Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Bullet lube question

Good article, he is correct about leaving a film on the boolits.
I either pan lube or stuff Felix lube in the grooves with my fingers. Then I don't really size any lead, just use lapped out Lee dies as excess lube removers.
If I drop a boolit on the rug with all the dog hair I have the original porcupine boolits!
I keep lube out of crimp grooves and use my thumbnail to remove any lumps but always leave a film. Everything I do is very messy.
On occasion I use the lube sizer if the die is the right size.

What in the world is a "boolit", for crying out loud??!! It's ok to use the hillbilly phonic re-creation of the word "bullet" over on the forum where they don't know how to spell, but elsewhere...

It is what we use at Cast Boolits to differentiate between condom bullets and cast. Easier then saying cast bullets or jacketed bullets. Lead is just boolit, jacketed is bullet. It grows on you. Carol even laughs at me.

No experience here with PC bullets but have all the paraphernalia to do so purchased some time back. Just haven't made the time to try it out.

Question is, can you get one hole accuracy with coated bullets? I read a good deal on the subject AFTER I made my purchases, and it seems few, if any, have been able to get the accuracy with coated bullets that is pretty standard with traditional lubed bullets.

It may not make a lot of difference with handgun bullets, but rifle bullets seem to be another matter.

What say you? Or anyone else?

I haven't tried the powder coating as a lube yet.

I have done conventional lube experiments with accurate revolvers and lube can have a significant affect on accuracy. As far as one hole accuracy with cast, that's a dedicated cast br rifle proposition. I'd say a good revolver will hang with most rifles i.e. a bit under 2 moa, right around moa when everything is perfect.

That depends how close the target is!

I've read a bit about people's issues with it on castboolits too, but haven't had any problems myself. To be fair, I've never experienced "one hole", as in sub-0.5moa, accuracy with any cast bullets, but I don't shoot watered down light cast bullet loads in my rifles either.

In my experience, my powder coated bullets have been just as accurate as lubed bullets, in both rifle and pistol. The difference is being able to push the powder coated bullets faster and at higher pressure, without worry about leading. In pistols, I am getting "one hole" accuracy out of a couple 45 and 9mm Glocks at 15 yards with powder coated bullets. In rifles, I'm getting ~2 moa with full power 308 (2500-2600 fps), as well as 35 Remington and 300 Blackout, which is as good or better than lubed bullets ever did for me.

Some of the problem may come from people insisting that you don't have to worry about alloy hardness with powder coated bullets. While it's true that you can shoot softer bullets without leading, they still need to be hardened correctly for best accuracy.

Hope that helps.

I'm fairly familiar with what cast bullets can do. In this case it's a matter of perception. One hole can mean a .308" hole with 10 .308" bullets through it. Unlikely with cast or jacketed bullets.

Or it can mean the nice small group bfrshooter made with the Marlin .44 Mag in the right hand photo in his post above. More along the lines I am referring to.

I suppose I could have made better choice of terms. Let's look at something 1 MOA or better to avoid further confusion.

Some folks don't shoot handguns well enough for the bullet or lube to make a difference. Depending on the handgun and discipline, less than 1 MOA may not matter if one is attempting to knock a 6-8" steel plate down at close range.

Point is, I don't have the experience with coated bullets, but from what I've heard, with rifle at least, it is difficult to get less than 2 MOA, much less 1 or less.

With a handgun shooting steel plates it may not matter.

Thank you for a well thought out answer. Possibly more so than the ill stated question. Pretty much what I was looking for. More along the lines of a .5 MOA group is what I had in mind.

It sounds like it is well worth whatever effort it is to coat the bullets. Guess I'd best get to coating and see how it works for me.

If you look at my avatar, the big 45-70 BFR has done 3/16" at 50 yards, 1/2" at 100 and my best was a 2-1/2" group at 500 yards. Home made mold and 4759 powder, LP mag primer. I can't do that with a rifle, even jacketed. The shooting was done Creedmore but from sand bags I can hold a revolver more steady then a rifle anymore. Off hand at my age is kind of gone! I managed a 3 shot group on steel once of 3/4" from my old SBH at 100 yards, .44 with a home made mold, 330 gr with an ogive as close to the forcing cone angle I could get it.
Even the big .500 JRH in the BFR has proven more accurate then most rifles. I put up a shotgun shell at 100, taped to cardboard, missed the first shot by 1/2" and hit with the second, very tough with a 4 minute Ultra dot.
I have had my 30-30 Remlin down to 3/16" at 100 but have a devil of a time holding that thing still. You must hold the forearm with your hand, can't rest the thing on a bag.
Anyway, the good revolver is a thing of wonder. I have much more trouble with rifles and cast, don't think it is the gun or boolit, just the loose nut behind it. Dang that Marlin is a beast to hold still! Even though I worked the trigger, every shot takes different pressure but my revolvers run from 19 oz to 1-1/2# trigger pulls. I even made more clearance on the Marlin lever safety but it still changes. Stupid thing can be 1# once and 5# the next. Run out of breath without the gun going off.

This is a sight in session with the BFR .475 at 50 yards, home made mold, 420 gr WFN. I reject any revolver group over 1" at 50.

Never look down your nose at cast. Just takes more thinking and work.
Now show what powder coated can do and you might change me. Here is my 30-30 at 100, 4895 on the target and 3031 on the can, no Unique or Red dot.
Lube is important, much more then stopping leading.

BFR,

I am a novice caster and have had good luck with pistol bullets. I have not tried rifle rounds yet but maybe this year. In jacketed 30-30 I have had great luck with Win 748. Have you tried 748 with cast bullets?

Ran out long ago but it is good powder. It will work.

It's not a problem, per se, unless it's a sign of careless manufacturing overall. A good quality bullet from a manufacturer that cares about the end product will have nicely filled grease grooves. A crap bullet will still go bang, but might not shoot as well on the target.

You can buy good quality lubed or coated bullets from reputable manufacturers as well. Hard cast bullets are often cast from an alloy that is not a good choice for the application. You will mostly get what you pay for.

There are a few types of non-grease type coatings, and they are very good...Hy Tek coating is one brand that is well regarded.

Coated bullets are a lot cleaner to use, and accuracy is the same if the bullets are cast well of the correct alloy and correctly sized.

As to that, whatever your choice, why buy crap bullets in the first place?

Pay a penny or two more and get the best!

No one in my circle uses grease type lubes anymore.

The hard lube used by makers is a problem if some breaks out of grooves at exit. If any stays in, it throws a boolit out of balance like an air pocket. Best for all the lube to leave the boolit at the muzzle or all stay on.

Exactly...

I've dug plenty of bullets out of back stops...(free lead you know), and could find examples that still had the hard lube in the grooves fully filled out and still hard.

I used a softer lube because it ran through my sizer, and my concern was that if the hard lube survived through all that...was it actually doing much lubing?

That's another point in favor of coated bullets...the coating is very tough and intended to survive.

You can apply coating to any bullet design without running into any issues, but some makers now offer designs without any grease grooves as well.

But whatever the choice of lube, a good quality bullet is one that reflects quality in every aspect of the manufacturing process from the alloy through molding and lubing...it makes a big difference in accuracy and is well worth the slight extra cost.

Cast bullets can be carefully...or carelessly crafted, and shooting is not just an exercise in shoving any old lump down the barrel regardless of defect and hoping for the best...which is the point, after all.

Sounds good to me.