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Thread: Lube vs PC

  1. #41
    Boolit Buddy
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    I'm an old timer who just got into powder coating. I love it.
    It is another tool in the toolbox. I'll still TL pistol plinking boolits, especially the Lee boolits that don't need sizing.
    I'll still use my librisizer for long range rifle.

  2. #42
    Boolit Master
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    I gotta say shooting is a lot more fun with smoke rolling out the end of the barrel.

  3. #43
    Boolit Grand Master
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    No smoke, No greasy mess, No leading, Easy to apply, Lasts forever..................now, what was your question about modern-day PC'ing over greasy old-school lubes??????????????????!

    Threw all my alox, JPW, and greasy lube sticks out at lease 8 years ago.

    I rest my case.

  4. #44
    Boolit Grand Master
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    I tumble lube my pistol boolits, lube my rifle boolits, but I can't see any benefit in terms of time savings to PC. It may well prevent leading, but that is not generally a problem for me. My boolits did not come out as pretty as some of those depicted, they were spotty and not evenly coated. They shot ok, but the process was time consuming without producing any real improvement for my uses.

    Baking the boolits and letting them cool robs them of hardness and takes a bit longer than just dumping the sized boolits into a peanut butter jar or plastic coffee can swirling and then letting them dry. I have run LLA lubed boolits to 2300 FPS from a 30-40 without leading.
    _________________________________________________It's not that I can't spell: it is that I can't type.

  5. #45
    Boolit Buddy 59sharps's Avatar
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    black powder loads PC

    Quote Originally Posted by greenjoytj View Post
    I am thinking PC may not work well when powder charging with black powder, particularly If you want to shoot more than one shot. Maybe I’m wrong?
    Truly I don’t know enough about PC. My investment in my Redding Lubri-sizer mean I will keep using it.
    YOU WILL STILL NEED TO LUBE. PC is not a lube Black Powder Fouling still needs to be delt with keeping it soft. PC may help if you are getting leading in your BP guns.
    I'm playing with it in my henry 1860 44-40 BP loads. for leading issues
    14th VA. CAV.
    N_SSA

  6. #46
    Boolit Buddy 59sharps's Avatar
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    lube for black powder will not have petroleum in it.
    14th VA. CAV.
    N_SSA

  7. #47
    Boolit Master brassrat's Avatar
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    I loaded 3X50 boxes of RN .45 ACP, just yesterday. I have a combo of a couple of jars with a few stick lubes, dissolved. I use JJ One-Step,also and Alox has its own jar with a solvent of some-sort. Using a fan and a 2cups, in the time to prime and charge the cases, the boolets were plenty dry to load. Really easy and saved a lot from PC. They have a nice, all over, coat with filled up lube grooves.

  8. #48
    Boolit Buddy dogdoc's Avatar
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    Late reply but hard to beat simplicity of cast, size/lubricate,load,shoot. All the steps involved with pc just don’t make sense to me. I still work full time plus and prefer to spend spare time shooting not reloading/casting so anything to minimize time is important to me. Plus I love the smell of burning Alox/beeswax!

  9. #49
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    Quote Originally Posted by dogdoc View Post
    Late reply but hard to beat simplicity of cast, size/lubricate,load,shoot. All the steps involved with pc just don’t make sense to me. I still work full time plus and prefer to spend spare time shooting not reloading/casting so anything to minimize time is important to me. Plus I love the smell of burning Alox/beeswax!




    Gary
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    " Let's Go Brandon !"

  10. #50
    Boolit Master elmacgyver0's Avatar
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    In my humble opinion PC is the way to go for pistol bullets.
    Nothing wrong with lube, but I just like PC, it's great to have options!

  11. #51
    Boolit Master Targa's Avatar
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    I lubed bullets for quite a while, still have quite a few traditionally lubed bullets, there was just something I really enjoyed about it. I have since gone to PC which has been great in reference to not gunking up dies and makes for a less smoky in-door range session. At the outdoor range I really enjoy the traditionally lubed bullets for the bit of smoke that is put out.

  12. #52
    Boolit Bub
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    You can add me to the I sold my messy grease and wax and went full PC list. After accurately running thousands of bullets from subsonic to over 3K FPS with PC I was very convinced. Took me awhile to emotionally let the STAR and all the dies go down the road. Empirical evidence says that PC just plain rules. To each their own though. Some people like to play in the mud.

  13. #53
    Boolit Master nueces5's Avatar
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    I grab my pistol boolits, just finished casting and throw them in an old ice cream bowl marked with the number 5 recycling.
    I put them all standing up on a tray (I can't with my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).
    And after I bake them, I run them through Lee's sizer. For 15 days or more to the box of boolits, with a paper where it says the date and the hardness.

    For my rifle boolits, I gascheck before baking (imagine if I have an Obsessive Disorder with pistol boolits, it's much worse obsessive with rifle boolits!!)
    After the PC is dry, I run the boolits through a can of Lyman's orange magic, and then run them through the Die Lee.
    So I get more or less 1.5 MOA precision at 2300 FPS.
    It's the way I managed to make a 308 boolit hit at 600 meters.

