I recently bought a bunch of lead ingots and cast bullets, both lubed and unlubed, at an estate auction. The lubricant is flaking off/falling out of the lube grooves of some of these bullets, either because it's drying out, or through rough handling.
Can I tumble lube or pan lube these bullets which are now incompletely lubed?

Sure, why not...you can do all that and more...

But TL is too messy for me...

Today I would powder coat them, but in the past I have just put a drop of Lee Liquid Alox on my thumb and forefinger and apply it to the lube groove area with a quick spin. I lay the Alox bottle on its side and a slight pressure with the palm will dispense the drop with one hand, or you could squeeze some into a bottle cap...whatever works.

Set them base up on wax paper to dry and they are ready to go in a few hours.

Depending how you're going to use them, tumble lube them for easy plinking loads, or pan lube them with a good lube for more powerful loads.

I powdercoat most everything, but would not bother coating the bullets you describe. The cleaning required to get all the wax off the bullets before coating is not really worth the effort. I have a bunch of lubed bullets just sitting around for that reason.

Lube "flaking off/falling out of the lube grooves" is the problem with the hard, waxy lube that the commercial casters use. I got some 2nd hand bullets like you described and ran them thru my Lyman 450, which filled in any part of the lube groove that was missing lube. Problem solved.

Don