I've come into a nice size 'pile' of cast bullets ~170 gr flat points with gas checks - they must have been left someplace warm as the bottom of the box is a solid 'slab' of bullet lube and the bullets themselves have little to no lube left on them - well other than the ones in the bottom of the box they're swimming in it.
could I use Lee Liquid Alox maybe with a dusting of mica to reduce the stickiness - these will be used in reduced .308 practice loads
I have used the Alox for many years with all kind of loads from .22's to .458 Lott and everything in between. I have always used it alone with nothing else.
The most likely problem you will have with it is USING TOO MUCH
It doesn't take much at all.
Righ now I am mostly using it with .30 cal. 170 gr. flat points with no gas check in a 30/30 Marlin with a Micro-Groove barrel and getting no leading with light loads(Unique)
Most say don't do this in a Micro-Groove barrel but it works great for me and shoots well.
The kids love shooting it.
I got my lube through eBay, IIRC.
http://www.lsstuff.com/lube/ (http://www.lsstuff.com/lube/) I use the Red Carnuba. He sells it on eBay as well as on his website. $1.35 to $1.80 per stick is hard to beat.
ok follow up question - a fair number of the bullets are sorta half lubed and half unlubed.
would it be worth the effort to heat them up a bit maybe in an old oven and remove all the lube - seems to me I could just use Alox over the top -
I would just try a Light coat of Alox over the old lub
Put the new lube over the old lube. BTDT, it worked.
;) Some years back I was given several thousand quite old .38 HBWC bullets that were either unlubed, or it had all evaporated off. (Don't laugh. Several summers in a Texas garage or attic will evaporate most anything off anything.) To get them lightly re-lubed, and secondarily to make the Alox go further, I thinned it with toluene (available at good paint stores or the big orange box place. Xylene will work the same but it dries a little slower, an aliphatic solvent like old-fashioned cigarette lighter fluid might work but I had the toluene already and it's the classic wax solvent. A quart will last about a lifetime, that's often the smallest you can buy.), about 2:1 with the Alox. Tumble the bullets (in a covered plastic container) in that glop until they're lightly coated. The Lee instructions say to spread them out on waxed paper to let them dry. I used old aluminum foil pie plates, that worked fine. Do this outdoors and away from ignition, these solvents are flammable, and toluene and xylene are called AROMATIC solvents for a good reason. They stink powerfully.
Thinned this way, a 4-ounce bottle of Alox will last about a quarter of forever, unless you do a WHOLE BUNCH of cast-bullet shooting. No leading probs at all at reasonable velocities IME.
When working with Xylene or Toluene - don't get it on ya. It'll make your babies be born naked. ;D
In the oilfield we call 'em MEDBS (Methyl Ethyl Death Bad $h*t).
Quote from: Nickle on January 23, 2008, 05:39:00 PM
Put the new lube over the old lube. BTDT, it worked.
that's the answer I was looking for - better than explaining to the wife why there are 500 + bullets in the oven at 350 deg for 20 minutes ;D