Lee Tumble Lube Bullets

[mwx40x40]

A friend and I cast our first batch of Lee Tumble Lube 158 RN bullets today. Lubed half of them with Alox Tumble lube and the other half with Red Rooster . Stood most of them upright on the base of the bullet after lube was applied.

Is it really necessary to stand them up? Or can you just tumble lube and dump them out on a sheet of wax paper or something?

[kevinj308]

I just dump them out on wax paper. I heat up the lube in a cup of hot water and use it very sparingly. Shake the bullets around in a plastic container and then dump them out. Next day they're ready to go. I love that stuff, works great for me.

edited cuz I can't spell

Edited September 6, 2009 by kevinj308

[Chills1994]

FWIW, some folks over at the cast boolits forum have had good luck with tumble lubing boolits in Johnson Paste Wax. Comes in a mainly yellow and black tin in the cleaning products aisle at your Wally World or grocery store. I guess the JPW ends up being cheaper than the Lee Liquid Alox (LLA), too.

Edited September 6, 2009 by Chills1994

[mwx40x40]

Thanks , good info to know.

[Chills1994]

And from what I have read, some guys will tumble lube their boolits with the LLA or the JPW as cast, let them dry, then run them through the Lee push through sizer in a single stage press. The first time letting them dry I guess it doesn't really matter which way they are orientated. Then they tumble lube them again and I guess for the second drying they do actually stand them up.

I think I read somewhere else here on this forum where some revolver shooters were letting their Lee Factory Crimp Dies size the boolit through the case as the rounds are being loaded. That seems kinda iff-ey and does make me do this:

One of the boolit lube sales/manufacturing companies actually sells a product called Xlox. It might be Lars and the White Label Lube company. I guess it is basically concentrated Alox that you can buy by the gallon jug or the 5 gallon bucket. It supposedly comes out way cheaper than buying that little bottle of LLA.

Edited September 6, 2009 by Chills1994

[Harmon]

i wish they made a product that air-dried hard like a black-bullet.

harmon

[mwx40x40]

i wish they made a product that air-dried hard like a black-bullet.

harmon

The Red Rooster stuff is pretty close.

[Chills1994]

^^^ Isn't red rooster that red grease/wax lube you find in the lube grooves of a lot of commercially cast boolits?

I think Harmon is looking for a substance that coats the entire boolit.

PM sent Harmon.

[mwx40x40]

^^^ Isn't red rooster that red grease/wax lube you find in the lube grooves of a lot of commercially cast boolits?

I think Harmon is looking for a substance that coats the entire boolit.

PM sent Harmon.

http://www.midwayusa.com/browse/BrowseProd...ryString=685***

Maybe I misquoted. This Rooster Liquid lube stuff, just squirt it in a bowl swish bullets around in it and put them in front of a fan to dry over night. The next day they are dry to touch. I will be testing my first batch tomorrow. I will let you know my thoughts.

[Chills1994]

Kewl!

when I think of red rooster, I think of the Zambini stick lubes like here on this page:

http://www.roosterlabs.com/products.html

I would be interested to know how that other lube works.

Years ago, I bought bunches of these 230 grain Lead Round Nose bullets by Hornady. They were actually cold swaged and coated with some sort of lubricant. There was a cross hatched pattern stamped into the bullet, which I guess helped hold the lube on. All I could pry out of the Hornady folks was that the lube was Alox mixed with something else. They never would tell me what the something else was. Out of all the lead boolits I have ever shot, those smoked the least. I was really impressed with them.

A friend from another forum has access to a mass spectrometer. He tells me that, supposedly, the Rooster Red Zambini stick lube could be approximated at home with Lucas Red N Tacky grease for cars, and possibly some paraffin and maybe even some beeswax. In the past, he has kinda clued me in on some other products that are actually sold and repackaged as uber expensive snake oil for other purposes like casting, reloading, and on guns.

[Chills1994]

Oh, and by the way, I shot about 100 rounds of cast and sized but NOT lubed boolits through 2 different 1911's.

Those boolits/rounds still smoked even without the lube. This was with Clays powder.

So it is either the powder or how loosely the lead boolit seals the bore that causes all the smoke. So the next time you hear one of your buddies say "Good grief, those are smokey rounds. It must be the lube." you can tell them that is an old wive's tale.

Yeah, the lube does keep the barrel leading to a minimum. After about 40 rounds through the Colt, the boolits started keyholing. A look through the bore showed what looked like a little bundle of lead wool deposited in the barrel.

[toddrod]

From my experience, the Rooster liquid tumble lube will dry hard to the touch but I find that it will start to "flake" after a week or so. When I do use it these days, I will load the rounds the day after lubing and when they flake I lay all the bullets down on a towel, spray with brake cleaner and rube them. cleans them right up. I find that Trail Boss (45 ACP load) and N320 (9mm and 40 S&W) combined with Alox lube will barely smoke at all.

[mwx40x40]

Range results with Rooster Lube and Lee Alox.

The Rooster Lube is showing promise. I am sure there are a lot of factors for rounds smoking , but my observation was that the Rooster smoked less than the Alox.

I had read about thinning the Lee Alox with Mineral Spirits 50/50. I tried that but don't think I will do that again. At least not 50/50. I experienced barrel leading quickly with the thinned Lee Alox.

Still more testing to do.

BTW, accuracy was very satisfactory with the unsized Lee TL bullets.

[Chills1994]

^^^ But the as cast, UNsized, tumble lube boolits coated with the rooster didn't lead the barrel???

[mwx40x40]

^^^ But the as cast, UNsized, tumble lube boolits coated with the rooster didn't lead the barrel???

Not in my limited test. (it was only 25 rounds) I need something that can go at least 125 rounds without severe leading(more would be even better). I will post when I get a chance to do more T&E.

I am also going to check the hardness of my lead. It may have been a little on the soft side. I would think that could impact the results as well.