Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Lube

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back on the cast bullet forum 20 years ago half the posts were on lube and recipes. it all ended when larrs (white label) started making his lube. he has lubes to fit anyones need. they work as good as anything and there cheaper than your going to pay for filtered bees wax. than came pc and it made them all obsolete. i havent used my star to lube bullets for probably 5 years

Obsolete? How praytell?

with pc you can shoot any alloys even pure at any speed without leading and without gas checks and your gun doesnt get all gunked up with lube. shoots as clean as pure. hps out of pure at 2000 fps no trouble. i shoot 130 cast @1950fps out of my blackout using ww doing mag dumps with a binary trigger with absolutely no leading. ive pushed cast to 2900 in ars with no leading but accuracy wasnt great but some with more patients the me have shot that same bullet into 2moa at full power.

plus you can size with a cheap lee sizing die and dont need an expensive lubesizer or the expensive dies they take. all you need is a plastic container with a lid, some pc paint and something to cook them in. some use a toaster oven. i found a range free on the side of the road that had a cracked cook top. i do LOTS of them so instead of a plastic dish i use a frankfort arsenal cheap tumbler. it will do about 15lbs of bullets. i tumble them for 30 minutes with the paint throw them in the oven at 400 for 30 minutes while the next batch tumbles. if you want harder bullets just drop the cookie sheet of bullets in a bucket of water instead of air cooling then if you doing an all Dayer when the first batch is cooled you can size while you cook another batch.

honestly the only thing ill ever use my star for again is sizing pc bullets in odd sizes lee doest make and i have star dies for. ive been casting since 1972 and this is hands down the biggest gamechanger ive learned. dont worry i doubted it too and got in some pretty frisky arguments on the cast bullets forum but the first time i made a batch and shot them i was a believer and ive turned my buddys on to it and there believers too. by the way this isnt my first rodeo. i was a founding member of castbullet and have casted and taken game with 458mag.50ak.475 and 500 linebaughs, 480s and 454 and about anything else that can throw a cast bullet. before he died i sent john linebaugh bullets and the quinns from gunblast have shot them. as have many names you know at linebaugh seminars and was friends with the owners of a couple of the bigger commercial casters. dont let my low post count make you think im someone thats a rookie. id dare bet ive flung more lead down range and killed more game with cast bullets from squirrels and bunnies to bison and an 1800lb water buffalo. my name is Lloyd Smale and their is probably a couple on here that know me and will tell you theirs no bs here

Powder Coating doesn't abide with the old school ambiance I want to maintain with what I'm doing here. I've zero interest in powder coating bullets regardless of that system possibly being superior to the old means and methods of lubing. Not everything has to be modernized to work well.

Good to see you here Lloyd.

You pretty much lost me in the first paragraph when you mentioned mag dumps.

I've tried to cozy up to PC'ing, just not for me. I have way too much invested in a room full of casting gear, plus I haven't nearly begun to fully master the archaic art of bullet casting - even after 56 years of applying myself to it. I have no intention of upsetting my apple cart in a revolutionary way.

On top of that I have yet to meet anybody in the match shooting circles I run in who has found PC'ed bullets to be more accurate than conventional ones. Chief claim to fame is velocity gains and in lessened leading - neither trait necessarily contributing to ultimate accuracy.

I reckon PC'ing is fine for the hunter, for the guy who doesn't wish to uncover the secrets of the Old Masters and then beat them at their own game, for the fella who has a busy life and can't be bothered with experimentation, the guy who wants to shoot cast bullets in modern military-style autoloaders, or the man who likes his ammo to come in all colors of the rainbow. Not disparaging you, merely a tongue-in-cheek assessment of what I see happening around me.

as to accuracy with the same bullet and identical loads ive seen it go both ways. my buddy though who even shoots more than me says pc bullets have the edge. hes forgot more than anyone ive met knows and tells it like it is. as to casting the romantic bs to me is just that. im not going to cast over the campfire and i dont cast or for that matter load for fun. thats gone away years ago and hundreds of thousand bullets ago. i cast and load today so i can SHOOT. without it i couldnt afford to shoot like i do. my old body is getting beat up due to my service injuries and i just cant stand there for hours a day like i use to. so today i want efficiency not experience. i done plenty of experience for a lifetime.

i worked as a lineman for many years and for weeks on end id be up at 4am and out in the shop and crank out a 20lb pot before work. had a mount on the back of the truck that i could quickly mount one of my stars and sized them during lunch come home and one day load and the next shoot. now im retired and dont miss that one bit. id about as soon load pistol ammo on a single stage press as ladle cast and lube size. heck if i won the lotto id hire someone to do it and never pull another lever other then a safety. my bullets are od green or black. i sure as dont care about pretty colors. bottom line is id rather spend the time honing my shooting skill the bent over a pot. id bet my house if elmer kieth was alive hed be pc'ing bullets because people like him and glen Fryxell paco kelly and rob applegate were innovators. guys that brought the science into casting. at 67 ive got plenty of "ambience" without having to create it

Good for you.

