I casted my first ever boolits tonight

[Joe Bob]

I just finished casting some .36 cal round nose for a 1851 and a 1860 B/P revolver. My first cast bullets, ever, and they're sure purdy. Oh, and I casted a few round balls for them, too. I also casted some Lee REAL .54 caliber fur muh Hawken. I lubed all of them in Lee Liquid Alox (Gotta' be a better way) My question is this: The Alox got all the bullets nice and greasy and well coated BUT the lube grooves in both bullet types are not filled with lube like when you run bullets thru a Lube/Sizer for smokeless powder guns. Seems like the grooves should have a lot of Alox in them. There is some in them but not much. Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? JB

[jh45gun]

Damn I hate to tell you this but Lee or any of the black powder shooters that have addressed this issue does not reccomend Lee Liquid Alox for shooting in muzzle loaders using Black powder or any of the Substitutes. ( This has been discussed before) The Liquid Alox has some petrolium products in it that does not mix well with the powder and makes a black gummy mess in the bore if you use petrolium products with black powder and its substitutes. I think the only way to get the crap off is to remelt the lead and skim off the alox that floats on the top of the mix. I would do this in a old pot and not my furnace if it was me. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. For a black powder lube use some sort of grease and beeswax mix. Or even straight grease. Some use Crisco others the vegtable lubes sold for black powder some still even use animal fat or any other combinations. Just as long as it does not have salt in it (some lard) Or Petrolium products. I made some out of bees wax and Bore Butter and it worked great but to be honest Crisco probably would have worked as well and a whole lot cheaper than bore butter. Lots of lube recipes out there just look around on the net and find one or two to try. Considering the lower velocity of most muzzle loader applications the lube does not have to be fancy to work just has to provide lubrication. Hell some guys still use spit for patched ball applications if they are going to shoot it right away.

[jh45gun]

For smokeless cast loads the Lee Liquid Alox is what I do use and I lube the bullets let dry and size if needed then I relube again or if I do not need to size I still may relube if I feel it does not have enough lube on the bullet. This stuff is good stuff. I have used it in my 45/70 and gotten brown/yellow smoke out of the gun from the lube but no leading and the bore still is bright too. Great for smokeless but as I said above do not use it with black or any of the black substitutes.

[Joe Bob]

Thanks, JH45. I think I'll try to wash the Alox off the bullets with laquer thinner, tomorrow. I'm just lazy and I'm always looking for the easy way to do a job. If that will not work, I'll remelt as per your directions. I've got some yellow bore butter, guess I'll use it for right now. I really appreciate your help and I mean that. Thanks JBS

[Joe Bob]

Hey JH45, laquer thinner works really, really great on taking Alox off bullets!! Took all of one minute to clean them up. Also asked the Warlord if she had any Crisco. She came up with a brand new can. Ain't life grand. JBS

[jh45gun]

The Warlord LOL Hey that laquer thinner is a good idea and I do not know why I never thought of that before as Lee says you can use that to thin out the Alox. Crisco will be good for putting over your chamber mouths on your revolvers too to prevent chain fire.

[Buckshot]

.................Joe Bob, what jh45gun said about petroleum products and BP is true. They don't do well together. Most any animal or plant oil or fat works well and normally mixed with beeswax as a stiffener if necessary.

I don't have any rifles using a patched RB. They're all conical shooters, and I also shoot the Lee 58 cal REAL. The REAL is accurate and VERY fast to cast compared to the hollow based Minie's. You'll find that where you put the lube is as important as how much you use. I haven't tried it yet with the flat based REALS, but I aim to try them dry with a grease cookie under them. So dump the powder, ram a cardwad, then thumb in a grease cookie and start the REAL over it and ram both home. Should be interesting to see what happens.

Otherwise I find the REALs to be a royal PITA to lube without me needing to take a shower afterwards as it looks like I've been wallowing in the lube.

One of the best ho-made lubes going is mutton tallow (hard to find in some areas) and beeswax. Straight Crisco is an old favorite, Wonder Lube or TC's 1000 is good, but expensive. You can mix them (like jh45gun pointed out) or gin up your own concoction.

