slick boolits and tumble lube

[Nobade]

Recently I have been making a variety of boolit moulds to produce slicks for paper patching. And of course it got me to thinking, what would happen if you made a slick boolit just a touch under groove diameter, came up with a good way to knurl it up to exactly where you wanted it, then coated it with tumble lube? I would imagine this has been tried before, but I haven't heard about it yet! If it works, it would open up lots of possibilities for boolit designs that aren't commonly available. Sort of what Hornady does with their lead bullets.

The other thought was I need to design or find already made a tool to roll knurling on boolits to a specified diameter (by adjustable jaws or some other means to control the final position of the knurls) I know Corbin and CH4D make rollers to put cannelures on boolits but I don't know about a knurler.

-Nobade

[runfiverun]

just tumble lube the slick sided boolit.
or steal 303 guy's idea of using the waxy lube as a dip.
he was just dipping the nose it seemed to be working pretty well for him.

[SciFiJim]

For a few boolits to experiment with, you might try rolling a few under a flat file to add the ridges and see how well that they will take the tumble lube.

[longbow]

I have been doing that for quite a few years. It works fine. In fact last weekend I shot some of my best groups yet with the Jungle Carbine using a smooth boolit that casts to 0.313" then knurled up to 0.316" and tumble lubed. These groups were better than I have been getting with my NOE 316299 so now I have to reshoot side by side to compare and see if it was a fluke.

If the design is a nose/bore rider with short full diameter bearing surface, tumble lube works fine on a smooth boolit too in my experience. There is enough on the nose to do the job.

Not going to say they will replace grease groove boolits but they work fine for me in my .303's anyway.

Longbow

[Nobade]

This is great to hear! Keep 'em coming, I knew I couldn't be the only one out here who has thought of trying this.

-Nobade

[Jim]

63251

[SciFiJim]

63251

So how was the knurling accomplished?

[runfiverun]

i'd say rolled between two files.

[Jim]

Rolled on my wooden bench top with a 14" pipefitter's half round bastard cut file. I put the boolit on the bench, laid the file on the boolit, held the file down with some pressure and made ONE pass.

A coupla' years ago, I did a little experimenting with sizing some 8MM boolits down to .311 by pushing them through a Lee sizing die. It virtually wiped out the lube grooves and the check shank disappeared. I knurled them with the method described above, lubed them with alox and pushed them back through the .311 die. This trapped the alox in the pockets on the boolits.

I never did get around to working up a load for accuracy, but I successfully shot them through my .303 without any leading.

Below, left to right:
Lee 325-225-RF 8MM boolit, as cast
Sized to .311
File knurled
Graphlox lubed and resized

63260

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/James64/PB140002.jpg

[Jim]

Nice, Jim! Puts me to shame!

[longbow]

Here are a couple of mine.



A .30 cal with 0.313" bearing surface and 0.303" nose bore riding section and a .44.

I originally made the knurler to put annular rings on the boolits kinda like Lee tumble lube grooves and diameter increase 0.003" to 0.004" depending on how much pressure was applied at rolling but... as you can guess traction of the roll on the boolit wasn't good and they tended to skid which ruined a boolit.

If I was careful it went not too bad and they took tumble lube well and shot well.

I decided to replace the "toothed" roller with a diamond knurled roller and that worked well but the knurling was too aggressive and increased diameter by about 0.008" and they didn't shoot as well. So, I reworked the roller again so I have a flattened knurl on the "drive" roll and a toothed idler roll. Now I get about the same annular rings as before but without the skidding issue.

Short story is yup it works and I doubt it much matters how you get the knurled surface as long as fit is good when you are done.

Give it a try! These push out moulds are easy to make as you know and they allow a guy to play with boolit designs, weights, etc. easily.

Longbow

Poop! That photo was supposed to fit in the space I left at the top. I better read up on posting photos!

[rdlange]

WOW. What a great idea. And like most great ideas, really simple. I know just what bullets I'm gonna use it on. Thanks.

[Nobade]

This is wonderful to know it can work and has been done before! Looks like I have some work ahead of me dreaming up and making moulds to play with this idea.

-Nobade

[pull the trigger]

So what is the load this is over, boolit speed? And seriously no leading?

[longbow]

For me:

- the .30 cal is for .303 British over 18 grs. IMR4227 with COW filler ~ no leading; boolit weight is 185 gr.
- same mould with different nose form to make a Ness Safety Bullet "clone" at 130 grs. was shot over 22 grs. IMR4227 with pretty good results and no leading. Better accuracy was had at 18 grs. IMR4227 as per the original Ness loading info (17 grs. actually)
- the .44 is for 1894 Marlin usually over 20 to 24 grs. IMR4227 depending on boolit weight which is from 240 grs. to 265 grs. ~ no filler, no leading

I have loaded slick boolits (not knurled) up to 250 gr. in the .303 and either tumble lubed or dip lubed. Those performed well too.

I have read that when using COW filler unlubricated boolits tend to give best accuracy and no leading so I tried that with slick boolits ~ accuracy was not as good as with lubricated boolits and I got some leading.

Longbow