Stupid question; Tumbled Alox aplied in addition to comercial hard lube

[Sakoluvr]

I thought about experimenting with a tumble application of Alox on purchased boolits that have hard lube already applied in the grooves. Will the hard lube get destroyed in the tumble?

[Ben]

Not a stupid question.
No harm at all in what you're planning.

Ben

[Sakoluvr]

Thanks Ben. Hey, if a little is good a lot is better. Right? :p

[rockrat]

I have done that using thinned LLA. Works fine.

[dragon813gt]

I use BLL to coat all my bullets even if I use traditional lube. Alox would work the same way.

[Sakoluvr]

Great minds think alike. And I thought it was stupid! :redneck:

[Hick]

I too use BLL in addition to the traditional lube on most of my cast boolits

[Bookworm]

Count me in too. I purchased some Missouri Bullet projectiles for a cartridge I had not yet started casting.
I tumble-lubed them in 45/45/10, worked fine.

[jsn]

I'm not sure if the old lube will fall out or not. Probably not in newer boolits.

I have thought about dipping the bottoms of handgun boolits in heated Alox (up to the top of the single lube groove), then wiping off the bottoms, on older boolits where the old lube was drying out.

I have never been a fan of Alox on the entire boolit as per the instructions, especially on the nose of semi auto rounds, as the stuff then gets all over everything.

[centershot]

I have never been a fan of Alox on the entire boolit as per the instructions, especially on the nose of semi auto rounds, as the stuff then gets all over everything.

Not if you're applying it properly!

[VICIOUS]

HI; I thin out lee alox and lightly coat already sized and lubed bullets. Mostly if I have leading issues.

[psweigle]

I'm not sure if the old lube will fall out or not. Probably not in newer boolits.

I have thought about dipping the bottoms of handgun boolits in heated Alox (up to the top of the single lube groove), then wiping off the bottoms, on older boolits where the old lube was drying out.

I have never been a fan of Alox on the entire boolit as per the instructions, especially on the nose of semi auto rounds, as the stuff then gets all over everything.
I just put a little mica powder on them. No more sticky boolits.

[Sakoluvr]

Take into account that I have recently started to load cast for the first time. Been reloading for my rifles for years, but recently got into the .45 Colt.

I went ahead and gave it a go. Only did a small batch of bullets that had commercial LBT Blue . Put a very small amount of Alox in a container and tumbled them. The LBT Blue stayed put. Left them overnight and they were pretty dry with a waxy feel. I would not exactly call them sticky. I then decided to put a dab of Johnson's Paste Wax in the container and soften it up with my heat gun on low and a foot or two away. Gave the cast another tumble. Put them on wax paper for an hour or 2 and checked them. Voila! The JPW quickly dried and also took the slight sticky feel away from the Alox. No need for Mica and the benefit of JPW.

I know a lot of folks do the LLA and JPW (mineral spirits) in 1 step, but I am liking the result too much to change anything right now. Gonna load them up and hit the range next week. Who else does this 2 step method?

[GhostHawk]

I did something similar with Carnuba wax and Johnsons one step. Mixed up maybe a shotglass full, heated with a soldering iron to get it to melt. Ended up with a whitish gel, about a big matchhead sized lump in 50 bullets dried in under an hour and gave a smooth slick non stick surface.

But in the end I decided it was easier to add the carnuba and do it all with one lube, with 2-3 light coats depending on application.

Play around a little bit, but if you get stuck in the weeds go back to basics.

[wv109323]

Wieners at one time sold a cast bullet that was tripled lubed. Cast with conventional lube, a liquid lube and then a mica powder coat.

[Sakoluvr]

For those that have applied mica to dry up the Alox, does the mica come off easily? Messy to handle? I really like the JPW as a final layer over the Alox. Very clean to handle and I bet they will seat very smooth in a snug neck, which I need when using 2400.

[Tripplebeards]

Newbie question...so if I tumble over my lubed and gas Checked bullet will it provide me any benefits or is it overkill? Will Alox do as good of a job or better than my lube and would I be better to use it instead of a traditional lube? Is Alox meant for only slower projectiles or can it also be Used on high speed rifle bullets? If I do try it I will tumble again in johnsons paste wax so it's not tacky. Can I tumble over my GC?



