Cast bullet lube recipe needed

[Noah Cash]

Just saw the thread asking how many bullets do you cast, and it got me to thinking, this is a good place to ask all sorts of stuff, and I didn't want to hijack the "How Many" thread.

 

Does anyone have a good simple mix for bullet lube that works well for low velocity loads such as we use?

 

I am casting a .45 at 210 gr. The mold is a Lee 6 Cavity that is supposed to cast at 200 grs so the mix is just a bit soft. I can add some 50/50 bar solder to stiffin it up a bit if necessary. They are RN/FP slugs, and the velocity is about 850 out of the revolvers and 1100 out of the rifle. Running them through a RCBS LAM II to size them with a heater on the sizer, so the mix can be fairly hard or a soft mix. I have a good supply of beeswax and can get paraffin wax at the local Wally World.

I have been to the cast bullets forum and looked around as well but the most of the guys there go into way to much detail and for our purposes there should be something real simple.

I know some of ya'll must have run down this road before so any advise or info would be greatly appreciated.

 

KB

[Tyrel Cody]

Here is a recent discussion about pan lubing. Springfield Slim's suggestion is really easy to mix up and works good in the 44-40 rounds I have tried.

[SHOOTIN FOX]

go over to the Cast Boolits forum and look under lube threads. The spelling is boolits.

 

Fox

[August West, SASS #45079]

http://www.lasc.us/LubeIngredients.htm

[Litl Red]

There have to be over a thousand recipes. Why is that? Because almost everything works.

 

They don't always work for everyone. Why is that? Because the alloy you use, and the velocity you load for also has something to do with leading.

 

But bottom line is almost everything works when you're casting what a lot of people call "too soft" bullets and shooting them near black powder velocities.

 

You got an excellent start with "good supply of beeswax". So work up a simple starting recipe with it as the basis.

 

Paraffin works great in thousands of recipes. It supplies things beeswax needs help with. So use it too.

 

Soft works. Lard or any fat supplies "soft" in thousands of recipes. Lard is easy to find in grocery stores. ...............

 

Start off with say 2 parts beeswax, 1 or 2 parts paraffin, and 1 part lard. See how that works. If you think it's too sticky, reduce the amount of lard or increase the waxes, however you look at it. Too hard? Reduce the paraffin or increase the lard.

 

Mix small batches to begin with. Doing that keeps costs at about zero.

 

I've used Lanolin in mixes like the ones you get from the preceding advice. It's supposed to have longer molecules than lard. Got no clue if that matters because when I was using lard, the biggest thing I saw that affected leading was velocity and alloy.

 

It really is easy to do. If you don't like to do small batches, I've found that remelting and adding a corrective component works. Dang near everything does as long as you stay with your bullet alloy and present velocities. BTW, about re-melting and adding...... When I discovered my homemade magic secret formula worked better than the commercial stuff, I was stuck with a dozen sticks of the stuff I no longer wanted to use. So next batch of magic stuff, in went a stick of the commercial. It melted in ok. Simple way to use it up.

[Litl Red]

BTW, if you want to make sticks of lube like you buy the commercial stuff in, the plastic tubes the Alox lube and such come in are excellent molds.

[Cusz M. Dutch SASS Life 55326]

add a tablespoon of STP and it will be good even at higher speeds.

[captqueeze]

Any, and I mean any lube receipt you might wonder about is discussed within this thread. Personally, I have switched to Powder Coating all my Lead Cast Bullets and love the fact that there isn't any sticky mess or "special formulas" I have to brew.

 

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?58-Boolit-Lube-!

[Noah Cash]

By "powder coating" are you talking sprinkle some graphite or some other powder or actually baking on the powder coat as used in commercial products industry? BTW I do some of that at work so it might be given a try during the next batch of parts run through the oven. Nice white or semi gloss black bullets might be an eye catcher. Powder coat then run through the sizer die, either the LAM II or the Lee pass through and out the top type. That might be a good ticket!

 

And thanks for all the reply's. Now I gotta go cook up another batch of lead to try out the suggestions.

 

KB

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

Buy some DGL, and spend your time shoot'n.

LG

[Justin O Lawman,SASS#7672]

http://www.lsstuff.com/

 

 

No mess cost less and good people to deal with

[J-BAR #18287]

You don't state in your original post about the powder you use...black or smokeless.

 

For smokeless powder cartridges, tumble lubing with Lee Liquid Alox is as easy as it gets. It is very easy to apply too much; I dilute the syrupy liquid with mineral spirits before tumbling the bullets. You want just enough to see a slight dulling of the bullet surface. If you see color like the liquid, you probably have too much on there. I know there are bullets designed specifically for tumble lubing, but I have had no problem using conventional bullets and Alox.

 

For black powder cartridges, I use beeswax/Crisco 50-50. I also use it as an over-the-ball lube in percussion revolvers.

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

DGL, works for both.

LG

[captqueeze]

http://www.lsstuff.com/

 

 

No mess cost less and good people to deal with

 

Yeah, Glenn and his wife are good people, The LAST lube I bought was from them.

[captqueeze]

By "powder coating" are you talking sprinkle some graphite or some other powder or actually baking on the powder coat as used in commercial products industry? BTW I do some of that at work so it might be given a try during the next batch of parts run through the oven. Nice white or semi gloss black bullets might be an eye catcher. Powder coat then run through the sizer die, either the LAM II or the Lee pass through and out the top type. That might be a good ticket!

 

And thanks for all the reply's. Now I gotta go cook up another batch of lead to try out the suggestions.

 

KB

 

I mean actually powder coating the Lead bullet and baking it for 10-20 minutes. Size and load as if it were a jacketed bullet.

However, J-Bar makes a great point; the info I gave is for "smokeless powder", not Black Powder.

Capt

[Noah Cash]

LG, I use DGL for my Shiloh Sharps but for the other stuff I find it to be a bit to soft and sticky. I m using smokeless in those. Last time I mixed some beeswax with the DGL just to stiffen it up for the 45 Colt smokeless loads.

 

Captqueeze, the info is good for me cause it is for smokeless, and I think I might give that a try. I'll set a tray of slugs in the oven and dust a coat of powder over them. Depending on the load they might be blue, black white or even yellow. That could be a hoot. Nice slow loads with a coat of yellow would look like a laser beam in the bright sunlight.

 

Thanks

KB

[Mud Marine,SASS#54686 Life]

Holy Black needs SPG! :-)