  14. #54
    Boolit Master

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    Powder coat for me is the way to go.

    The benefits are too numerous to ignore.
    Maker of Silver Boolits for Werewolf hunting

  15. #55
    Boolit Grand Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by dogdoc View Post
    Late reply but hard to beat simplicity of cast, size/lubricate,load,shoot. All the steps involved with pc just don’t make sense to me. I still work full time plus and prefer to spend spare time shooting not reloading/casting so anything to minimize time is important to me. Plus I love the smell of burning Alox/beeswax!
    When I was working, it was the same for me. Even now that I am retired, casting and reloading are what I do to shoot and not a "pleasurable pastime". I would PC or HiTek if those methods were either faster (and that is not possible) or provided some advantage. I shoot outdoors so lack of smoke is not important. The only other pluses for another method would be lack of leading (which I do not get with lube anyway) or greater accuracy. WRT accuracy, I use cast bullets for pistol cartridges so any small difference in accuracy is moot.

    I am a KISS reloader/caster. I run over 1000 of the same bullets at a time through the Star. I have standardized on one bullet in each pistol caliber and only cast/load three calibers 9mm, .40 and .38/.357. Die set up is not an issue like it would be if I ran three or four different bullets in every caliber. With multiple bullets and more calibers, set up time becomes a factor; and a slower method, that has no set up time, can be advantageous.

    There is no "one perfect way" for all. The person loading over a dozen different bullets and shooting 300-400 of each bullet (4-5000 rounds a year), has a different situation than a someone shooting 15,000 bullets, with 12,000 in two calibers. Even though I have a Star for my "bulk bullets", I have two Lyman sizers and am set up for BLL as well. When I decide to experiment with rifle bullets, the Lyman units will let me play around with different lubes without screwing up the Star.

    For new casters, these are factors to consider as they make choices. Where are you now and where do you want to be? Will you have dozens of molds to play with, or are you focused on shooting one or two calibers in quantity? And how are you wired? Is casting/reloading fun or a means to an end? Do you want to experiment and have different loads for every caliber and every gun or are you a KISS shooter.

    I have seven .38/.357 weapons and currently use one load in all of them. I will be adding one more load but that will be it! I have five (soon to be six) 9mm's and one load. I am at the extreme end of the KISS spectrum, but most people are not. What I do works for me after 50 years of hacking around. YMMV.

    My advice for most new casters is simple. If you will be shooting a few different pistol and rifle bullets, get a used Lyman sizer (typically $100) and lube (X-lox, BAC, or Carnuba Red) from LsStuff. Even if you move to other methods, you will lose nothing if you decide to sell it, and it will be a cheap and effective backup to whatever method you decide on later.

    One factor not mentioned much is the off gassing of baked on coatings. I like to lube and size in the basement and worry about it. Another plus for traditional lubes in my situation.
    Don Verna


  16. #56
    Boolit Master
    farmerjim's Avatar
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    I started casting and reloading 58 years ago when wheel weights were 5 cents a pound from the tire store. I stopped casting when I moved to Canada.
    I started again when I moved to Saint Francisville and had a shooting range in my back yard. I got my lube sizer out and went to town with my new lee dripomatic. Then I saw Hi-Tek boolits.
    I started hi-tecking and it was great. I could cast, Hi-Tek, size, and store large qualities of boolits ready to load. Then came powder coating. Wow, even easier than Hi-Tek. Plus If I want to use a boolet in a caliber that is 2 or 3 thousands ( ie 9mm to 38 or 30 cal to 303) I can just put 2 coats of PC on and size for the larger caliber. No messy lube to get all over everything.
    I still have and sometimes use BLL and Recluse lube, but 98% of my boolits are PC'ed. It is just easier for me.
    There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism—by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide. Ayn Rand

  17. #57
    Boolit Master
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    I started casting in the late 1970's and bought a RCBS sizer/lube press back then. Have been adding dies to it all these years and also have years and years of lube set aside. No real incentive to change now. I do see one potential case where I could possibly try PC and that is for shooting real soft bullets in a hollow point where the velocity was starting to get above what conventional lubed bullets can withstand yet I were forced to use soft alloy for expansion. As far as the smoke from lube, I shoot 100% outdoors and I would sorely miss that if I pulled the trigger and didn't get to smell smoke.

  18. #58
    Boolit Buddy
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hickok View Post
    Powder coat for me is the way to go.

    The benefits are too numerous to ignore.
    I've been casting for about 40-some years. I've been powder coating for a year or so. The more I powder coat, the better I like it.

  19. #59
    Boolit Master slim1836's Avatar
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    I started out tumble lubing, then powder coating, and then acquired a 450 lube/sizer. I use all. I like to compare the results of each in the field and let my weapon decide which application is best. YMMV.

    Slim
    JUST GOTTA LOVE THIS JOINT.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check