Enough lube on my conicals?

[Tripplebeards]

I just tried pan lubing my conicals. I even reheated the lube and boolits till my lube meted using a heat gun. I pushed my boolits today and none of the lube grooves had lube in them. I smeared the lube in with my fingers and then hit the boolits with a heat gun to knock off the excess build up and to try and get an even coat. How does it look? Enough lube? I see sone of bottom grooves are pretty thinly covered.

[Grapeshot]

Try this trick. Take a brass tube that has the same inside diameter or a couple of thousandthsnlarger and put you bullets in a metal pan, or food tin lid. Melt your lube so the lube will fill all the grooves and let it cool off. Chamfer the end of the brass tube and push it over the bullets until they start coming out of the tube. The tube needs tyo be between three to four inches long. It will act like a cookie cutter and the lube will stay in the grooves. Load them over your powder charge and shoot.

[Teddy (punchie)]

Lube looks too thin. I'm no lube master mixer but somewhere there has to be a post about mixing and thickening lube. I would say more bee's wax.

[sharps4590]

Shoot a few. That will remove all doubt. To me, it appears they carry more lube than most BPCR bullets and most of them work just fine over some pretty hefty powder charges.

Grapeshot just made the chore easier for you.

[GregLaROCHE]

First I like the looks of those boolits, especially the wide grease grooves, that I have always heard are more effective than thinner deeper ones. However, being wider may be making it more difficult for the lube to stay in. What recipe are you using? Or is it a commercially sold lube. What caliber and what mold are they from?

Now days I PC most of what I shoot , or finger lube, I don’t mind the amount left on the boolit, after wiping with my finger. However, I did do some pan lubing before. I found the best way was to use a cutter as Grapeshot mentioned. I used a 45/70 case that I expanded, put a nail through the primer hole with the head inside the case and a cork on the point of the nail to push out the boolit. A long tube would probably be a lot faster.

There are lots of videos showing perfectly lubed boolits just popping right out. It’s probably due to the lube recipe and maybe something to do with the boolit too. If that’s what you are after, hopefully someone who has mastered it can advise.

[missionary5155]

The "cookie cutter" lube method grapeshot was writing about is the long time (180 years) method of separating cast from lube pans.
Your heat gun is just reheating the lube and gravity takes over and does the rest.

[Tripplebeards]

The lube is a mix of beeswax, Thompson’s paste wax, and transmission conditioner. I will have to look for something to cut them with and probably start over. I’m sure they were fine before but it looked to messy. They are 50 cal lee REAL 320 grain boolits.

[mooman76]

Just a educated guess but I'd say they will do ok. I don't pan lube, I just smear a little on before firing. Some people don't even fill all the lube grooves, just the bottom one or two.

[dondiego]

I use tongs and just dip my boolit into the melted lube and set it down on wax paper. Works good.

[Tripplebeards]

Some seemed to have a good even coverage. The rest I smeared more lube back into the grooves with my fingers. They should have more than enough lube now. I'll have to weigh and separate then the wax lube gets hard again. Im sure this batch will last a while. I have some left over that I'll PC.

[GregLaROCHE]

PC is great stuff. So what caliber and grain are they? What mold were you using?

[Mk42gunner]

50 cal? Take an unlubed one to the hardware store or a local plumber and try it in a piece of ½" copper pipe. If the boolit is too large for that, try some of the iron pipe.

Robert

[sharps4590]

PC with black powder in a muzzleloader? That's one I've not heard of. Interesting.

Tripple, you're overthinking it. They'll shoot fine. I wouldn't have been afraid of shooting the bullets in your first picture, definitely wouldn't worry about the second. Much ado about nothing.

[Tripplebeards]

PC is great stuff. So what caliber and grain are they? What mold were you using?

lee REAL 50 cal 320 grain mold. Got it from Megasupermagnum here a few weeks back. I was going to try PC only but was told by a knowledgeable members that I need lube to keep the black powder residue soft for easy removal. I will PC some just to build up the diameter and then I lube or I might try lee liquid Allox since I’ve never used it before.