BP + Heeled Boolit + Conversion Cylinder - ? on lubing

[bedbugbilly]

I recently bought a Pietta 1858 Remington Navy (.36 caliber) and a conversion cylinder from Taylors. I'm going to be using 38 Colt Long brass from Starline and a 150 grain round nose "heeled" bullet out of a "Old West" mold I purchased for this. (.358 heel did. with .375 boolit diameter). Will be using a compressed load of 3F Goes.

I have always used a mixture of beeswax and Crisco for many years for by BP lube. When I load BP cartridges (38 Colt Short/Long/Special and 357) utilizing a .358 boolit for a .357 bore, I just finger lube the lube groves and then seat the slug to make a compressed load. That has always been ample to keep fouling soft out of my rifle/pistols.

MY QEESTION:

For those of you that load BP rounds with "heeled boolits" - your suggestions on lubing?

My thought was to, once the cartridge is loaded, carefully dip the boolit into melted lube to give it a coating (not unlike an outside lubed 22 round). I have made up a batch of lube that is a litter "stiffer" than what I usually use to finger smear into the hollow base of a rifled musket minie ball or to finger lube a .358 diameter boolit.

For those that are loading and shooting BP "heeled" loads - what are you using for lube and how do you lube the round in order to keep fouling soft?

I'm not going to be shooting in competition - i.e. CAS or similar - so I can certainly take a rod and solvent to swab bore and wipe down/re-lube cylinder pin every so often. Just curious if there is a easy and sure fire way to lube the heeled loads and keep fouling soft?

Thanks.

[jdfoxinc]

Your lube plan 8s sound. I used to do that to heeled .375 bullets . Had a custom C&H swage die. Used lee tumble lube .357 bullets as cores.

[Bent Ramrod]

I always leave an inch or so of 1/3 beeswax-2/3 mutton tallow in the bottom of my melting pot after pouring lubrisizer cylinders or grease-cookie sheets. When I make up BP rounds in .22 LR, .32 Long, Sharps paper cartridges, etc, I put the pot in the double boiler, melt the lube and dip the loaded shells into it to the juncture between boolit and shell.

I heat the lube a little longer than it needs for pouring sheets and cylinders (ie, I leave the double boiler boiling longer) so the lube is runnier and more of the excess drips off the boolit end. I also touch the nose of the boolit to the inside of the pot and twirl the round in my fingers to melt and draw any excess off. It only needs to be on the sides of the boolit, after all. The rounds go into a MTM plastic box nose down, or, if .22 RF, into a recycled plastic .22 Magnum box.

It goes without saying that the heels of the boolits are a tight fit in the shells. A boolit and a charge of BP at the bottom of a pot of molten lube is pretty unhandy.

[AntiqueSledMan]

Hello bedbugbilly,

Here's how I loaded & lubed for the .44 Colt Original.

https://1858remington.com/index.php?topic=8675.0

Now I'm shooting Black MZ and no longer lube.

AntiqueSledMan.

[bedbugbilly]

Thanks very much fellas for the help - greatly appreciated! I'm hoping to be able to get some boolits cast this next week and get some rounds loaded.

AntiqueSledMan - that certainly is an interesting read and I have bookmarked it so I can study it some more. Thanks and you certainly put a lot of effort and thought into it!

When I ordered the mold for the heeled boolit from Old West I also ordered their collet crimp die and modified shell holder. I really miss not having access to a lathe and mill anyone as I would have loved to putzed around making some tooling to load these critters up. I like loading sometimes with my Lyman 310 tongs and dies and over time, have assembled a set of dies and a steel tong to load the 38 Colt Short and Long. If I had access to the tools I used to be able to use, I would have made up a plier/tong crimp tool to apply the crimp on the heeled boolit. It took a while to decide to go this route but I really wanted the experience of loading/shooting the heeled boolits and I think the Remington Navy with the conversion cylinder is going to be a lot of fun.

Thanks again!

[Lead pot]

I do this for my lever rifles and hand guns. Just push them out with my thumb.
Works very well for all lubed bullets.

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