The other day whilst watching one of Larry Potterfield's "how to" shorts, he was loading paper patch ammo for one of his Sharps. After loading the powder and wad, I watched him literally pour the molten grease medium into the case, let solidify then proceed with the rest of the loading process. Any of you experts do or even seen anyone do this? J

Not an expert and no I have not. Lube migration is already a problem for hot weather areas.

With a properly sized, THICK ENOUGH vegetable fiber wad, and a beeswax rich lube , should be do-able.

Don't ask me how one would control the volume, though.

GTC

I know of a fella that uses a dipper to drop the melted lube into the case for his grease cookies.
Not a very common practice.

I spose one could use a eye dropper
I think Larry should stay with his gun smiting instead loading PP rounds

Larry is 3/4 off of full plumb!!

Greg,

That was exactly my thought -- it could be done, but how could you make pouring as consistent as cutting a grease cookie from a uniform sheet for example?

John

I don't know that you could John. As I said (and Cross will verify) lube migration is a prob for hot region shooters as it is. The only way this looks doable is for that batch of ammo to get used PRONTO as in as soon as it sets up.

To be honest, I hadn't thought of the lube migrating with warm temperatures.

Up here near the Arctic Circle, it is pretty much Fall already, and the hottest day we had this summer was 24C (75F).

At the temperatures they get in the southern parts of the US, I'd be worried about ME melting, not just the lube in my ammo!

John

With the right wads, and lube formula this WILL work,...John Walters makes "Tight Wads" in .030 and .060,....I'd venture that it would take a pretty oily lube to penetrate one of those.
Sure doesn't make much sense to focus on uniform and consistent bullet weights, and than throw everything out of kilter with wampus grease cookie protocols.

Sure would make for damn good weatherproofing, I guess.

GTC

I've dabbled a little with lube cookies. I melted SPG in a baking pan, until it was in a layer about 1/8" thick. Then set it aside to cool.

prime & charge cases, compress the powder with a die, put a wad over the powder. Then push the case mouth into the layer of lube, like a cookie cutter. Thumb seat another wad on top of the cookie, then use a 7.62x39 case head to push the wad & cookie against the over-powder wad. Seat bullet.

Not claiming it's the best way, but it worked for me.

I can't think of one good reason to give this a try.

Me neither, but since I saw Larry do it, I figured to ask here!

Have you got a link to that vid ?

GTC

no sir, it was on TV.

"Gun Stories with Joe Montagna. Sharps Rifles. Good show. saw the sequence about the PP ammo with Potterfield.

Make the volume of the dipper exactly what you want and it will dispense the same amt each time as long as you fill to the top and don't spill any. A cookie mold is the only way to fly for exact consistency of the cookies size and damned all easier to use than cutting cookies from the sheet method. Magnum Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAZyvd0jCfM

I tried it once. Seemed to work OK, I guess.

Well, he's got the right wads, and a dipper spooled up out of some sorta' short cartridge case that should give pretty repeatable payloads.
I don't see how this CAN'T work.
No WAY that lube gets past that Walters vegetable fiber wad.

.....NEAT !

GTC

Accurate my backside, not with those twisted tails, there won't be any accuracy..

You fellows have carved out,....maybe I should say RE-carved the legend, when it comes to slicks. Watching ya'll do this over the years has been a treat, for this dedicated fan of the grooved greaser.

Tempting , this whole PP slick game,....and I'd venture the LONG range edge.

You say Potterfield's loose at the seams,....hey, I'll buy that, I can't watch that "Rolling Block Build" of his without cringing, wincing and ducking.

GTC

I never did understand why he bought Fajen, and then shut them down very shortly thereafter.

Greg twisted tails are something that came along, much the way drilling out flash holes to marginally safe diameters and using magnum primers came to us. Well intentioned, but mislead information from the past.
Even in the original Ideal handbook they tell how to properly wrap a bullet, describe the various thicknesses of paper etc.. In some ways its so very sad that we have urban myth stuff that has become the way the light and the truth, when in actual fact it's just wrong....

