Cleaning dirty lubed bullets

[SunsetIE]

Ive got about 500 lubed .44 mag and .45 cast bullets that were accidentally dumped on a dirty garage floor and previously left somewhere rather warm, resulting in the lube running and turning them all into a sticky mess.

What would be the best method to clean these? Maybe boiling them in a junk pot, or perhaps a cookie sheet and bbq for indirect heat, then wipe them off?

[GILMORE619]

I had do it...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[pacrat]

WOW, many hundreds of dollars worth of equip and components for a $10 investment.

Congrats you just won the internet. Good friend you have there. Does he need any more shooting buddies. I buy beer.

Those CCI primers date from pre 1968 at least.

Back to the dirty bullet situation. They have already been sized and lubed but the lube is the issue because it is contaminated with cruddy debri such as dirt and sand.

I suggest you get a fairly large thrift shop stainless steel pot for cheap. Dump in the bullets, cover with a liberal amount of water and place on heat. Slowly bring up temp to just shy of boiling. All the crusty lube and light debri will float to top. Skim it off with a large spoon you got at same thrift store. Repeat until all the lube has been melted and floated off.

Now you have no greasy binding agent to stick heavy debri [sand-dirt] to bullets. That crap will sink in pot and settle to bottom.

After cooling, remove the bullets from pot and rinse thoroughly. At this point you will have clean unlubed bullets with no crud, dirt, etc.

Get a bottle of this at LGS.

http://leeprecision.com/bullet-casting/bullet-lube/

Follow directions on bottle and re-lube the bullets.

You will now have less than $10 and an hr of time invested in salvageing an estimated $80-100 worth of bullets.

Have fun Mr Lucky.

[jandmtv]

Melt and recast. It's easier.

[SunsetIE]

WOW, many hundreds of dollars worth of equip and components for a $10 investment.

Congrats you just won the internet. Good friend you have there. Does he need any more shooting buddies. I buy beer.

Those CCI primers date from pre 1968 at least.

Back to the dirty bullet situation. They have already been sized and lubed but the lube is the issue because it is contaminated with cruddy debri such as dirt and sand.

I suggest you get a fairly large thrift shop stainless steel pot for cheap. Dump in the bullets, cover with a liberal amount of water and place on heat. Slowly bring up temp to just shy of boiling. All the crusty lube and light debri will float to top. Skim it off with a large spoon you got at same thrift store. Repeat until all the lube has been melted and floated off.

Now you have no greasy binding agent to stick heavy debri [sand-dirt] to bullets. That crap will sink in pot and settle to bottom.

After cooling, remove the bullets from pot and rinse thoroughly. At this point you will have clean unlubed bullets with no crud, dirt, etc.

Follow directions on bottle and re-lube the bullets.

Near boiling was what I figured, thanks.
Sorting the bullets took hours, especially the .224 as the variances are so small.
.224 :45gr spire point (475), 50gr Hornady spire point(126),56gr spire point(47), 56gr FMJBT (15)
.308 : 168gr SMK HPBT(35), 180gr soft point (7)
.357 164gr cast alloy wad cutter (56)
.358 158gr soft lead round nose (35)
.430 260gr cast flat nose gas check (381)
.452 200gr cast round nose (210)

Melt and recast. It's easier.

I dont have a forge or casting dies. Easy enough to make a forge, dies not so much.

[wbunning]

Cool karma, man. Clean it up and run it like ya stole it!

[wbunning]

I dont have a forge or casting dies. Easy enough to make a forge, dies not so much.

Midway.com has a bunch of the Lee bullet molds on sale right now. A few bucks off and the 2-bullet molds are only around $20.00. Get one and get started casting :-)

[Carcassonne]

You can try to wipe the bullets off with kerosene. You might wipe the lube off.

You really only need to clean the base. The brass case side walls will clean everything else off, but you will have to clean your bullet seater frequently.

You could also soak the bullets in Kerosene, and then recoat with Lee Liquid Alox.



.

[stilly]

Ive got about 500 lubed .44 mag and .45 cast bullets that were accidentally dumped on a dirty garage floor and previously left somewhere rather warm, resulting in the lube running and turning them all into a sticky mess.

What would be the best method to clean these? Maybe boiling them in a junk pot, or perhaps a cookie sheet and bbq for indirect heat, then wipe them off?

<Snip>


I recently received a large assortment of RCBS equipment from the late 70s, all in serviceable to great condition that was thrown in a deal a friend made for 5 guns. My friend was short $10 of the asking price, so I kicked in and he kindly gave it all to me as he has 2 Dillons and no need for old gear. 1978 RCBS jr 3, uniflow powder measure, scale,bench trimmer, case lube pad and tools, 9 sets of dies (38spl,357mag,44mag,45colt(Pacific - div of Hornady),223(3 sets),308,30-06), primer pocket swagger, loading blocks, funnels, calipers, 1378 assorted bullets and 375 pieces of brass. And a random coffee can with 3lbs of #8 shot and 120 12ga wads.

Cool story right?
<SCHNIP!>

LoL. Yeah, the press is worth something but most other stuff hat I see is garbage to me.

I want to beat up my reloading stuff myself. I do not care to inherit someone else's baggage.

So you can also get yourself a CL toaster over or get one off ebay and PC your lead projectiles.

Hell, put them onto a cookiesheet over some shop ragz or a couple of paper towels and cook them for about 20 mins on about 150-200 deg...

Then you can relube them or PC them and get on with life.

[pacrat]

You can try to wipe the bullets off with kerosene. You might wipe the lube off.

You really only need to clean the base. The brass case side walls will clean everything else off, but you will have to clean your bullet seater frequently.

You could also soak the bullets in Kerosene, and then recoat with Lee Liquid Alox.



.

I disagree. The lube is contaminated and has debri embedded in it. Sand, dirt, metal shavings, who knows what all is on a garage floor. I would not want that going down the bore of any of my firearms.

JM2c