Have begun casting, have a few questions

[noonanda]

Hi all, Im obviously a new member, and I got some questions for the experts.

Bullet lube, do you lube all bullets you cast for use in smokeless powder pistols? I just bought 500 cast bullets, and am waiting on my bullet mould to arrive in the mail, and am wondering about lubing of the bullets. I will be reloading for .45 LC and .45 ACP (just bought a Ruger NM blackhawk witht the conversion cylinder) and assume I need to lube these bullets before I can reload them.

Another question, bullet lubes made at home, anyone have a reciepe that uses ingredients found at for example to local home depot etc. I will be pan lubing similar to pics I saw on Goatlips website (lots of good info for a newbie caster) and am looking for a good lube I can make cheap, wife tolerates my shooting but need to keep the cost down as much as possible

[wallenba]

Absolutely, lube all cast boolits! As you have bought commercial cast bullets, did they come un-lubed? You will find lots of good recipes using the search engine on this site. Goatlips has a great site too. I have recommended the ammosmith.com on youtube as a good source of video knowledge as he covers almost every aspect of our hobby. Good luck, and welcome to the asylum for conversant reloaders...Cast Boolits!

[wallenba]

Oh yeah, I forgot. If they are not lubed, are they not sized as well? Check them close as it might lead to chambering problems.

And HOORAH!!, are you up before revilie at 5:49AM? Hope it's important, like reloading.

[fredj338]

If you bought commercial cast bullets, they should come sized & lubed. There should be a waxy ring around the middle of the bullet. You can make lubes but after buying all the stuff to put in a home made lube, WhiteLabel lubes are a better bet IMO. They come in stick form, but you can melt them & pan lube them. http://www.lsstuff.com/lube/index.html

[WILCO]

Good luck, and welcome to the asylum for conversant reloaders...Cast Boolits!

Ditto for me!!

[noonanda]

Oh yeah, I forgot. If they are not lubed, are they not sized as well? Check them close as it might lead to chambering problems.

And HOORAH!!, are you up before revilie at 5:49AM? Hope it's important, like reloading.

When I posted it was 6 something here at pendleton, yeap Went running after I posted that, now sitting back relaxing drinking my coffee ( Im on leave). They are sized .452, but they do not have any lube in the groove, so Im thinking about using one of the many reciepes I have found here and on other sites, do black powder lubes and regular smokeless lubes usually work the same, aka can use one lube style for smokeless and can use same lume on flet homemade wads for BP?

Thanks

[jdgabbard]

I pan lube with the old NRA formula. It consists of beeswax, paraffin, and Vaseline. It's worked well for me so far, with little leading in my low velocity loads. And when I say little leading, I mean just a few flakes on the patch. But the white lable stuff is good I hear..

[JDFuchs]

They will need some lube, tho not always excessive amouts of lube. I found with a TL356-124-TC tumble lube lee mold, that I was never happy with but had a pile of bulets for, that i can just size and lube them in my lyman 450, it only manages to lube one full tinny ring and half of a few others but has oddley turned into one of my better 38spl loads!

[looseprojectile]

Welcome and thanks for serving our country.
You will do well by just lubing your boolits with Lee liquid Alox.
What kind of gear do you have to load your .45s ?
You might find that you can load both fortyfives with .45 auto dies. Hopefully a carbide sizer, as carbide polishes rather than scratches the case when sizing. Lee is good.
You picked the best cartridge to load for starters as it is easy to get good results with both.
Fill us in with what you have and how much you are expecting to expend on gear and we will be glad to help.
For instance it is not very expensive to cast your own boolits with a minimum of equipment. Being a Marine, I already know you are a scrounger, LOL.

Life is good

[noonanda]

Welcome and thanks for serving our country.
You will do well by just lubing your boolits with Lee liquid Alox.
What kind of gear do you have to load your .45s ?
You might find that you can load both fortyfives with .45 auto dies. Hopefully a carbide sizer, as carbide polishes rather than scratches the case when sizing. Lee is good.
You picked the best cartridge to load for starters as it is easy to get good results with both.
Fill us in with what you have and how much you are expecting to expend on gear and we will be glad to help.
For instance it is not very expensive to cast your own boolits with a minimum of equipment. Being a Marine, I already know you are a scrounger, LOL.