Still won't be powder coating bullets because I already have everything I need to lube with my lubrisizer. Gotta love those that think investing more money into something that's already been adequately invested in, is a great and wonderful idea. There's already one of those jokers running around this forum.

Haven't had any issues getting speed or accuracy out of traditional lubed bullets.

I've ran them to 2,900 in a Hornet with 3 touching (and me throwing the other two out).

Just this past weekend my hunting buddy shot 3 deer with 250gr. cast softnosed I loaded out of his 35 Whelen; all past 200 yards, so the accuracy is there.

Granted a deer isn't hard to hit, but he has used them the last two years because they shot better than the 225 Barnes he used initially, hovering under an inch easliy.

These are not powder puff loads; they clock right at 2,500 fps. and get a similar dose of RL15 as a jacketed load.

Good stuff

Bottom line, to each his own. All to often in this man's world I've found that newer "better" things don't necessarily have to be chased after in order to attain "psyche comfort". Of course, I'm the guy who'd also rather knock around town in my 54 year old MG or shoot 20-30 slow paced breech-seated shots with a vintage single shot target rifle over the course of an entire range day than to jump into my late(er) model sports sedan or blaze away with an AR-15 (which is precisely why I sold the dammed thing).

I view casting, loading, tinkering at the loading bench, etc. not as a means to an end, rather it's more often than not the end in and of itself. I take the whole process of turning chunks of raw lead into little holes in the target as a gestalt thing - each step as interesting/fulfilling as the rest. When the mood isn't upon me I don't force myself to do any of it - to do otherwise runs the risk of resentment.

Today I cast a sackful of .30 rifle bullets plus a few hundred .32 pistol bullets, while listening to Beethoven. Beat he hell out of chasing the Christmas spirit in the stores and bars.

Impressive.

I've dinked around a bit in the upper velocity reaches with cast bullets, and once I learned the necessary protocols didn't find it to be that much of a challenge. Now, as I'm leaning into the other side of the 70 year old milestone, I'm quite content to let others chase that stuff. Working in the 600-900fps range with .32/.38/.45 handguns and 1100-1800 range with various caliber rifles suits my temperament. The bit of hunting I do anymore is easily handled by sedately moving cast bullets or, gasp!, jacketed stuff.

LBT Blue soft.

Yep, that's a good one.

Not messy to work with.

Except for the Beethoven (I'm partial to Bluegrass) that's how I look at all things gun and handloading. The process itself is the goal, the targets and meat put up are the icing on the cake.

And it's all therapeutic. Some of the best mind mending therapy in the world is spending months building a flintlock longrifle from a pile of parts and chunk of wood, casting up some roundballs, and churning up a cloud of Holy Black smoke with something you created and made work as intended.

This one casting project rifle especially is a 1958 made Marlin in 35 Rem. It wears an old period correct Weaver fixed 4X scope mounted on purpose in old style weaver strap rings, and just oozes of old school cool. How on earth could I not cast and lube in the same manner as was done when it was made? Somehow powder coating those 200 grain flatnose bullets just don't jive with the universe.

your all so much cooler than me . i guess we will leave at you cast and ill shoot. but like i said this aint my first rodeo and i long ago found there is NO advantage to doing it your way other them you dont want to buy a lb of pc that coats more bullets than 4 sticks of lube. or your shooting black powder. Cant afford a 20 dollar toaster oven at a yard sale?? im guessing most of you have one rifle one shotgun and maybe one handgun. because why spend money when those three get the job done honestly i figured on seeing more open minds and knowledge here.

I think if you want to shoot powder coated bullets, go for it. I have no problem with that. Why would anyone get upset if I choice to do a traditional lube? I don't need a lead bullet to travel at a jacketed bullet speed. If I need that, I'll shoot jacketed bullets. I personally fine most colors people coat with look like crap but it's your choice.
A number of the smaller caliber cartridges haven't been worked up yet but I'm getting there.

Yep, you got everyone pegged here.

One rifle, one shotgun.

Just because in all your years you've managed to make something more difficult than it really is, don't lump everyone into your category.

Theres nothing wrong with putting jackets, sabots, coatings and patches on lead bullets; they've been using different materials to do that for quite some time, you might have heard.

Even a guy with one rifle may have been open minded enough to figure that out.

Best of luck to you; it sounds like you have everything whipped and its best to enjoy it.

Heck, there's a category called BPCR on the forum.
You would blow their minds there....

I might add that when pointing a finger at "non-open minded people" there are three other fingers on that hand pointing back at yourself.

I guess we heathens needed salvation so a missionary was sent among us.

Winky, If you get bored, go to the Cast Bullet Association website, the match results are posted on there with score, rifle, powder, bullet and lube. If any powder coat bullets were used...I must have missed it.
I am glad you are happy with your colorful rainbow bullets, but when you come to a strangers door as an evangelist...sometimes the door will be shut in your face. Prefacing your opinions with a simple, 'here's how I prefer to do it' might open some doors for you...maybe.