I watched Potterfield load ammo for a Roller on one of the TV hunting shows for a white tail hunt in south Texas. One of those ranches that had huge deer everywhere.

I thought I was going to see a proper deer shot with a proper rifle and a proper cartridge. Instead, late in the day, after a couple of blown chances, they finally got on one dumb enough to stand still long enough for Larry to get ready to shoot. Potterfield handed the roller to the guide and borrowed an available bolt gun because the deer had walked off enough that it was too far to shoot with the Roller. The distance? 140 yards. With a bolt gun.

I couldn't believe it. A fraud, and a shot that was a gimme. Broadside at 140 yards, and he can't shoot a Roller well enough to kill a deer at 140 yards? That was the day I quit buying anything from Midway.

Well, at least I have something on old Larry, two hundred yards, with some greasers as well though. I STILL can't roll to save my life...

Compressed powder:

Compressed powder by Rick Mulhern, on Flickr

Inserting the OPW:

Seating the OPW by Rick Mulhern, on Flickr

Seating lube cookie into case:

Inserting lube cookie by Rick Mulhern, on Flickr

Breaking the air lock:

Breaking air lock by Rick Mulhern, on Flickr

Ready for bullet insertion:

Seated wad atop lube cookie! by Rick Mulhern, on Flickr

Maybe 'Larry' will see this and learn something!

Haven't bought anything from them in well over 10 years.
Just drifted over to their on-line "Catalogue" and checked out "Gunsmithing Supplies"
What a screwed up debacle, and complete dog's breakfast !

Check out the hodge podge layout for simple drill rod blanks,....

Link: http://www.midwayusa.com/bars-rods-fasteners-and-adhesive/br?cid=19821&pageNumber=4

HITF is one supposed to find what he's looking for , FAST ?

GTC

I'm more than satisfied with cutting my own from this homemade contraption..an old case,a bolt for the plunger..works great..

Woody, that "device" is pure genius!

"Dog Breakfast"!!!! Roflmao!

I'm gonna remember that one Greg!

Learned a lot from this thread. Interesting!

The fact that Potterfield and Co. would expect somebody to scroll through that mess to find a stick of material that they need NOW is a reflection of something,....I'm not sure just what.

Sloppy, and vaguely disrespectful of one's patrons ?


GTC

Hmmmmm...interesting.

Though when I made the cookies thicker I got a sight bulge in the case.

You may get a slight bulge in the case IF.....you compress the powder with the OPW in place! This normally can happen when shooting 'greasers' because the powder...with a healthy charge...has to be compressed more so as to facilitate seating the bullet to proper OAL!! For heavy compression...don't compress with the OPW in place!!

Is a head scratcher that. Fajen did some nice work back in the day.

We DREAMED about building the sporters of our dreams on Fajen wood.

I did, anyway.

GTC

I was just about to order a custom stock in fancy wood, when he shut it down. Just boom. dunno if he wanted the land, or building, or what. Didn't even have an clearance sale on the inventory.

In the late 50's I build a .22 Varminter on a 1939 VZ chech action and I used a Fajen stock I got from Herters. I still have the rifle, the barrel is shot out but the wood still looks good.

And I put a Fajen stock on my 870 trap I would hate to think what it would cost today or if I could even find a piece of wood like it.

Woody you are a genius.

There was a sale of the entire inventory... an auction that went into the night. Thousands of stocks and blanks sold for pennies on the dollar.

The original Reinhart Fajen shop was located in downtown Warsaw (you could walk in and sort through the stocks to find one you liked... there were many local people doing stock work in those days). Midway built a factory between Lincoln and Warsaw for the stock business and even built an airport which is now the Lincoln/Warsaw airport. There is some other business in the building now.

If a person could have been at the auction with a LARGE truck and say a hundred thousand $$$ and had a place to store them, they could have made a lot of money selling stocks... in the long wood room I saw blanks marked five and six hundred dollars selling for as little as $35 to $40.