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Thread: Tumble Lube non-TL bullets?

  1. #21
    Boolit Master
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    Has worked for me for years. Does make a mess of the press and gun. Its more like wax than liquid.
    Stop being blinded by your own ignorance.

  2. #22
    Boolit Master
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    My Lee brand liquid Alox is basically wax, once the solvent has dried off. It has a slightly higher melting temp than beeswax. And when it's melted, it's now oil, which works well as a hydraulic fluid seal. Alox dries harder than most waxes, which makes it able to stick on the bullet anywhere you manage to get it. I prefer the lube grooves. And it has a higher boiling/flash point, so it works to higher velocities than most common waxes. Same reason you use veg/canola or the like for deep frying, rather than olive oil.

    I assume this ad showed a torch played over a cold bullet, briefly. I wonder when and where one see's ads for reloading gear.

    It's called tumble lubing, not tumble coating.

  3. #23
    Boolit Master
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    i used to size and lube .tried lla now thats all i use .223/308/357/45-70 all work well pb and gas checked.

  4. #24
    Boolit Buddy Gobeyond's Avatar
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    I use lla on my 30-30 GG GC bullets. I lube size lube and get a pretty good coat. I use a blop in a peanut jar for 100 bullets. It’s stays a bit sticky but is easy to handle. Fairly accurate even at 200 steel. I also pan lube but have yet to try. I am impressed by such a simple method as LLA.

  5. #25
    Boolit Master


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    I do it with good results. Granted just with low velocity pistol loads, but no problems at all. Specifically I shoot the Lee .44 caliber RF in my .44 Special loads. We're only talking 3.5 grains of Bullseye, but I shoot hundreds of them, no leading at all. I do thin the LLA and do two very thin coats.

  6. #26
    Boolit Grand Master popper's Avatar
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    2 thin coats of BLL on 1500 fps rifle stuff works fine.
    Whatever!

  7. #27
    Boolit Master


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    Quote Originally Posted by schutzen-jager View Post
    been doing it for decades on regular + tumble styles for every pistol + rifle caliber i cast for - fast, easy, + economical - never any leading issues - jmho beats powder coating in every way -
    I will respectfully disagree with you on this. PC is to me much easier and far cleaner than alox that always seems to remain sticky. Plus PC has the added benefit of no smoke when fired. Not trying to start an argument. If it works for you great, just trying to point out my observations having used both.

  8. #28
    Boolit Master
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    Human nature to view things in black and white, when a lot of things are shades of grey.

    Using the example of cast boolits, tumble lube might work 100% perfectly on a 9 BHN bullet without any lube grooves at a low enough pressure. In another caliber or to get higher velocity, it might no longer work. But you might get 100% perfect results in a number of different ways. Powder coat, gas check, harder bullets, better/more lube grooves for more lube, slower powder. Any one of these might be enough for this load to work.

    You don't always need jacketed bullets to get the performance you want in a caliber, especially for pistols. But if you do need jacketed bullets for max performance, then you probably have to do all of these things to a cast bullet to get as close as possible to jacketed performance.

    Bullet lube smoke is an big problem in blowback pistols and revolvers. Gotta go PC to get rid of it. But if you have any smoke with rifles or locked breech semiauto pistols, it's probably a hint that you're not done optimizing, yet. Most of the time you can eliminate smoke, completely, without going to PC.

  9. #29
    Boolit Master
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    Different tools, is all.

    Paper patching might be beat all of that other stuff, even?

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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