Regular size & lubing a Lee TL bullet

[Wally]

Was wondering, does anyone have any experience using Lee TL bullets lube and sized through a Lyman 450 in lieu of LLA? I tried it on medium .41 & .44 Magnum loads and they did as well as using LLA...which I found surprising. Just wondering if anyone else has done so and would care to share their results.

BTW..the reason? I simply dislike (I cannot stand it) the odor of LLA.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I have with the Lee TLC312-160-2R
http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu127/JonB_in_Glencoe/sized%20and%20lubed%20with%20SL68B_zpsmuzcwzd8.jpg (http://s640.photobucket.com/user/JonB_in_Glencoe/media/sized%20and%20lubed%20with%20SL68B_zpsmuzcwzd8.jpg .html)

[paul h]

Out of curiosity I ran some 200 gr swc 45 tl's through my lube sizer and found that the lube wouldn't make it all the way around the lube grooves. I hadn't heated up the sizer so I'm sure that would have done the trick.

I don't see why a conventional lube would shoot any worse than tl whether or not the bullet is a tl or conventional design. I've used tl on conventional designed bullets and they've shot just fine.

[Landy]

What about using a bit of heat or the right solvent to use just about any lube you like as a tumble lube?

[Asks the newbie, that doesn't know any better than to ask.]

[williamwaco]

What about using a bit of heat or the right solvent to use just about any lube you like as a tumble lube?

[Asks the newbie, that doesn't know any better than to ask.]

you cant use "any lube you like". Many lubes will not work. Example. I tried Johnsons Paste Wax straight out of the can. It worked great at 600 to 700 fps but failed completely at 800 fps.



I do believe you could apply other bullet lubes by tumbling. As you read more postings you will discover other popular tumble lube recipes.

[Bullwolf]

Was wondering, does anyone have any experience using Lee TL bullets lube and sized through a Lyman 450 in lieu of LLA? I tried it on medium .41 & .44 Magnum loads and they did as well as using LLA...which I found surprising. Just wondering if anyone else has done so and would care to share their results.

BTW..the reason? I simply dislike (I cannot stand it) the odor of LLA.

I ran 2 batches of 9mm boolits through a Lyman Lube sizer.

One batch was the Tumble Lube Lee - TL356-124-2R
The other was the regular lube groove - Lyman 356402.
I was using Orange Magic lube in the Lyman Lube Sizer.

Lyman 356402 9mm TC (Truncated Cone)
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=52370&d=1304738207

And

Lee TL356-124-2R (Tumble Lube)
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=52362&d=1304661284

My Lee TL356-124-2R mould casts on the large size. (.359 with Lino) The lube sizer kind of wipes out the tiny tumble lube grooves some. It happens less depending on how far down you size your cast lead boolits. Most of the time I am sizing more for uniformity sake, since my 9mm's tend to like large boolits.

I did not take a picture of my wiped out TL micro bands, but others have before.
There's an extreme example of this in the link below, from Reloadingtips.com
Missing Micro Groove Lee Bullets
http://www.reloadingtips.com/pages/missing_tumble_lube_grooves.htm

Or you could just use your imagination.

Despite the somewhat diminished TL bands after sizing in the Lyman with Orange Magic lube... The Tumble Lube designed boolits shot just as well as the standard lube groove ones did.

I haven't touched my Lyman Lube sizer in years. I tumble lube the majority of my pistol boolits these days. I find it faster and easier. I also perform my boolit sizing on the reloading press, using the inexpensive Lee boolit sizing dies. I find them cheap and easy too open up to the exact size I want.

Lee Lube and Sizing kit.
http://www.brownells.com/userdocs/skus/p_100053244_1.jpg

If I want or need to use a regular boolit lube such as Carnuba Red, I just finger lube boolits, and run em through a Lee sizer die to clean the lube boogers up.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=144252&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1422503294

There's many different ways to do this. The good news is that most of them work.



- Bullwolf

[RogerDat]

45/45/10 LLA/Johnson Paste Wax/Mineral Spirits OR 60/40 LLA & Johnson Liquid Wax seem less odorous and less smoky than LLA alone. Dries fast, works well for pistol up through magnum rounds.

On the other hand the smell of plain LLA does not really bother me so maybe I'm not the best judge of how "strong" the odor is.
Have you considered powder coating? Probably about as clean as it gets when fired.

[swheeler]

It works just fine. I lube the RanchDog 359-190 in my lubrisizer

[Stoats]

I just hand-lubed a bunch of Lee 90gn .314 semiwadcutters to use in 7.5mm Swiss revolver with Carnauba Red. I just crayoned it on with a lube stick and smooshed it around some with my fingers. I let the seating die take care of the excess, and wiped it off on a cloth.

We'll see how it goes. It's hardly a challenging load though (2.1gn AA #2)

[Stoats]

Fired 15 of them, and there was a little leading in the throat. Not an experiment to be repeated.

[Maximumbob54]

I just hand-lubed a bunch of Lee 90gn .314 semiwadcutters to use in 7.5mm Swiss revolver with Carnauba Red. I just crayoned it on with a lube stick and smooshed it around some with my fingers. I let the seating die take care of the excess, and wiped it off on a cloth.

We'll see how it goes. It's hardly a challenging load though (2.1gn AA #2)


Fired 15 of them, and there was a little leading in the throat. Not an experiment to be repeated.

I would think any carnuba wax lube would be far too stiff for such a powder puff of a load. This is more the ground of 50/50 alox/beeswax, is it not???

[Stoats]

I would think any carnuba wax lube would be far too stiff for such a powder puff of a load. This is more the ground of 50/50 alox/beeswax, is it not???

Not at all. I shoot it in lube grooves down below 400 fps in .38 S&W on a regular basis. It works a charm. Stays on the bullet all the way to the target.

[Maximumbob54]

Not at all. I shoot it in lube grooves down below 400 fps in .38 S&W on a regular basis. It works a charm. Stays on the bullet all the way to the target.

Interesting. I would have thought the opposite.

In getting back to the point of the thread, I didn't care for LLA when I first started to use it and in stubbornness I tried to use my Lyman 450 with BAC to lube some TL bullets. It worked but I always had trouble getting lube to fill in all the tiny grooves. Maybe it matters and maybe it doesn't but it irked me enough that I went back to tumble lube but with 45/45/10 mix instead. That worked so well that I bought it ready mixed from White Label Lube. Then I got hot and heavy into powder coating and epoxy paint and that's a whole different subject.

[MT Chambers]

The Lyman/RCBS and even the STAR work good with those bullets unless it is displacing too much metal into those small grooves, which will be obvious.