lapping question

[jonk]

For firelapping a rifle bore with a cast lead bullet, do I want to use lube on the bullet or no? Seems it would work against the lapping compound but I don't want to lead things up either.

[BABore]

No lube. Just roll the boolits between steel plates and use Clover brand lapping compound. I use 320 grit. It should take 2-3 minutes per boolit to get them embedded properly. They should be almost black. I then fill the grooves with some compound too. Non-bore riding boolits are preferred and they should have lots of bearing surface. You want to push the slugs out the bbl at slooooow speeds. Like 400-600 fps max. I use low charges of Red Dot and a tuft of Dacron. The Dacron holds the little bit of powder against the primer and more importantly, helps clean some of the fouling out. I load the coated boolits in unsized case so as not to scrape too much of the embedded compound off and to eliminate any blowback into the chamber of the compound. I have always completely cleaned the bbl and chamber every 5 rounds. It will lap even faster if you clean every round, but it gets old real quick. Most all of the guns I've done take 20 to 35 rounds to get them right. Look over the machining marks at the muzzle veryy well before starting. When you just start to see them clean up, STOP!

Following firelapping and a final cleaning, I've always gave the bbl a 100, continuous, back-and-forth strokes with a coated bob. I use an old bronze brush and wrap it with a long strip of old skivies (cotton) until it was a tight fit. Then I saturate it with lapping compound and go to work. The bbl will be warm by the time your done.

I've done all of this according to the instructions from the Beartooth Bullets manual. To date I've done at least 10 guns. So far I've had 100% success and have improved accuracy in all cases.