Pan lubing small dia. tall bullets?

[Jim..47]

I'm trying to figure out a way to make .30 cal. bullets of 187 gr. stand up without falling over so I can pan lube them. I forgot to add, they are also gas check bullets which makes this harder.

Maybe I'm asking for a miracle but I thought I would ask you guys.

I have been unable to come up with or thing of a device that would hold them vertical while pouring the lube and waiting for it to set up.

[Sticky]

I don't pan lube, but I tumble lube and stand boattailed 308/230 boolits up on the bases to dry overnight, no issues using a pair of needle nose pliers and just setting them upright. I also do this with ASBB PC with the same boolits.. just gotta be veeery careful getting them in the oven to cure.. lol

[sawzall]

Pour the liquified lube in the pan you intend to lube in and let it solidify. Then use your cake cutter to make holes in the lube for the boolits to sit in. They won't fall over if they're held upright by the lube. Then just heat the pan up to lube the boolits. You may need to add the little lube cakes you cut out to get the level high enough to fill the grooves. Let it cool off again and cut uot the boolits. Done!

Alternatively, you could wait for the lube to get a little "stiff" and when still nice and soft but still very pliable, stuff the boolits into the lube. Might be quicker than cutting holes. Then remelt and cool.

[JWFilips]

I set my boolits "Carefully in the melted lube". You may drop a few ( jut pull them out) Set up as many as you feel you can. Again remove any fallen ones. Let the lube set. Then when ready Kake cut them out. Leave the holes in the cooled pan. From that point on you just set in the new boolits in the holes as long as you can. Sooner or later you will need to refresh the amount of lube in the pan.This funks things up a bit but I try to keep re-seatinging in the old holes. It works for about 6 applications ( For Me)

[GhostHawk]

IMO, easier to dip them, set them on a plastic lid to cool. (Is a bit like sticking a candle in place with hot wax)

Once cold I resize to remove excess wax.

If they are tall you can use just a small container grab boolit by the nose and stick it in up to the crimp ring.
Short and fat bullets use a paper clip with one half bent into a ring for the quick dip.

IMO less messy than pan lubing, easier to do small batch's. Lots less frustration with falling boolits. If a dipped one falls, shrug, so be it.

Heat gun is handy for melting lube, small torch type lighter will also work.

[michiganmike]

IMO, easier to dip them, set them on a plastic lid to cool. (Is a bit like sticking a candle in place with hot wax)

Once cold I resize to remove excess wax.

If they are tall you can use just a small container grab boolit by the nose and stick it in up to the crimp ring.
Short and fat bullets use a paper clip with one half bent into a ring for the quick dip.

IMO less messy than pan lubing, easier to do small batch's. Lots less frustration with falling boolits. If a dipped one falls, shrug, so be it.

Heat gun is handy for melting lube, small torch type lighter will also work.

Perhaps we should name GhostHawk's process the "dip your wick" method. I cast 7mm bullets using the RCBS 168 grain #82018 mould. Those bullets are definitely very long in relationship to diameter. And the two times I tried pan lubing they did NOT want to stay upright in the lube, despite taking great care. It's a shame, as I really want to give Ben's Red a fair try.

I'm definitely not going to spend the money for a lubrisizer. As things stand this is a time consuming, messy and frustrating process. I will try GhostHawk's dip your wick method. But I have a feeling that pan lubing will a dead end for me. That is OK, as I generally use Ben's Liquid Lube, which is fast, east, and mess free - I bought a box of the blue nitrite gloves at Home Depot. I use them while tumble lubing my bullets in BLL, set them on wax paper to dry - and there is no mess. AND BLL is a lot easier to make than Ben's Red - though I really would like my bullets to have those pretty red stripes from the Ben's Red.

MichiganMike

[Ben]

Here are some Lyman 311290 flat points that I cast a few days ago.
The flat meplat makes this one a deadly white-tail deer bullet. They weigh
212 grains and are sized .311".

They have Ben's Red in the lube grooves and have been tumbled in Ben's Liquid Lube.

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/p545/Ben35049/010_zpshuz52ug3.jpg (http://s1155.photobucket.com/user/Ben35049/media/010_zpshuz52ug3.jpg.html)

[Dan Cash]

Place the bullets nose down in a close fitting wooden loading block. Place an inverted cake pan over the bullets in the loading block and while holding the loading block turn everything over so the loading block is on top and the bullets rest in the bottom of the cake pan. Carefully lift the block off the bullets and pour in your lube. When cool, press bullets out of the block of lube.

[kenyerian]

As mentioned above you might try dipping. Here is a link to Ranch Dog's method http://www.ranchdogoutdoors.com/Tips/Alox/

[atr]

+1 for sawzall recommendation....

[detox]

Sounds like your Gas Checks are more rounded than square. What brand gas checks are you using? Are you cutting sprue flat even with base (raised is not good)? How do you seat checks?

All my 22 thru 30 caliber rifle bullets will stand up easily on base. I use flat Hornaday checks and size/seat nose first. When casting open sprue plate with gloved hand, adding pressure downward to cut sprue evenly. Sprue plate should be adjusted flat against mould and open easily.

[Jim..47]

Thanks guys for all the ideas, much appreciated.

I use an older Lyman 4500 lubersizer to seat gas checks, and I have used it to lube many thousands of bullets as well, using old recipes and new, and some from this web site. They work Ok, but the bullets always leave the lubersizer messy which makes loading them messy as well.

My last lube I made seems so far to be excellent, but I haven't had much success in using it in pan lubing, even messier, so messy its not worth the effort. Thus the venture to find new methods that not only work but leave the bullets fairly clean.

Of all the methods you'all have listed here and I also read the attached links I'm going to try sawzall's method first. It seems simple and worked well for him.

I have quite a bit of liquid alox but so far haven't used any of it, other then an initial attempt over 30 years ago.

If I can't make his method work then I'll move onto another.

Thanks again.