Tumble Lube on top of traditional lube ?

[DAVIDMAGNUM]

I have a question/am really curios about this.
Has anyone tumble lubed bullets on top of filled grease grooves? Specifically Alox 45-45-10 on top of grooves filled with a lube that contains Alox. (50/50, BAC or something)

If so, did it solve any issues? Did it cause any issues? Didn't see any difference ?

I have pondered trying it on a plain based 290gr bullet in my 38-55. I am curios to here someone else's results.

[gumbo333]

Tumbled on BLL works real good on lubed, esp those that were lubed many years ago.v

[Minerat]

I have applied BLL to a bunch of commercial cast that had hard blue lube to set the old lube. It does not seem to hurt and make the hard lube stay on the bullets while handling to load.

[Gewehr-Guy]

I use a very light tumble lube {Bens Liquid Lube} over conventional lubed bullets, and find my fingers don't get as dirty as when handling conventionally lubed bullets. I believe I can fill only one lube groove and have sufficient lubrication, with lesser chance of lube purging and the chance of a flier.
Since doing this, I never clean a bore with a brush, unless I suspect a rifle is leading, and only push a couple of patches through the bore wet with the same liquid lube that is used on the bullets. I think with medium velocity loads, the bore becomes conditioned like a .22, and seldom needs deep cleaning.

[45DUDE]

I did some tumble lube 168 grain .359's last night. I will test today with a 10'' bull barrel model 27 S&W.--I was bored and had some dried out hard lube I couldn't use and mixed a small spoon of it with Johnson's paste wax and mineral spirts. Then I heated the boolits and poured in a metal pan and shook them around and stood them up. To my surprise they dried to the touch it about 15 minutes. I lubed and resized to .358 with a 450. Should be plenty of smoke. Thought I would try them around 1200 fps and 2400 powder without a gas check to see if they will group. Seems they should slide down the barrel smoother.

[gloob]

On new or wet tumbled cases that aren't lubed with anything, a squeaky clean and dry commercial lubed cast bullet will seize in the case. Can't pull it with a kinetic puller, even. Not sure what that does for accuracy or fouling, but it probably doesn't help. I put lube in the case neck, until they've been fired and get some soot inside.

[muskeg13]

I often apply 45-45-10 LLA on traditional sized and filled grease groove rifle boolits. I've had very good success in eliminating minor leading when pushing gas checked relatively soft WW alloy boolits (~Lyman #2) over 2000 fps with a second lubing of LLA. It's an easy step to avoid leading. My best success was with .416 RCBS 350gr sized to .413, averaging 2300 fps in a .405 Winchester that clean up to a shiny bore with a single dry patch.

[Dusty Bannister]

On new or wet tumbled cases that aren't lubed with anything, a squeaky clean and dry commercial lubed cast bullet will seize in the case. Can't pull it with a kinetic puller, even. Not sure what that does for accuracy or fouling, but it probably doesn't help. I put lube in the case neck, until they've been fired and get some soot inside.

I do not agree with your conclusion. The gas pressure of the burning powder expands the case to release the bullet when discharged. The case then returns to a smaller diameter which must be sized to provide neck tension to retain the bullet when reloaded.

Also consider newly manufactured ammunition which uses a sealant. The bullet is very difficult to remove with the kinetic puller, but shoots well when fired as intended.

[facetious]

I was wondering if some lubes work better for being over coated than others. I tried BLL on some lubed with the last of my LBT Blue and on some lubed with a home made lube. The ones with Lbt turned kinda translucent, and left a coat of BLL over the whole boolit it dried hard wasn't stickie. With my home made lube the lube was less stickie but I think some dissolved in to the BLL and left a waxy coat over the whole boolit.

The LBT ones were for my .308 ,I was able to go up a grain before groups started to get bigger. Haven't tried the ones with my home made stuff yet in my .357's yet. Uncoated ones shoot OK leave a big lube star and it stinks. So I'm looking for a new lube as close as I can get to LBT's old Blue, not the soft blue. Thinking it wouldn't hurt if I could find one that worked better being over coated with BLL while I'm at it.

[gloob]

I do not agree with your conclusion. The gas pressure of the burning powder expands the case to release the bullet when discharged. The case then returns to a smaller diameter which must be sized to provide neck tension to retain the bullet when reloaded.

Also consider newly manufactured ammunition which uses a sealant. The bullet is very difficult to remove with the kinetic puller, but shoots well when fired as intended.

I didn't make any conclusion. I said I didn't know if it made a difference.

When loading cast bullets, the mouth of the case doesn't always have room to expand! For 40SW, I have to sort out the thicker headstamps. Those thicker cases can't even fit in the chamber with a cast bullet 1 thous larger than the jacketed bullet that it came with. If you taper crimp enough to make it fit, you get a barrel full o lead when you fire it. The crimp can't even straighten back out in the chamber. I've tried putting a bullet into one of my fired 40SW case by hand, and that ain't gonna happen. I am pretty sure I could reload this caliber without sizing, but since I have to decap, anyway...

[rockrat]

Often times, I will put a light coat of highly thinned LLA on boolits, then put them on a wire container above heat, to dry it. Then I will run them thru the Star and fill whatever lube grooves I want. Helps on the effort used to size and to swage the gas check.

[Soundguy]

I have applied BLL to a bunch of commercial cast that had hard blue lube to set the old lube. It does not seem to hurt and make the hard lube stay on the bullets while handling to load.

Ditto this. i have tumble lubed older bullets to either augment or refresh their lube. I once bought 2000 speer swaged 45 cal 250 grain bullets... got them for less than the price of scrap lead... They had some kind of coating or pre-applied tumble lube already.. but they were decades old.. so I tumble lubed right over them. they shoot great by the way.

[rintinglen]

I used to do it all the time when I was heavy into the lever action silhouette game. My 311-041's were lubed first with Ben's Red in the 450 and then tumble lubed in LLA or Recluse Formula 45/45/10. I was hitting 2200 fps in my 30-30's with good accuracy and little or no leading.

[TRG3]

I was going to start a thread asking this very same question as I have almost 500 each A Zone .430 hard cast in 215 and 240gr. bullets that have one groove filled with a blue lube that I purchased in 1994. From what I just read in these posts, it seems that a coating of Alox would be appropriate for me to use before loading them for my new CVA Hunter .44 magnum to use in the 2023 Illinois deer season. Thanks for the info.