Your lube gear and process

[rbstern]

I love casting boolits.

I hate the lubrication process.

For pistol, I generally cast for volume rather than accuracy, because date night in my neighborhood is several couples going to the local indoor range and blasting paper at 7 to 15 yards with 357/38 special, 380, and 9mm. I load up big piles of air cooled, wheel weight boolits, tumble lubed, loaded unsized. 9mm leading is a bit of a problem with this formula, so I am still experimenting with it.

My gear is mostly Lee. It's easy enough, but I find the whole thing messy. And I hate that my final product looks dirty. I've thought of getting a lubrisizer and going more traditional with the lube, but it doesn't look like a particularly efficient way to produce many hundreds of pistol boolits.

I've also thought about building some sort of "flood lubing" fixture: Something like a cake pan where I could place the bullets base down, flood the pan with lube (50/50 liquid alox/min spirits). Flood it up to the top of the lube grooves, and then drain the lube out of a whole in the pan, and then just let the boolits sit overnight to dry without moving them.

Anyone tried something like this?

Any other ideas for minimizing the post-casting work greatly appreciated.

I readily accept that a more careful process produces better final product; my approach with cast rifle boolits is more deliberate to achieve greater accuracy. Pistol plinking rounds just aren't worth that type of effort if they're going to be shot by a bunch of folks with middle-aged eyes who complain they can't see both the front and rear sight at the same time.

[hpdrifter]

I did put my Liquid Alox in a tupperware dish and hand dip each one. Used some pliers to hold the bullet and dip. Worked well and wasn't messy. I just touched the bullet on the side of the dish on a couple of places and wiped the bottom same way. A little slow but not NEAR as messy. But I wound up buying a Lyman 4500 and it is INFINITELY better.

[KYCaster]

rb: If it's volumn you're after, look at the Star sizer, much, MUCH faster than Lyman/RCBS/Saeco.

Jerry

[Buckshot]

"..............For pistol, I generally cast for volume rather than accuracy, because date night in my neighborhood is several couples going to the local indoor range and blasting paper at 7 to 15 yards with 357/38 special, 380, and 9mm."

HA! Where do YOU live?!!!

Lube-sizing is THE bottleneck in the entire cast boolit bidness. If you don't need to size, then Tumble Lube (TL) is by far the very fastest way, bar none. Appearances aside it DOES work. ANother option if you're shooting that much is to merely buy commercial WC's or RN slugs. May be heresy to say that here but that's what I did when my wife's depatment was going to be armed.

She had to qualify, so not being a shooter she practiced. I managed to get 1000, 38 Special WC's cast, lubed and loaded. I swear she'd come home from work and get 3-4 boxes and go out and practice (we lived in the sticks at the time). A week of that and that stack of 50 round boxs dwindled at an alarming rate. I did make an attempt to cast (2 cav Lee 358-148WC) lube, and load to keep up but I ended up buying 2000 commercial WC's.

"................9mm leading is a bit of a problem with this formula, so I am still experimenting with it."

Slug the barrel. 9mm's are notorious for having groove diameters all over the place. I have an article by Mike Venturino where he itemized all his frustrations and efforts in getting a 9mm to shoot cast. Then he thought he might slug the barrel and found that it had a .357" groove and he'd been lube-sizing to .354".

.................Buckshot

[BABore]

I'm by no means a volumn caster, but when I do my 358156's I use Lee goop. I make up a 50/50 mixture with Lee snot and mineral spirits. Put a couple hundred in a Tupperware dish, squirt in about a half teaspoon, put on the lid, and swirl them around good. I then pour them out on wax paper and turn on a small high speed fan. In less than an hour they're dry and ready for sizing and checking with a Lee push through. After this I repeat the Alox again. When they're dry I put a couple hundred at a time in a gallon Ziplok, toss in a 1/4 tsp of motor mica, and toss them around. Ready to shoot and no mess. I hardly get any on my hands. I've done 500-700 in a day including casting them with a 2-cavity and ladle. Every time I refill the pot I take a batch in for lube.

[rbstern]

Thanks for the comments, gents. I may have to pick up a real lube/sizer press just to have it as an alternative, at least for .30 cal rifle and .357 pistol.

Buckshot, it's actually quite funny. My neighbor called me last week to tell me that the hot topic of conversation at her Southern Living party (like a tuperware party) was guns and shooting. Many of the women in the neighborhood want to go to the range.

My Witness 9mm slugs out at .355. I think I probably just need to harden my alloy a bit. It's easy enough to water quench or oven treat. But, I must admit, every time I mess with casting and loading 9mm, particulary when I struggle with leading/sizing/lubing issues, I start to look at the economics and wonder if I'm not wasting my time. Most 9mm's I'm familiar with seem to prefer jacketed slugs. My own 9mm prints small groups with cheesy Russian Brown Bear FMJ, at $4.50/box. But the boolit caster in me just can't let go of any potential savings!

I hear ya on the commercial slugs. I do sometimes buy cast for .380acp, and occassionally shoot those in 9mm, too.

I may try to craft the flood-lube fixture I mentioned. If I do it, I will post a project link to show how it worked out.

Thanks again for the comments.

[nighthunter]

I don't know what your definition is of a date night lubeing problem is. I can guarantee you that 35 years ago or so was completely different than going to the local shooting range. Maybe you are a late bloomer of something or of that nature. You gotta be a Redneck. LMAO...........
Nighthunter

[Johnch]

I pan lube and size in Lee push thru .
I pan lube and don't size .

I tumble lube in a ziplock bag , some I size in a Lee push thru and some I don't .

I have 2 Lyman 450 sizers .
1 set up with 50/50 Alox / bee's wax ( pistol ans some rifle )
The other I have Carnauba Blend ( rifle and fast pistol )

I also use Teflon tape and size in either a Lyman 450 or a Lee sizer

Johnch

[redneckdan]

how does that teflon tape for for ya? I wonder if I could use that on tumble lube bullets for 45acp, wrapping the bullets at the bench and craming them in the case?

[rbstern]

I don't know what your definition is of a date night lubeing problem is. I can guarantee you that 35 years ago or so was completely different than going to the local shooting range. Maybe you are a late bloomer of something or of that nature. You gotta be a Redneck. LMAO...........
Nighthunter

Write coherently when you call someone a Redneck. Otherwise, you come off as a...Redneck.