194127

[robg]

Tumble lube works fine for rifle boolits and gas checks ,if your worried just wipe gas check base on a rag to remove any excess.

[runfiverun]

you guy's are newer so you don't know that 45/45/10 lube was designed to do exactly what your doing.
Bens tumble lube also does the overcoat.
they both work without the lube under them too.

how fast they will go just depends on your circumstances.
I use some of the very first batch of 45/45 lube to this day and only use it in a couple of rifles.

oh the 45/45/10 lube is cooked JPW to remove the solvents then alox [Xlox from LS's stuff from the link below] is mixed in and mineral spirits is added so the lube is applied thinner and dries faster.

[DerekP Houston]

I did this to some comcast 38 special SWC I got a few years back. Solved my residue/light leading issue like a champ, I used the thinned version. I've also used BLL as an overcoat on my 9mm hitek rounds to salvage them instead of remelting.

[iplaywithnoshoes]

I bought some coated 405 .459 Missouri Bullets which measured at .460. They had decent accuracy but I decided to try pan lubing them and saw an unusual improvement...

195059

No question or lube experiment is out of line. LLA Alox works great at higher velocities so adding a little tumble lube can only cause improvement. :) You may stumble upon a great combination.

shoe

[Aunegl]

When I find those sweetheart deals with commercial cast bullets. I coat them with BLL and store them in their orginal container. Within a week or two, they're dry and ready to be used.

[M.A.D]

Well if it's stupid, then iv'e been stupid for the last 30 years. And will continue to be stupid until i stop shooting... Essentially, i found it helped stop a leading problem in a S&W 29 with the 10 5/8 inch Silhouette barrel with stinking hot 300 grain loads... So continued ever since.

[Sakoluvr]

Any such thing as excessive lube causing accuracy to deteriorate?

[smoked turkey]

I make it my standard lubing procedure to run my cast boolits through a sizer/luber applying Ben's Red into the lube grooves. I then use a thin over coat of BLL over the previously lubed/sized boolets. I find that it is best to apply BLL in very small quantities and see how it coated the boolits. I can always do the BLL a second time if needed. Rarely do I need to tumble lube them a second time. I did quite a bit of shooting a couple of years ago preparing for a spring black bear hunt in Canada. My accuracy improved when I double lubed the boolits in the fashion I described above. I used a Lyman 3589 boolit with a 50/50 mix of wheelweights/pure lead. My 35 Whelen did an excellent job on the bear which was a five year old boar. The distance was 60 yards and the bear ran about 40 yards before giving it up. I highly recommend both Ben's Red and BLL for all smokeless cast boolit shooting. I use it on calibers .243 to .505 Gibbs with complete satisfaction.

[myg30]

Any such thing as excessive lube causing accuracy to deteriorate?
Sako, A quick reply to your question. Over coating with TL is just a waste. The extra lube will make a mess of your brass ,as you seat a boolet it will scrape off and build up around the rim. It will load up your seater die as it will build up on top, then gunk up on your crimp die if seperate.
If applied to thick you will have these issues.
Warm the TL to liquid state, warm the bullets or boolits if you want. Hand full of Them in a baggy or plastic container, several drops of lube, shake, swirl, flip. Dump on wax sheet to dry. If lube is very warm, the excess will run off.
The only boolet that I shoot, that can suffer from Over lubing is a 257420. No info about any other.

Mike

[Sakoluvr]

Thanks!

[Jack Stanley]

Any such thing as excessive lube causing accuracy to deteriorate?

It can , but in the cases where I give a light coat of Ben's lube on bullets before sizing . I reduce what I put in the grooves .

Jack

[Jeff Michel]

I have noticed a tendency in.38 wadcutters to be less accurate if you lube more than one groove. I'm curious if anyone else has noticed this or am I imagining it.

[Jack Stanley]

I don't think you are imagining it . With Alox 50/50 I only lube one groove lesser quality might take more but for me more than one of Alox is a waste .

Jack