To Tumble-Lube or to Dip?

[dmclark523]

So here is the question I have. About to lube my boolits and need to know what works best. I am using Liquid Alox and I am lubing 230gn RN for .45ACP.
I have heard of both methods but am curious about what Dip-lubing will do to my rounds when I start to resize them. My main concern is that by tumbling them, I am coating the whole boolit in a ton of sticky lube when all that is actually going to touch the resizing die is the sides. So, why not simply dip the round in Alox up to where it begins to round out?

[runfiverun]

that's how ranchdog does it.
he dips and sets them on a cookie sheet with some wax paper.
tumble lubing uses less lube and dries quicker.

[357shooter]

Check out the tumble lube method described by Recluse at http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=67654&highlight=tumble+lube+sticky

It won't mess up your dies at all.

Dipping gives awesome results, but it is slow and painstaking. In a rifle it may matter, for 45acp it's not worth the trouble. IMHO

Added later: guess I was thinking reloading dies and not sizing die. Also, what works best for me is conventional lube via lubrisizer. :p :p

[Inkman]

I tried the dipping method.


Once.


After about 20 minutes i looked at the small amount of boolits that were finished and realized i still had about 4,900 to go.


Tumble lubed the rest as usual [smilie=l:

Al

[mdi]

You really don't have to use alox prior to sizing your cast bullets. I've used the same stuff I use for case lube, Mink Oil Boot Dressing, to lube bullets prior to sizing. Much less alox on my fingers! You can use just about anything to make the bullets slippery to make it easier and prevent any "leading" in the die. I only lube with alox as a last step and it's worked for me for a few years. I use Ranch Dog's method of dip lubing http://www.ranchdogoutdoors.com/Tips/Alox/ and when I tumble I use thinned alox or 45-45-10.

I don't have a quota, nor any minimum number of bullets to process at one time. If I did, I might not do anything. If it takes me a bit longer to do 100 bullets and get the results I want, fine, it takes longer...:mrgreen:

[grrifles]

I used 45-45-10 for 45 acp. 200 swc and 230 hollow points. Very fast and good shooting


Chris

[gcsteve]

I read on some other threads about using Johnson Paste Wax as a tumble lube....straight. I was a bit skeptical, but it is such an easy and inexpensive way to tumble lube, I decided to give it a try. I got 50 Lee 230 grain, tumble lube RN boolits warmed up a bit, and tossed them in an old metal pan with a small dollop of JPW. The JPW melted down and coated the boolits very nicely. I set them on their bases to dry on parchment paper. Checked them in a couple of hours and they were nice and dry, not at all sticky. I then sized them and loaded them. As I need them at .454 for my 1911, the sizer barely touched them, and I did not re-tumble. I loaded them over 4.2 grains of WST, and got 2 inch groups at 50 feet (my indoor range). No leading at all, very little smoke. I'm satisfied that it worked very well for me in my .45. Now to try it on some 38 Special...

[357shooter]

Straight JPW works great in some guns. You might want to either skip the sizing step, or lube after sizing. A small spray of WD40 will help for sizing.

If you happen to get some bullets that size, it will remove the JPW from the bearing surface. That's not a good thing.

[gcsteve]

@357shooter...

I hear what you are saying, but its my understanding that in both tumble and conventional boolits, the lube needs to be in the lube grooves, and is "pumped" out of the grooves during acceleration down the bore. On a conventional boolit, there is no lube on the bearing surfaces, and what little tumble lube is on the bearing surfaces on a TL boolit, would get more or less moved off the bearing surface and into the grooves during seating in the case.

If I am missing something here, please let me know, as I truly want to understand the process, and appreciate the feedback.

[Inkman]

A friend and member here lubes with JPW only for his .40 minor loads and gets zero leading. I tried it with .45 shooting major but got leading real bad so went with Recluse.

Al

[357shooter]

@357shooter...

I hear what you are saying, but its my understanding that in both tumble and conventional boolits, the lube needs to be in the lube grooves, and is "pumped" out of the grooves during acceleration down the bore. On a conventional boolit, there is no lube on the bearing surfaces, and what little tumble lube is on the bearing surfaces on a TL boolit, would get more or less moved off the bearing surface and into the grooves during seating in the case.

If I am missing something here, please let me know, as I truly want to understand the process, and appreciate the feedback.What you said is true of conventional lube. Tumble lube came about prior to tumble lube bullets. There is no way a conventional lube groove bullet, tumbled, had any pumping of lube. Yet it works for many people.

Straight JPW gets pretty hard too, I doubt there's any pumping of it. With TL, it needs to coat the bearing surface. Check out the 45/45/10 recipe, or other TL threads here. They all end with TL after sizing.

[imashooter2]

Dipping negates the primary advantage of film lube, which is you don't have to touch every boolit individually.

[FergusonTO35]

You can also apply liquid lube by using a cotton swab or small paint brush to paint he sides of the Boolit with lube. I do this when I don't want lube on the ogive or base.

[gcsteve]

I have read the Recluse 45-45-10 thread (very long, but excellent thread), and have even made some up and used it. It does work. I just wanted to try the straight JPW because it is so darn fast and easy, and so far, it has worked very well. I can't imagine any lube on a bearing surface staying on that surface for very long on a boolit engaging the rifling and going down the bore, so I guess I still don't fully understand how boolit lube works. I just know it does.