School me on lubricating cast bullets.

[ExtremeX]

[glassparman]

Mostly has to do with leading on the inside of the barrel. Lead is very soft and without the lube, your tube will be a mess

You will get many different opinions but stick with the lube and you will be happy. Don't bother with home remedies and such, just buy a good commercial lube.

[ExtremeX]

Mostly has to do with leading on the inside of the barrel. Lead is very soft and without the lube, your tube will be a mess

I watched this video and got the impression that the lead in cast bullets are generally harder than the lead in jacketed bullets.

Is there a difference between case and hard case?

[johnny1290]

Yes it's necessary.

I've used the Lee Tumble Lube (TL) design bullets and they work fine, but are smokey as the lube burns off when you shoot. Some people say they don't need to use hardly any and get no smoke, but that's not my experience with 9mm fwiw.

Bullets iwth a single groove are the type that require the expensive machine to lube. Supposedly its more betterer but I'll never know because i'm too cheap.

ps you can vary hardness by water dropping for harder boolits and by adding various metals to your pot

I've only run straight wheel weights cleaned of zinc

[glassparman]

I recently ran across 400 pounds on linotype. I just might sell about 300 pounds of it cheap to cal gunners.

[ExtremeX]

Yes it's necessary.

I've used the Lee Tumble Lube (TL) design bullets and they work fine, but are smokey as the lube burns off when you shoot. Some people say they don't need to use hardly any and get no smoke, but that's not my experience with 9mm fwiw.

Bullets iwth a single groove are the type that require the expensive machine to lube. Supposedly its more betterer but I'll never know because i'm too cheap.

ps you can vary hardness by water dropping for harder boolits and by adding various metals to your pot

I've only run straight wheel weights cleaned of zinc

[gunboat]

e---x You are certainly correct in your assessment that there is a bit of metallurgy involved in casting bullets --
I suggest a copy of lymans cast bullet handbook, any edition, to help you wade through a lot of misinformation provided by well meaning folks --
I would also suggest getting a few commercial cast bullets to get a feel for cast bullet performance -
You also might ask here or on castboolits for some samples from various bullet moulds in your caliber before investing in a mould. -- Some folks will give others want to sell.
You may be wise waiting till you have read a bit from the cast manual before smelting your scrap. You can mess up a good batch of scrap by incorrect smelting methods --
my tuppence

[rsrocket1]

Go over to Castboolits.com and you can learn just about everything you need or get links to it.

A good free book on casting is by Glenn E Fryxell:
From Ingot to Target: A Cast Bullet Guide for Handgunners
You can look at the web version or print out the PDF. Excellent information and gets about as technical as you want (or not if you don't).

Casting lead bullets is about as old as shooting and can be as sophisticated as rocket science, but so is reloading. Follow the recipe and it goes bang and does what you want. Understand the entire process and you can customize or perfect whatever you want.

Lead alloy bullets are typically harder than the pure lead cores of jacketed or plated bullets.

You don't need an expensive lube sizer, you can tumble lube or pan lube for very little $ and the results can be just as good.




With the typical cost of lead for casting going for $1/#, you can cast the bullets for about half the cost of commercial cast bullets. If you find wheel weights, roof sheet lead, X-ray shield lead or something else for free, your total cartridge cost can be as low as $0.04/round (3 cents for the primer and 1 cent for the powder). Your time can also be calculated, but if you aren't enjoying the aspect of reloading or casting by all means don't do it. I enjoy all of it so I see it all as part of the hobby of shooting.

I use two tupperware tubs or 2 big margarine tubs for tumble lubing. Look here for the instructions to see how little you need. Once you drizzle out a tiny string of lube, you just pour the bullets from one tub to the other gently. Only the slightest uniform coating is needed. Any more is simply converted into smoke at the shooting range and provides no more lubrication.

[bobomb]

just remember tumble lube does not require a tumbler i would really call it more of a swirl lube and i have a plastic round container i put my casts in then dribble some lee juice on swirl them around till they all look slightly yellowish pour them out on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper and leave them in the sun a few hours

[bumpo628]

I agree that you should get lyman's cast bullet manual and also check out Glenn Fryxell's book. There is a lot of good info in there.

Lubrication:
There are at least three ways to lube your cast boolits. You can tumble lube, pan lube, or use those expensive lubesizers. Tumble lubing is the easiest and works best with the Lee "TL" design bullet molds. Pan lubing works with the traditional bullet molds. Someone else already covered tumble lubing. Pan lubing works by melting the lubricant into a shallow pan. Then you sink your bullets into the molten lube and make sure that the top band is covered. When it is solidified, you take your 'cookie cutter' die (basically a tube the same diameter as the bullet) and cut the lube around the bullet and then move to the next one. The trimmed bullets travel up the tube and out into your hand. There are plenty of videos on ebay for both tumble and pan lubing. So, lubing does not have to be expensive.

Lead Alloys:
Most commercial cast bullets are made from Hardball. It is composed of 2% tin, 6% antimony, 92% lead, and has a Brinnell hardness of 16. Tin adds some hardness and improves the ability of the alloy to fill out the details in the mold. Antimony adds hardness. The lead inside jacketed bullets is probably near pure since the alloys are not needed.

Slower velocity rounds like 45ACP will benefit by the use of a softer bullet, not harder. So, you wouldn't want to water drop for that. The softer alloy would "bump up" in diameter or obturate to fit the bore better. Many people use 50% WW and 50% pure lead with about 1% tin added for fillout. The hardness of that mix is close to BHN 10. Air-cooled WW lead should be close to BHN 12. I would try the air-cooled WW lead for 9mm first and see how that goes. Water dropped WW lead could easily get up to BHN 18. Rifle bullets would need to be harder than that and possibly gas checked.

My alloy calculator (see below) may be of some use in the future if you get different alloys and want to mix recipes to fit the situation.

[Cowboy T]

You've gotten some good advice from other posters already. Here are my general rules of thumb.

1.) Proper sizing and proper lubing turn out to be more important than alloy hardness.

2.) Generally speaking, softer alloy is better for handgun applications. The hardest I ever use is BHN 12 (straight wheel weights) for Magnum handgun loads. Linotype is most definitely not needed (rifles may differ).

3.) The softer your bullet lube, the better. I tumble-lube everything I cast with liquid Alox, and I don't skimp on it. Great results. For pan lubers, the good ol' NRA 50/50 formula works just as well as it always has, including for full-house .454 Casull. Stay away from that hard crayon-like stuff.

4.) You don't need to spend a lot of money. Lee moulds, especially the 6-cavity models, do a mighty fine job. For sizing, Lee's sizer dies on a cheap single-stage press are all you need.

[CSACANNONEER]

I've never played with tumble lubing or other half azz meathods. Just get a Magma Engineering (old STAR) lube/sizer and do it the right way. If you want to try mine out, just let me know. I also use an old Lyman 45 for small runs of things that I don't have Star dies for. But, it takes a lot longer.

[gunboat]

No question that STAR is numero uno -- but there is a tremendous difference in cost between it and lee tumble lube or a simple cake cutter/lee sizer.
When i bought my star in about 1960 it cost about $100 - now about 4x that? Not to mention the cost of the dies --

[Cowboy T]

Tumble-lubing is not "half azzed", nor is it a "meathod". It's a method, and it happens to be a pretty good one. Either tumble-lubing, pan-lubing, or lubri-sizing will all do a good job. Just remember, soft lube is good. Generally, soft alloy is also good unless you really know why you need the harder stuff.