I can't get any of the bullet designs I'ld like to try for hunting in a tumble lube mold, and I don't think you can just tumble lube conventional style bullets with grease grooves.

That leaves me with just casting practice bullets like the 200gr tumble lubed .45ACP and 148gr .358 wadcutter for examples. Then buying the bullets for hunting.

Or buying a Lyman 45/450/4500 Lube & sizer or RCBS Lube-a-matic, the lyman being much cheaper in the used market, and casting everything from target rounds to hunting myself... and not having to rely on anyone or seasonal rushes on bullets.

I shoot quite a bit and a lot of my consideration boils down to time spend lubing, and these seem to be the most practical options.

How quick can one lube with the lube and sizer presses 120 bullets an hour? 400/hr?

Lets hear some opinions.
Thanks, Lonnie

When you say hunting bullets, what exactly are you referring to? Handgun hunting, high vel rifle, low vel rifle, etc.? That'll determine whether you can get away with tumble lubing or need to apply "real" lube.

A) Nothing says you can't tumble lube a grooved bullet.

B) A lubri-sizer is almost essential IMO. I never cared much for tumble lubing, and I don't give a fig about powder coating. I average around 100-200/hour, depending on size (.22's are trickier to handle with bunged up fingers) and whether gas checks are involved (plain base bullets go quicker, obviously).

Just one man's opinion.

You can tumble lube any conventional bullet design, but I don't care for tumble lubing because the lube gets on the nose of the bullet and the base and can contaminate the powder...minor issues but the Lee tumble lube designs don't seen to grip the rifling as well.

I've been shooting coated bullets and powder coated bullets for decades now and my Lube sizer just occupies it's corner of the bench, I haven't used it for years.

Powder coated bullets are faster and cheaper and cleaner with a lot of other benefits so I'm not going back at this point.

Finding lead these days is the bigger hurdle.

+1. Plus, all the great molds and bullet designs are not for tumble lube bullets. Spend the $$$ for a good used Lyman 450 - You won't regret it.

Don

I'll be loading for pistols, Mostly .38 and .44 specials, but I have some that will use magnums for hunting, (whitetail), So 1200fps and down. Most of my .38 loads are in the 750-900 range depending on the bullet. I have a boatload of 148wadcutters that will be in the 750 range for plinking. this mold... but I bought my current stash.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/7...s-and-w-358-diameter-148-grain-wadcutter

I also shoot a lot of 9mm and some 45ACP, so I'ld like to move into that at some point. Enough that I'm getting real close to buying a Dillon 550B or C

The only rifle's I may be interested in casting for are a 375Whelen AI and 45-70.

You asked about gas checks, I'ld prefer to stick with the Lead flat based bullets. I don't think I'll be running them hard enough to need them.

http://www.mattsbullets.com/index.p...285&zenid=rrqaf27n4pmu2l7962d87ueb45

That's what I had in mind for deer this year. 1050-1100fps.

I already use an oven for drying batches of brass after wet tumbling, I guess I could use the powdercoat in my old dry tumbler and bake them in the oven.

Seems like the Lyman may be the logical choice as it offers sizing at the same time.

I've got 1 bucket of range scrap lead and 7 buckets of wheel weights to smelt this weekend, so I'm ready to give casting a serious try instead of buying everything.

Yep, simply no need for the added expense of gas checks. I run plain base lead bullets up to 1800fps out of my .30 Carbine.

Don

As an aside, if you use a lube sizer, you might want to get some LBT Blue soft. IMO, a great lube.

If you don't want to buy a lube sizer you can pan lube. Stand the bullets up in a shallow pan, pour in melted lube to the top of the lube grooves and before the lube is fully hardened cut them out with a fired (and unsized) case of the corresponding caliber. You can sharpen the case on the outside with your deburring tool and drill the primer pocket out for a 1/4-3/8 inch dowel to push the bullets out. It works pretty well if you don't have a lube sizer or may not have the correct diameter sizing die. If your worried about them being to big or your mold drops them too big for the intended firearm, you can get a Lee push through sizer. It works with lubed or unlubed bullets.

LJBass, as other mentioned you can tumble lube regular grooved bullets, but you could also do the same amount of work and powder coat them. I use pretty much the same process to powder coat as to tumble lube, and can coat 500-1,000 bullets per hour. The end result is far better than tumble lube; you might consider it.

