filling lube groves

[oldarmy]

Does anyone have a easy way to fill bullet lube groves.
Other then buying a heating and sizing press.
Also any formulas for lube?
Other then the commercially made stuff?

 

[ameling]

The simplest way I ever read about (other than with your fingers) is to take an old flat pan or pie plate. Stand your bullets up in it, and pour your melted lube in until it covers the grooves. Let it "set". Then pull the bullets straight up and out of the hardened lube.

But I haven't tried this so I can't tell you how well it works. I think I read it in an old issue of Blackpowder Cartridge Rifles - that split-off mag from the old Buckskin Report/Blackpowder Report.

There had been one company selling a little "greasegun" type lubber. It was a cylindar for the lube with a screw type plunger to push the lube, and a chamber on the other end with a hole in it just large enough for your bullet (set in perpendicular to the lube cylindar). You filled the main cylindar with lube, put the screw plunger end on, slipped a bullet in the end, and the tighted up the plunger to push lube around the grooves in your bullet. Pull the bullet out, push another in and give it another crank.

Hope this helps.

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[Tumblernotch]

Does anyone have a easy way to fill bullet lube groves.
Other then buying a heating and sizing press.
Also any formulas for lube?
Other then the commercially made stuff?

What Mike says will work. You can also use the method used by ammunition makers during the Civil War by placing the bullets base down on a plate and dipping it in a larger pan of melted lube. I use this method and it works well. After the lube sets, I run the bullets through a sizer I made that trims the lube so that it is only in the grooves.

The original formula for Minie Ball lube was 8 parts of beeswax to 1 part of tallow. This works very well, but in extreme cold can be a little brittle. I use beeswax and Crisco usually in a 7 to 1 mix. If you shoot in very hot weather, go a little heavier on the beeswax than the tallow/Crisco. This will help prevent any melting. Some add olive oil or other additives, but I don't see the point. Main thing is, use beeswax as the base ingredient. You can experiment and see what works the best for you.

Another good lube that I have used was Javelina lube which contains beeswax and Alox. This was a lube designed for cast pistol and rifle bullets. But I've found that the old ways work as well if not better and at less cost.

And for range use, you can get by with MaxiLube or BoreButter, but these are very messy in hot weather and BoreButter gets rock hard in cold weather. However, they do a good job if carefully applied. But I would recommend the beeswax/tallow (Crisco) formula and dipping procedure over the others.
:thumbsup:

 

[bwhoffman]

what caliber or diameter?
Lee used to make some lube kits that you placed in a pan of lube and cut them out with a diameter specific "hand punch". I have one for my 45lc.
If its a metalic cartridge, an empty case with the base removed will work great!

 

[Blizzard of '93]

I dip warm slugs individually into hot lube holding the slugs with tweezer on the ogive. takes awhile but once I get the hang of it it moves along.
I use beeswax/crisco mix about 7-3.

 

[Tumblernotch]

The barrel on my Richmond rifle-musket is .576 land diameter. My Minies are .575. The sizer I made is just tight enough to trim the lube and true up the bullet. This barrel is a match barrel with 6 grooves, 1 in 48" twist.

 

[BrownBear]

I just did something that makes too much sense for me to have thought of myself.... But I did!

I was lubing with a pretty sticky mix and having trouble getting it all over heck, and even pulling some of the lube back out in handling.

Got a wild hare and smeared extra lube on the bullet, then pushed it down through the hole in one of my loading blocks. Wahoo!

In one pass it sheared off the excess lube while forcing the remainder down into the grooves where it belonged. Long as I swiped the hole between bullets and pushed then through nose first, they came out clean and nice. I think I found the solution I'm happy with. It's sure easy enough.

 

[mazo kid]

I was gonna suggest a similar method! If you use a Forstner bit, you will get much rounder holes in wood. They won't work with steel! When pan lubing, warm the bullets up a little before pouring in the melted lube. After things cool off, just push the bullets on through the lube cake and run them through your homemade luber/sizer to get rid of any excess lube.

 

[hepburn4590]

Bullet Lube; By weight, 50/50 bee wax and Crisco.

Lube method; Pan lube. Stand them up in a pan. Melt the lube and pour it into the pan. When the lube cools off completly push the bullets out the bottom of the lube brick. My pans are large enough to do fifty at a time.