. I keep toying with the idea of sizing to maximum in the STAR and having the LEE sizers to adjust diameters smaller. Having about 20 odd 44s with varying dimensions...between myself, step kids and grand kids...most of my loads are generic. A bit of fine tuning and record keeping for individual guns' dimensions would improve the accuracy. IIRC, 310 shop has kake kutters.

I really like RANCH DOG TLC 432 265...so much that I bought the NOE plain base lube groove clone of it. My latest mould is MIHEC's 434 640 cramer hollow point in plain base. The 260-t0-275 weight range seems to be the sweet spot for my guns and loads. I don't use a lot of gas checks, BUT I'm thinking I ought to contact MIHEC and get the 434 640 cramer Gas Check version while he has some available. That will get my allowance in hock until new years, since I bought primers on my little trip to GRAFS yesterday; and some more PMAGS for the AR15 in case Mr. Obama celebrates his re-nomination with an EXECUTIVE ORDER Assault Weapons Ban. (Surprisingly, PMAGS are readily available at the local gun stores and none of them have raised prices. BUT a lot of AR15s, magazines and ammo are going across the counter.)

:redneck: :cbpour: :guntootsmiley:

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

recently, I've lubed some 41 cal Ranchdogs with a lyman lubesizer using white label's BAC lube..
Ranchdog has larger TL grooves than Lee's design's so running them through
a Lyman lubsizer works for the Ranchdogs for me where as NOT so much for Lee's TL boolits.
In fact I just lubed the bottom two TL lube grooves of the 41 255 gr. boolit.
In fact, that illiminated the mess of which you speak.
Now I plan to run these through a revolver,
a rifle may need all the lube grooves filled...just lettin' you know my thoughts
Jon