Tumble Lubing - Damaging bases?

[Kevinkd]

Quick question if I may.

I tumble lube alot of 45/38 pistol boolits lately and I was wondering about them bouncing around in the container (I'm very gentle with them normally), however you still have to tumble them and swish them around alot.

My question is since the boolits are all the same hardness, is it not possible that they may 'damage' the bases of other ones in the container? Ie one sharp base puts a small dent in another sharp base (or they damage each other - sort of like digging your fingernail into base edge). If you took 2 boolits and pushed them together (sharp base edge to sharp base edge) would they not damage each others base?

I know for pistols, I"m not that accurate at 25yds so I probably wouldn't notice, but how about some non-GC based 308s or whatever?

Thanks for taking the time to read (and possibly comment).

Peace

[GhostHawk]

Well I have been using Ben's Liquid lube exclusively for over a year now.

Several times as I was stacking boolits away for storage I looked, and looked, and looked some more.

Found some wrinkling, a few mold marks, but no marks where there should not be marks.

But, my advice, look for yourself.

[reed1911]

I 'think' That any minor damage to the base (or any other part for that matter) will be so minimal as to not be a concern.

I've not noticed any issues in the past. I have had the same thought, but I have never seen any difference.

[fryboy]

i suppose you can hedge your bets and swirl it more softly as opposed to shaking them like a popcorn popper coming to a full head of steam ...:P

[jaysouth]

If 'rattling' them in a bowl causes you concern, place the unlubed bullets in a zip loc bag, add a couple of drops of BLL and gently massage the bag for a few minutes until bullets are coated.

[gwpercle]

I know what you're talking about and I believe it could, especially if doing a large number of boolits, they have to hit each other in the process.
I see people who cast then store bullets in gallon plastic jugs and wonder the same thing about storing them like this . I go to great lengths to cast perfect boolits, no defects and to size them as perfectly square and straight as possible in a lube sizer . The thought of then dumping them loose and fill up a one gallon container makes me cringe.
I have tumble lubed but did very small batches and was careful not to damage them. Still prefer the lubri-size machine.
But I stack each bullet , base down and side by side in small plastic or cardboard containers.
Back before I started casting, you could buy 100 and this was how cast boolits were sold not dumped loose into a big box of 500.
Gary

[Tom W.]

I stopped TL ( most of the time, anyway) when I got the proper sizing die for my LAM II. Never had any issues. The .30 cal boolits get TL, but got gas checks anyway, so that wasn't a problem. My .45 & 9mm boolits get unceremoniously, but fairly gently dumped into G.I. ammo cans until I'm ready to lube & size them. The last 9mm I TL with JPW, I did a few small handfuls at a time and was, I thought, gentle. Didn't get any dents that I saw...

[jmoore]

It seems to me that the rifling marks put way more deformation on the boolit base than the teeny TL dings.