Does anyone else “dunk” lube bullets?
I don’t enjoy casting, lubeing and sizing bullets. It is like mowing the grass. In Florida, in the summer, you need to mow about every week, 10 days. It’s not that arduous a task, but is something I don’t consider fun.
I shoot say 100 - 200 .38, 158 gr. Lee SWC TL bullets a week. That means about once a month - six weeks, I go to the garage and cast, lube and size 750 - 1,000 bullets.
To lube, I use a mixture of about 65% “White Label” XLOX and mineral spirits. To prepare the lube, I pour a quart of XLOX into 1.5 gallon bleach bottle. Add 17oz. of mineral spirits and shake vigorously. Pour the mixture into a plastic bucket and add bullets. Swirl for a minute or so and pour into another plastic bucket with a food colander on top. Let the bullets drain for and hour or so and dump onto an 18 inch aluminum pizza pan covered with waxed paper Place in oven, set on warm, and dry for an hour or so. It kind of “stinks”, but there are advantages to living alone.
I then run the bullets through a Lee .358 sizeing die and repeat the lubeing procedure. The bullets are now ready to load.
I pour the unused lube back into the bleach bottle for reuse. I don’t know how many bullets I get out of a quart of XLOX, but a lot!
Accuracy, using my 6 inch Ruger GP100 is good. 9 ring groups at 50 yards, from bench rest, using the NRA standard BE target.
When I clean the revolver, say every 1,000 rounds or so, using a Lewis lead remover, there is very little evidence of leading.
This is the fastest way I have found to lube/size large volumes of cast bullets. And yes, I did have three “Star” lube / sizers at one time. Sold them to someone on this board
Does anyone else “dunk” lube?
Jerry