.................Buckshot

[jh45gun]

Buckshot I have found that a greased felt wad worked well with a REAL Bullet. I cut mine out of felt that I got at a fabric store and soaked in the beeswax/borebutter mixture while melted and hot. This was a hell of a lot cheaper than the wonder wads. Only thing is I got to find a better punch to cut them out with I used a old 50 cal BMG case. LOL Worked for a while but got dull fast. Any Punch ideas?

[Joe Bob]

When I lube with Crisco, what's gonna' keep the bullets from picking up all kinds of trash and how am I gonna' keep from getting all greased up when loading them into muh bullet launcher? I think I'm gonna' try wrapping a REAL bullet with a piece of raw bacon and shoving it down muh barrel and see if that ain't a cleaner way to do it. JBS

[shooter575]

I lubed REALs for my .58s with my lubersizer in a custom die I had for doing minnies.You can make a die up to .585 or so.The walls are starting to get thin though.But I have run many thousands through mine with little wear.That is the easy way.Next to that pan lube or just dip them in melted lube. 60% beeswax and 40% oil [saffron,canola olive etc] works well and pretty cheep.

[jh45gun]

I hope your joking about the bacon?????????????? But if your not its full of salt something I would not put down my bore. Your asking for rust. If you were joking LOLOLOL Carry on! :)

[Buckshot]

....................Joe Bob, I think for hunting with the Lee REAL they'd be best off dipped in a rather hard lube and then carried in their own little leather bag or other container. The other possiblity would be as jh45gun said and just use a lubed felt wad under them. For hunting whatter ya gonna need? Maybe 3 at the most?

For hunting, your requirements are different then target shooting or just out potting at targets of opportunity. Hunting you might get off 1-3 shots and these will be as powerfull loads as your rifle will accurately shoot, defined by your limitations. For general or competition shooting you migth be looking for loads that work for 10 to 30 shots.

There are so many possibilities out there for carrying pre-lubed MLer bullets as to defy listing them here.

....................Buckshot

[jh45gun]

Buckshot for clarification I use a wad plus I lube the Conical or REAL bullets I have used both.

[Joe Bob]

I'm only joking 'bout the bacon, JH45. All you guys have really been helpful on this issue. I appreciate the advice. This board is the most user friendly and helpful of any I've ever seen. Again, thanks and I'll see you when the next problem comes up. JB

[jh45gun]

I'm only joking 'bout the bacon, JH45. All you guys have really been helpful on this issue. I appreciate the advice. This board is the most user friendly and helpful of any I've ever seen. Again, thanks and I'll see you when the next problem comes up. JB


I kinda figured you were but ya hear some strange things once in a while. LOL

[quigleysharps4570]

Any Punch ideas?

Buffalo Arms sells punches. http://www.buffaloarms.com/browse.cfm/2,242.html

[Ken O]

Just lube the bullet before seating, I use the TC 100 bore butter, I wouldnt carry around a bunch of lubed bullets. I also agree on the petrolium products, I learned the hard way, I had a well seasoned TC barrel and decided to put a little Rem Oil on a patch and run it down the barrel before putting it away. It completly ruined the seasoning, I had to clean after only a couple rounds or I coulnt get the ball down, it seemed like it would never season right again. Took a real long time before that barrel came back to normal.

[jh45gun]

I lubed a bunch or REAL's with beeswax and bore butter mixture and made a leather bag to store them in. Works fine and you do not have to take the time to lube each bullet in the field although that would work fine if you wanted to do it that way. Bottom line is what ever works as long as the bullet gets lubed. Jim

[j4570]

I bought a tube of some stuff that was CVA or something that had a spout. When it was all gone, I cut the back end of the tube off, and stuffed with crisco, and then used a "food tube" clip that comes with the "food tubes" you can buy in camping sections, it's made to tube up PB&J usually (not really necessary these days with the nice light plastic containers). The clip is all you need, I just keep refilling. I only shoot round ball usually, and cover the cylinder flush with crisco.

BP revolvers are fun!

[sturgeon]

I just started casting for my black powder rifle last month and came across a recipe that works well in the sizer and fills the grooves nicely as well...beeswax, and murphy's oil soap.