Life is good

I own alot of Lee items(presses/Dies/etc). I have the smallest version of their Smelting pot, It was given to me by a friend who used it to cast lead sinkers about 5 yrs ago. I litterally have not used it until I got my black powder pistol and wanted to cast some lead Balls for it(Pietta Colt 1851 Navy Repro). I also have a Lee ingot mould and lee lead dipper. Dies for .45 LC are the Lee 4 die Carbide set, I have an old set of RCBS .45 ACP on the way, but these are not Carbide.

I have been loading for pistols for a few years now, reloaded .32 S&W Long, .32 ACP for my 1895 Russian Nagant (now am reloading it differently using .32-20 cases,) and 7.62 Tokarev and 9mm for my Czech CZ-52. The only one that I used Cast bullets in was my Nagant and those are Hornady boxO 500. So casting and shooting my ownbullets is going to be a new expierence. I bought a .45 Mould at the gunshow on Saturday, and cast some nice bullets, but then realized I bought a muld for a Thompson Center Muzzleloader, so I bid and Won one on ebay( it should be here within the next few days). I also sold the TC mould on ebay and actually made about 5 bucks LOL.

Im a big milsurp guy, Ive got rifles from most of the big participants of WW2 (except for france, italy and poland) and reload for em all

[Wayne Smith]

noonanda

At the speeds you will be shooting these almost any lube will be appropriate. I use Emmerts for BP and pistol loads under about 1000fps. Look for the sticky on using Johnson's Paste Wax. Lube ingrediants are not expensive simply because of the small quantities you are using.

Beeswax is almost always a primary carrier for the lube. You might be able to find it locally or RandyRat here sells it. If you know any local beekeepers they will have surplus to sell. Do a search for Emmerts and you will find lots of variations to try!

For high speed I use Speed Green. It's easy to make and cheap. You will want to get some of BullShop's Sprue Plate Lube (logo at the bottom of the page) anyway and you make it with that and beewax.

Welcome to the addiction!

[Echo]

Yo, JH;

No doubt about it, this is the best forum on the net. No flames, polite (sorta), respectful, and the Encyclopedia of Boolit casting. Welcome to our midst.

I am a noobie, although I have been casting for 40 years. So much to learn!

Re your boolits. My go-to boolit for SlabSides is the Lyman 452460. 200 gr SWC that should do well in your resolver. I use NRA 50/50 beeswax/Alox lube. Smelly stuff, and I doubt if She Who Must Be Obeyed would appreciate having it fumigate her domain, so using it to pan lube probably is not a good idea. Alox is aromatic! Perhaps someone else can suggest a pan lube that would be acceptable to discriminating nostrils. And you might want to try the Mule Snot system, but do it outside - Alox again. Should do just fine in your low-velocity loads.

Another idea is to put a hundred boolits into a ziplock bag, along with a heaping tablespoon of JPW, and place out in the sun. When the JPW has melted, massage the bag some to coat the boolits. When satisfied, bring inside and place base-down on waxed paper to dry/set up. Keep the ziplock for the next effort.

What mold did you pick up on ebay?

Again, Welcome to the addiction.

[felix]

A good way to tumble lube is to do it while water dropping from the mold. Obtain a cheap aluminum kettle big enough for water dropping. Condition the kettle by making a felix lube complete as normal, but with the addition of about 10 percent high-temp micro wax, say 180 degree type, and not the typical 120 degree grocery store paraffin for hardening. Carnauba should be included as is ususal for the lube. Leave a puddle of lube in the kettle on purpose, and let it harden throughly. Now, water drop your boolits in the kettle as usual and do not take any boolits out until a day or so later. The agitation of the boolits dropping into the wax on the bottom is sufficient for the wax to circulate. The boolits will be very thinly coated with a HARD and DRY wax and might be of sufficient quality to just load and shoot as they are, especially in low pressure situations. Any rate, the method is excellent for bore riding boolits that are going to be sized and lubed. ... felix