Cleaning lube off loaded rounds

[wlc]

I know that this has to have been covered before, but evidently my search foo is weak... I apologize.

I have been pan lubing with speed green and cutting them out with a home made cake cutter. I size with a Lee push through type sizer. After I load them I would like to get the excess lube off the boolit nose and what little gets on the case. Short of wiping them individually, which is a huge pain when loading in bulk quantities, is there an easier method? No, I don't want to just shoot them as is and I can't justify the $$ for a lube-sizer right now. Has anyone ever just dropped them into the tumbler with corn cobb or walnut media and tumbled it off? Would that work? Any other methods? If there are no easier methods I may just go to tumble lubing with 45-45-10 as these are 9mm 147 gr to be shot through a suppressor. THANK YOU!!!!

[samwithacolt]

I had the same problem, and I'm making a new cookie cutter right now. How is the lube getting on the noses? I made a cookie cutter for .40 from a .410 shell, so that the boolits went all the way through and came out the top. It leaves too much lube on the noses, so I'm making one that just picks up one boolit and then pushes it out again. I'm hoping it won't get any inside the cookie cutter or on the boolit. I've loaded boolits with lube on the noses before and it gummed up my seating die. After a couple of hundred, they were seating deeper in the case as the lube caked inside the die. Also a major pain to clean loaded rounds and the wife would'nt watch tv with me as I sat there with a box of rounds, a rag and a can of laquer thinner!

[Lead Fred]

We just wipe them
Always have, always will

[JSnover]

As the boolit is seated in the case any excess lube is squeezed upwards because it doesn't have much of a choice. It flows up until it has enough room to stop. A hollow seating plug should solve the problem of the seating depth but you will still have some clean up to do.

[wlc]

I had the same problem, and I'm making a new cookie cutter right now. How is the lube getting on the noses? I made a cookie cutter for .40 from a .410 shell, so that the boolits went all the way through and came out the top. It leaves too much lube on the noses, so I'm making one that just picks up one boolit and then pushes it out again. I'm hoping it won't get any inside the cookie cutter or on the boolit. I've loaded boolits with lube on the noses before and it gummed up my seating die. After a couple of hundred, they were seating deeper in the case as the lube caked inside the die. Also a major pain to clean loaded rounds and the wife would'nt watch tv with me as I sat there with a box of rounds, a rag and a can of laquer thinner!

I made my cake cutter out of a fired 357 Max case that I flaired just enough for my boolits to slip in and out of. I set it up as a one in one out type thing. I cut it out then push it back out like pushing on a syringe. The lube still builds up in the thing and then when I size them you get excess lube build up at the entrance of the size die and the boolits stackin up on one another gets any residue on the noses as well. Doesn't matter how well I keep the excess cleaned off the size die it still gets on the noses as well. When loading as a previous poster said excess will get up on the exposed part of the round due to the lube not having anywhere else to go..

[samwithacolt]

I just punched some out with my new cutter. Better, but there's still some lube where it ought not to be. I'm still gonna be wiping!
Can you put your boolits through the sizer base first? I can put my .40's in backwards, but my .32 winchester rifle boolits are round nosed and hard to push. A bit awkward to size base first.

[pirkfan]

Don't tumble loaded rounds. Vibratory tumblers can break up the powder, changing the character of the burn rate and messing up pressures.


I know that this has to have been covered before, but evidently my search foo is weak... I apologize.

I have been pan lubing with speed green and cutting them out with a home made cake cutter. I size with a Lee push through type sizer. After I load them I would like to get the excess lube off the boolit nose and what little gets on the case. Short of wiping them individually, which is a huge pain when loading in bulk quantities, is there an easier method? No, I don't want to just shoot them as is and I can't justify the $$ for a lube-sizer right now. Has anyone ever just dropped them into the tumbler with corn cobb or walnut media and tumbled it off? Would that work? Any other methods? If there are no easier methods I may just go to tumble lubing with 45-45-10 as these are 9mm 147 gr to be shot through a suppressor. THANK YOU!!!!

[canyon-ghost]

Someone suggested wiping them off with a rag that had been dampened with mineral spirits paint thinner. We use it as a bore cleaner too. If the lube is too tacky or you have too much of it on the outside, a rag and mineral spirits will speed up the job. Just don't get them absolutely wet with the solvent. Old tee shirts work pretty good.

Good Luck,
Ron

[Socal147]

Wipe the bullets on the dog. Kills the fleas. LoL

[wlc]

Don't tumble loaded rounds. Vibratory tumblers can break up the powder, changing the character of the burn rate and messing up pressures.

I think you will find that OEM Mfg actually tumble loaded rounds. I'm not saying it couldn't be a problem, but I don't imagine thirty minutes in the tumbler would be anywhere as bad as all the vibration loaded rounds experience just in transport in semi trucks or the UPS truck form Mfg to your local gun shop or house.. JMHO.

Sounds like I'll either be wiping them off or trying tumbling them with 45-45-10 to make the process go faster. I might try a sample lot in the tumbler just to see how big of a mess I can make.....

