Re-lubing bullets...?

[AJMD429]

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I got a good buy (5 cents each) on some lead round nose 38 Special bullets to load for plinking and showing young’uns how to shoot with my leverguns, and about half the lube is fallen off from handling.

Think the spray-on lube might suffice to improve them, or would you just load as-is and shoot some jacketed bullets in between? Planning a fairly mild 357 or warm 38 level of loads.

[3leggedturtle]

I bought a bunch if bullet from an estate sale like you described. I toook the old lube off by soaking in lacquer thinner and relubed them in a Lyman 450. I tried lubing with old lube in, but it "didnt look right" Probably wasn't necessary but it kept the mind occupied.

[JimT]

I bought a bunch from an estate that had the hard lube. On many of them at least half of it was gone. Some had no lube. When I was loading them I set the "no lube" bullets aside and relubed them later. If they had some lube in grease groove I used them as is. Some were loaded to 38 Special and some 357 Magnum. I had no issues with leading from any of them.

[J Miller]

I've bought lots of old cast bullets that have various amounts of lube in them. I just run them though my RCBS sizer, fill them with lube and load 'em up. I like lots of lube on my bullets.


Joe

[Bill in Oregon]

I would just dump them into a cottage cheese tub with a good squirt of Lee Liquid Alox, tumble, let dry, load and shoot.

[Lar45]

I prefer the 45-45-10 mix to the straight liquid alox. It dries hard and doesn't load up on your seating stem like other liquid lubes do. It also only needs a very light coat to perform well.

[765x53]

I would just dump them into a cottage cheese tub with a good squirt of Lee Liquid Alox, tumble, let dry, load and shoot.

The only lube I use for all cast bullets, pistol, rifle and muzzle loader although I use the dip method for the rifle bullets.

[Sixgun]

I would just dump them into a cottage cheese tub with a good squirt of Lee Liquid Alox, tumble, let dry, load and shoot.

Come this fall, I have been casting for 50 years and have quite a lot of money wrapped up in sizing equipment alone.......when Lee Liquid Alox came out I quickly dismissed it as j.u.n.k. I didn't think Elmer Keith or Skeeter Skelton would use just a barbaric way of no sizing/lubricating....

And about 35 years later, around Y2K, I bought a Model A Uzi which ate up ammo like my old Ford pick up with a big block engine ate up gas......so I said, F.I., I bought a cheap Lee 6 cavity mould and a couple of bottles of LLA.....dumped the bullets in a size of a container that Bill suggested.......no sizing ....a few squirts of LLA.....after warming the bottle in hot water along with warming the bullets a little.......swished, layed out on wax paper and proceeded to shoot around 1,000 rounds on a weekend.....ZERO leading and excellent accuracy.

Doc......the sizing of a bullet along with the alloy is more important to prevent leading......even so, a little leading will not hurt nothing...it's when the grooves fill with very noticeable leading along with a build up in the throat area that hurts.....hell, I've shot ammo out of guns where the rifling was non existent from leading and they still shot good enough for minute of torso at 50 yards.

If it's plinking ammo that's used under a 1,000 fps, I wouldn't even worry about it....just load and shoot 50 rounds then inspect it..--006

[AmBraCol]

I would just dump them into a cottage cheese tub with a good squirt of Lee Liquid Alox, tumble, let dry, load and shoot.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
THIS

As others have mentioned, good ol' Lee lube works fine. On the other hand, I just ran a bunch of 545190's through a Lyman lubrisizer I picked up cheap a while back. It had the Lyman moly lube in it. Probably not needed for the bullets/caliber but I really liked how it worked even through a cold sizer. And there's just something "right" about a bullet that's shiny on the sides with a band of lube in the groove. That being said, I've probably shot more cast bullets lubed with LLA than all others combined over the years - with complete satisfaction. Shucks, I've even tumbled Hornady swaged bullets in it prior to loading, prefer it to the flaky Hornady lube.

[AJMD429]

I prefer the 45-45-10 mix to the straight liquid alox. It dries hard and doesn't load up on your seating stem like other liquid lubes do. It also only needs a very light coat to perform well.

What's the recipe...???

[AmBraCol]

I prefer the 45-45-10 mix to the straight liquid alox. It dries hard and doesn't load up on your seating stem like other liquid lubes do. It also only needs a very light coat to perform well.

What's the recipe...???

https://forum.castbulletassoc.org/threa ... implified/

I've never tried it myself, but the link above takes you to a good description of how to set it up.

[AmBraCol]

https://lsstuff.com/store/index.php?mai ... ucts_id=13

If you'd rather buy than mix yourself (as in, can't find LLA), here's a link to some folks that market it.

[AJMD429]

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Thanks for the great info

Now the hard part is I have to get into my primer stash and that really hurts since I know I can't replace any right now....

[Lar45]

The mixture is from Recluse on castboolits
Equal parts of liquid Alox and Johnson's Paste Wax.
Melt them together, then add mineral spirits to thin it out some.
45% Liquid Alox, 45% JPW, 10% Mineral Spirits

Works well on conventional and tumble lube designs.
I lubed a pile of 265 lfn style 45 cal bullets, loaded 300 rounds and ran most of them through my Rossi M92 45Colt, 24", in one weekend. The barrel was still clean with no leading.
I also tested the 30-165 plain base Ranch Dog in my 30-06 at around 1550fps-ish, only 100 rounds this time and the barrel was still clean.