Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting lube question

what are you-all using for bullet lube? For years I used Rooster Red Zambini and HVR. Gettin' low on supply so I went to order more. Looks like they quit making those.

So .. what works best? Application would be plain based 250 grain SWCs at max pressure in a .44 magnum revolver. I probably need a high temp lube since I'm hiking in places that are over 100 degrees in the shade and gear, hiking out in the sun, can get a lot hotter than that.

Tom

LBT blue

LBT blue soft.

Powder By The Pound. No mess, no fuss, cleaner by far.

LBT blue sounds like a good way to go, however, "powder" ... I've been hearing some about that. Do you use a standard lube-grooved bullet? Would a bullet really meant for that stuff be better with just a crimp groove and no others?

Standard bullet works just fine. What caliber would you like to try? I have 38 and 45 and would me happy to let you try a handful.

The reason I switched to powder is I wanted to speed my bullet production and reduce the gunk that builds up on the gun. I haven't made a huge increase in bullet production yet, but they definatley run cleaner. No need for special no lube groove bullets, works fine with conventional lube grooves or Lee micro groove.

White Label BAC. Great lube!

Don

Thanks for the info. I'm always curious about new stuff.

(Thanks for the offer. Right now, though, my only cast bullet shooters are .44 magnums. Next up is my .38-40 WCF. )

Tom

I am not too far from the same model...but I guess I still haven't quite yet gotten the hang of powder yet (shake-n-bake) since I can still crank out lubed bullets faster.

For my 1911's I am still sticking with lube (LBT Blue by the way). I can crank these out faster than I can do powder currently and these guns individually do not lead at all...haven't had to clean the barrels in years. (One an old Brazilian Import, the other an SR1911)

For several of my revolvers I have swapped over to powder. No gunk build up from lube squirting between the cylinder gap and charring. Mostly applies to my .44s. Slight decrease in finished bullet production speed but I don't shoot these quite as much as my 1911s or .38 cal revolvers.

For the .38's I am still sticking with cast double end wadcutters and LLA. Nothing less labor involved...just squirt, shake, dump and let dry. Sure, you have to wait for them to dry but I am usually casting these as a means to replenish stock that I am currently loading from.

LBT blue.

If your bullets fit the throat(s) of your gun, you can run them pretty soft and not get leading. As for lessening of "cheese" around the the cylinder gap from firing lubed bullets- you clean your gun anyway after shooting it, right? Right?

I use Carnauba Red & LBT Soft mostly. After a 1000 rounds my Blackhawk has lube most everywhere but the little sixgun does fine. And I will clean it at times. A parts washer & brush would make the job easier though.

Absolutely...two guns have specifically led me to powder. the first being my Kimber Pro Carry and the second is my Smith 69.

The Kimber's flared / bull barrel design created an odd profile inside the barrel. Not sure of the manufacturing method but the barrel is not a constant ID. About the 1st half of the barrel is fine...no issues. Midway down though (about where the flare of the increased OD begins) the barrel ID slightly increases but right at the end of the barrel, near the muzzle, the bore constricts again. Accuracy is good, but that little section (and only that little section) of slightly larger bore diameter leads like a mutha! Powder coated bullets in this application was a godsend.

The 69's issue wasn't so much the "cheese" around the cylinder gap, but the cylinder yoke. Not sure what it is about this gun but it has a bad habit of collecting bullet lube build up between the cylinder and the yoke pin the cylinder rotates around. After a few hundred shots you can feel a DEFINITE increase in DA trigger weight as it is trying to overcome the added resistance of the lube between the cylinder and yoke. Not about to run jacketed so powder coating resolved this issue too. I could probably go to a hard lube and see the issue disappear as well but I am so stocked up on LBT Blue Soft that I can't see the benefit of swapping right now. So powder got the nod here.

If it weren't for those two specific applications, I likely never would have given powder coating a try.

Generally, no. They don't need it.

I'll run an oiled patch down the chrome-moly bores, but otherwise don't clean every time with most guns. With Glocks and AR15s I try to clean them every 1,000 rounds or so. A bit more often with 1911s and other actions, but not even close to "every time".

Regarding the OP; I use powder coating now, but my favorite handgun lube before that was Speed Green. I TAC #1 is a good substitute but I haven't used any in so long I don't know if it's still available.

I can powder coat over 1000 bullets in the time it takes me to lube 150 bullets in a luber-sizer, so that's one big advantage.

That's why you ream and do the rifling AFTER you are done with the barrel's outside dimensions.

Don

I will be gone for a month but when I get home I would be happy to powder coat some of your bullets for you and send them back. You seem like a pretty good guy so I won't even use pink powder.

Hmmm .. thanks. I don't know if I have any cast but not sized right now. Next time I cast some, though, I'll try to remember to get ahold of you.

Glad to help.

Pretty much where I'm at, I haven't found the speed increase I was after. If I could shoot the powder coated as cast i.e. unsized then it would definately be faster. But for bulk shooting hard to beat a lee six cavity mold and tumble lube.

It doesn't need to take any longer than tumble lubing. What is your coating process? Mine is the same as tumble lubing, except baking instead of waiting for it to dry.

I size after coating, but do the same with tumble lube (push through lee sizer). You can skip sizing with coating too, if you prefer, same as some guys do with tumble lube.

It's the sizing process that takes the time, really no time saving when you compare to using a lube sizer.

I shake and bake, but there is a fair amount of time picking bullets from bb's.

I do like the way they look.

Interesting info..

Skip the bbs. You don't need them, and as you point out, it takes a lot more time. If you don't size with tumble lubing, you should be ok without sizing for powder coating too. You don't need a thick coating.

I documented my shake and bake method several years ago with just bullets and a small amount of powder in a tub; since then other people have added to the process attempting to "improve" it, but only make it slower. BBs, vibrating tumblers, sifter screens, etc are all unnecessary additions to the process, IME; simple is best and fastest.

I throw mine in a vibratory tumbler with enough black BBs to almost cover the bullets. Takes less than a minute to get a good coat then I pick them out with forceps from Harbour Freight. After baking I just push them through a Lee size die. I like them way more than I did the Lee tumble lubed bullets as they are no mess to handle nor do they attract dirt like Lee Alox.

They are supposed to be a little faster but that is not why I powder coat. I just like the no mess and I like the ease of set up over a standard lube sizing setup.

You can skip all that time of picking the bullets out with forceps if you get rid of the bbs. I go from bare bullets to the oven in less than a minute total. Just shake for 15-20 seconds and dump them on the baking tray.

Nothing wrong with being picky and trying to make them perfect, but for guys wanting to speed up production, there is no need to make this process slow.

The slowest part of the process for me is separating the bullets after baking (have a few tricks there too) and sizing. Otherwise it's very quick. Push through sizing of course is a lot faster than using a lubersizer as well. Maybe 3:1 the way I do it anyway.

I may be giving the no BBs a try.

Since my bullets sit well on their bases I like to set them that way on the baking tray. But I am retired and have a lot of time to putter around.

If you're standing them on the bases anyway, using BBs probably doesn't take any longer, but personally I don't bother with that. I just dump them on a tray, which has a piece of wire screen laying on the bottom. They can pile up 2-3 deep with no issues.

Also, a note about shaking by hand instead of using a tumbler - it only takes 10-20 seconds of shaking, but you should be shaking hard enough to feel like it's a little bit of a workout, or at least a warmup exercise. Not just gently rolling them around in the tub. You want to generate some static, and get that powder flying around in the tub to coat everything.