[Foto Joe]

Wiping them off is a pain but I've found that a squirt of paint thinner on one of those blue shop paper towels and I'm good to go. Since I wear gloves when loading anyway I don't sweat the contact with chemicals.

[LuckySavage]

Wiping them with a piece of t-shirt with a little WD-40 on it cuts the lube quick and gives the boolit a dandy polished look. It has enough solvent in it to dry completely, and leave a little oil to prevent oxidization.

[357maximum]

Only two good options...sorry,

1. A rag with solvent
2. Buy a Star sizer and adjust it properly

[wlc]

Only two good options...sorry,

1. A rag with solvent
2. Buy a Star sizer and adjust it properly

I was afraid of that.....

[Dark Helmet]

Hot towel will pull it right off.

[Echd]

Don't tumble loaded rounds. Vibratory tumblers can break up the powder, changing the character of the burn rate and messing up pressures.

Head honcho ballistician at both Hornady and Hodgdon say this is false.

Source:

http://www.americanhunter.org/blog.php?id=21301&cat=56

I have been doing it for years and years with no issues.

[ebner glocken]

For removing excess boolit and case lube I use the hammock method. Dump loaded cartridges in a towel and use a chemical remover. Prepsol works well, so does chloride free brake cleaner, lots of cleaners that are noncorrosive and not oxidizers. Spray or sprinkle on and shake back and forth a few times. Most lubes will come right off. The idea is to just get them a bit wet, don't submerge. The solvent will evaporate quickly and leave a clean loaded round. btw, don't smoke while doing this.

Ebner

[Capnjack98]

Yar this isa pain, buuut what I have done is make a board all my rounds sit in( nose up of course). Make the holes tight enough so they stay in solid. Then a mini buffing wheel ona cordless drill works some slick. I also use my dremel with mini buffin wheel. Couple quick times round the nose and Bam Done!

[stinjie]

To keep lube from getting on the boolit nose and in the crimp groove,I put the boolit through the sizer with the base first.This keeps the nose and groove clean,and it's easier to wipe excess lube/wax from the base.just roll the base edge against a paper towel layed on the bench or table.This keeps very little,if any lube from getting on the case and dies.

[geargnasher]

I used to put the loaded rounds in a tumbler with some plain cob but it blacks the brass and fills the extractor groove with black funk.

I queried the board a few years ago and someone here mentioned the "hammock method" as Ebner mentioned above. It is the ONLY satisfactory method for doing more than a handful at a time as far as I'm concerned.

Take a fluffy, old terry bath towel, lay it out on a solvent-proof surface like a clean garage floor, spritz it with WD-40, Ed's Red, or plain mineral spirits, pour the cartridges into the middle of the towel, fold the sides over in thirds lengthwise like your momma taught you, grab one end of the "burrito" in each hand and bring them up nearly together, alternately raise one/lower the other slowly to "saw" the bundle of cartridges back and forth the length of the towel "tube". Do this 25 times or so and pour out the cartridges on a clean, dry towel, fold over half and shuffle the cartridges between like dominoes to dry off the faint solvent film and polish them. If desired, the whole process can be repeated except use watered-down Nu-Finish liquid car wax in a spray bottle to lightly dampen the first towel, saw them around, pour out on a clean towel to dry for a few minutes, then buff domino-style. This will halt storage corrosion for years.

Gear

[Crash_Corrigan]

I reload a lot of 9mm's. Even with the correct sizer dies in my Star luber I get some extra lube on my rounds. I run them thru a vibrator tumbler with corn cob and nu finish car wax. About an hour is just fine. They come out very shiney and clean. They feed thru my 9's like grease thru a goose. I can run about 350 rounds at a time and it is not a biggie with me. Just an additional step to produce quality ammo cheaply. I am retired and my time is not expensive.

[geargnasher]

Crash, my quality time is fairly inexpensive too when dealing with explosives, but I do the mass cleaning method more to save wear-and-tear on my much abused hands and wrists than purely as a time expedient (is that redundant?). If I could find some cheap, dust-free cob I'd probably still do it in the vibratory tumbler same as you, but that pet cob goobers up the nooks and crannies. If my hands could take it, I'd probably hand-wipe every one like I often do with rifle ammo.

Gear

[dkf]

I ordered my last corn cob (wanted fine stuff) from McMaster and it is not overly dusty. Especially if you skim the cob off the top and don't shake up the package. The dust settles to the bottom.

[44man]

CLEAN LUBE OFF THE BRASS AND LEAVE THE LUBE ON THE BOOLIT.
, how simple.

[starreloader]

I clean all my ammunition, depending on the amount/weight, in a vibratory or rotary tumbler.. Using #14/20 grit corn cob that is lightly moistened with mineral spirits or K1 kerosene.. Usually only takes about 45 minutes to no more than an hour for the ammo to be cleaned and looking new... All bullet lube, tooling marks, case lube and fingerprints are gone..