The little .22's are really tough to handle but I have found a technique that seems to help.
1. I use a good flat aluminum cake pan that has a really flat bottom
2. Be as careful as possible when pouring
3. When set, put in the freezer for a bit
4. After solid in freezer, remove and let sit on counter for a couple of minutes.
5. Use the flat end of a close pin to press out.
The sitting time on the counter seems to be the trick. You want the lube to be solid in the grooves but just so so warm enough to press out. This is one of those things that you have to see from experimentation. Also have seen that some lubes are just not "sticky" enough to want to stay in the grooves.
Have done 200 to 300 at a time with almost perfect success but have also had some incredible failures usually due to mixture.
Facta non verba
That's pretty much what I do. But heat the pan, Lube and bullets at the lowest setting on the stove top. This ways i can reuse the holes from the previous batch and not have to struggle to stand so many small bullets up. Then I use the fridge to cool until the cake releases from the pan, then to room temp before pressing out. But I like the sound of near perfect success. Maybe I'll start wby changing to the freezer next time.
Running gaschecked 22cals through a lubesizer is bad enough,,,,,,, PANLUBING 22 caliber Tic-Tacs....ya'll must be the sadistic type I think I would rather beat on my hands/fingers with a 2 lb hammer.
might try dip lubing them instead. Melt lube, dip boolit, place on pan. When lube is solid run through sizer.
Smooth needle nose pliers are your friend. You'll have to wipe the base off, I'd do it before run through sizer. Might need to preheat the boolits too.
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats. -- H.L. Mencken
The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.― H.L. Mencken
So does that mean u guys wouldnt use em as is? I was thinking w the GC groove and the rear i have 2 grooves full. Different bullets designs have one groove
Matt - just looking at your bullets in the picture tells the story.
* Put them back in the cake
* Heat the lube up again
* When the lube is melted and the nose of a bullet is hot to the touch ... time to cool the cake
* This is when I turn the floor fan on to expedite the cake cooling process
* When the cake is still hot but solidified ... put the pan in the freezer
* When the adhesion of the cake loosens from the pan and the bottom of the pan is very slightly warm -knuckle tap the bottom of the pan and the cake should bounce a tad - time to start punching them out
* Put the cake on a piece of hard Styrofoam and push down slightly on the bullet noses. They will slide through the cake and drop onto the Styrofoam
Your picture told me 2 things
1. Your bullets were not hot in the melted cake lube - reason for no lube in GG's
2. Your bullets that you removed from the cake are 'mushy' with lube - cake was too warm when your removed the bullets
Follow this procedure and ANY bullets will be perfectly lubed and all the GG's filled - plus the cake will not break or crack pushing the bullets out on top of a piece of hard Styrofoam
Last edited by John Boy; 05-03-2014 at 03:31 PM.
Regards
John
Ill try and follow ur steps exactally. But i was pretty close to that procedure.
Bullets were hot. They were in the cake as a solid, and heated along w the lube on the stove. They were very hot to the touch!
Cake then went in the fridge, not freezer, for at least 10 minutes. Bullets were cold to touch. But then i let it warm back to room temp.
Here i go for the fourth try. Will try the frezzer this time
Attachment 103988That's the reason for using the one half section of a flat type cloths pin. Yes, you try to push them through with your finger tip and WOW. It doesn't take but a few and you will never believe how bad your finger tips can feel.
I use the thin end on 22's but use the thicker end for 30 and above. It dosnt seem to leave any mark and is quick and fast.
Have run several hundred at a time and I still say you need to get a feel for things as you go. If you notice the lube cookie cracking or get a tearing of the lube out of the grooves then you might consider putting the pan and cookie back into the freezer for a bit, let it harden, then remove and let it warm a bit then you can go back to pushing the cast boolits out. Have done this.
The picture is of a Lyman 77 gn. design and got 271 out of the cookie with out a hitch.
The system works very well but it is you that must practice a bit . Once you get the knack it is " No Problem".
Facta non verba
The .22 boolits I lube are a bit longer than the ones in your photo - 62gr. After putting on the GC's, I pick them up by the nose, dip the bases in hot lube, and stick them base-down on a sheet of paper. Let them cool, scrape the little forest of boolits off the paper. Run them through the push-through sizer BASE FIRST, the excess loob is scraped off. Some remains stuck to the bases but the noses stay clean this way. If I feel motivated, I'll give the bases a quick scrape when loading. I lube with carnauba red.
I'm thankful there are lubesizers!
Didnt work a forth time either. Similar reject rate. Heated lube w bullets in it. Let solidify. Moved to freezer (maybe a little to long here. Was all the way popped out of the pan). Pushed some out right away, and more every 5 minutes. By the end the last couple rounds were at room temp. No change thru out. Using carnauba red too.
Either way i have a big pile of good ones so im gonna take a break. My fingers hurt
Break down and buy a lube sizer. It is worth it. I think I dip lubed less than 50 225450s before I decided that it was awful.
I pity the baker,
I pity the nun
I pity the one
Who tries to take my gun
Just tumble the 22's in hot paraffin and graphite. The excess paraffin can be removed with a hair dryer - Fast and Efficient
Been doing it this way since I started reloading black powder 22LR reloads
Regards
John
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 |