You can tumble lube any bullet, but look into making the lube from Alox, Johnsons paste wax and mineral spirits. Cast Bollits website has a bunch of info. I run a 16-1 200 grain tumble lubed GC bullet out of my 35 Whelen at full velocity that is unbelievable for accuracy and performance. Paper patching is outstanding and I use the same lube

this time of year i start "bullet Picking" as in picking up all the bullets the frozen ground pop up after the thaw.
those that i have sized and lubed in the conventional way all have lube still in the groove. i was never sold on tumble lube but this shows me that very little of the lube is transffered to the bore. i have started just dumping fresh cast bullets into a empty powder bottle with a couple glops of Lee's Alox , tumbling it around , dumping them on a tray to dry over night and loading. have been getting great accuracy and no leading.
other then that i powder coat every thing up to 45-70.

I stumbled on to that a few years ago and made up a bunch of it. I do a batch, then run them through a Lee sizer and then lube them again. Never had a problem, so far. It kinda smells like .22 bullets used to smell a long time ago. miles

Why not skip the first lube coat, and just lube once after sizing?

They slide through the dies easier, and you get a double coat in the grooves. Never read anything about doing it this way but it is the way I do it. miles

After shaking them in a plastic bowl with the coating solution, I stand them up on some waxed paper, to dry.

You might give those push though sizing dies a bit of honing, you'll be pleased with the results. Bullets slide through a lot easier without needing lube.

Lee sizing dies are notoriously rough inside, to the point that I polish every one I use. It's too bad Lee puts the nice finish effort on the outside and not the inside where it matters.

I've heard of several people on Castboolits doing the same thing for the same reasons. I've also read several accounts of people sizing, powder coating, and sizing again because they say the powder coating adds up to .002 to the size.

I've most of the stuff to try the powder coating, but I've had bad luck with the powder coated bullets i've bought from Acme, not sure if it's the coating, the size, or they are to hard to obturate to the barrel.

I figure with me wanting to shoot several different guns, I'll need to size all the bullets and if i'm doing that it won't take long to add the lube in the sizer.... And i'll only have to size once.

I'm hearing white label lube is soft and quite good for the speeds i'm looking for. If I get real adventurous I might try to make some Ben's Red, but That will depend on how the casting goes. I've now got 22 pounds of nice clean wheel weight ingots to try out.

Here is a couple of the 38 specials:


I think if I was still just shooting my CZ85 and GP-100 all the time, the tumble lube would be the way to go. Just cast, lube, shoot, no sizing, just find the mold that drops what I need.

People do all sorts of dumb stuff under the impression that more work gives better results. A good example is how so many people complicate the powder coating process and get the same end result.

There's no reason to size before coating if you're going to size after.

If your mold drops at the right diameter, you can skip sizing if you want, same as tumble lube.

If you're going to do all your sizing in a luber sizer anyway, might as well put lube in it. If you want to save time though, skip the luber sizer and use push through dies in a reloading press.

Picked up a Lyman 450 today for 25.00, Seemed like a good deal for an older one with little use. Going to give that a go.

H3ll of a deal, LJBass. You will love it. Now get yourself some White Label Lube to run thru it.

Don

I've been using a 450 since I started casting, but I've never counted how many bullets I can size. I'm guessing 120/hr would be easy but 400 would be a stretch. I would love to have a Star/Magma but I've got a small fortune tied up in sizing dies and top punches. Kinda late in life to be swapping horses now!

I had the same issue when I switched from a Lyman to a Saeco machine. Now I've got two fortunes tied up.

When I first started casting I only had one 158 gr. RN mold made by Lyman. At the time my only option was to pan lube using the Lee pan lubing kit that came with it's own cutter and sizer,still have the sizer. That was fine as I didn't cast or shoot that many bullets. I soon ended up dropping the whole business for awhile when my kids came along. When I got back into casting the Alox tumble lube as well as the molds were available.

I tumble lubed those style of bullet an dipped the standard grease groove bullets to get as much lube in the grooves as possible,when the Alox/JPW lube came along I started using that. I still use it on some occasions for a couple different bullets mainly because there are times when powder coating bullets due to high humidity out in my shop just gives poor results.

I did buy myself a RCBS Lube A Matic off Ebay that was in excellent condition for $75 along with 10 sizing dies an top punches of which 8 I could use. I use it for some of my rifle as well as pistol bullets that I gas check. I found that in some instances especially at high velocity that bullets that are designed to take a gas check shoot more accurate with the check than without regardless of how they are lubed.