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Hard cast question

BIGFATJEF

Private
Minuteman
Dec 24, 2022
19
8
Sacramento
I was loading 10mm hard cast bullets that I poured and when I run them through the RCBS auto luber I noticed there is a bit of lube on the bottom of the bullets. I wiped it off every bullet I made - 500 rounds - and this was very tedious. Can the small amount of lube on the bottom of the bullet affect the charge in any way? - these performed well at the range. - "Darn spider jumped out of my powder thrower and I screamed like a girl, may need to sit down to pee for a week.


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To your main question, That little bit shouldn't hurt the powder unless you load and then store for 6 weeks or so, especially if they will be subject to summer heats.
One think you might notice is a bit of smoke when shooting these "boolits" and a little more time required to clean your weapon.
Since you have a BB mold, first clean the top of the knock out pin in your H&I die. Second , try adjusting the depth on your lubersizer so that your bullet doesn't go in as deep but still fills the lube groove .
 
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The thin smear of lube on the bullet base won't hurt a thing, no matter how long you have them loaded for. That smoke you're seeing isn't just lube though, it's lead too, and that will hurt you, eventually.

Powder coating is better in many respects - it reduces or eliminates the exposure to lead smoke, it works better in the barrel with no risk of leading even over thousands of rounds, and it saves a LOT of time compared to lubing each bullet. I used to scrub lead from my barrels, as inevitably it would start to build up over time regardless of lube choice and alloy, sizing, etc, but since switching to powder coating about 10 years ago I just never have any need to clean my pistol barrels anymore. Some of them have 10's of thousands of rounds through them without any cleaning of the bores.

Here's an old tutorial I posted at one point when powder coating was still fairly new to most people. It's a very simple and easy process if you follow my directions. Don't add bb's, vibrate bullets in the powder, separate over mesh, or any of that extra stuff that some people recommend, it just adds work for no benefit, just follow what I've described here and it's easy. One change to what I posted in that old thread - instead of baking the bullets on a piece of wire screen, bake them on non-stick aluminum foil. It MUST be the non-stick variety though, dull side up; trust me on that, lol.

Powder Coating Quick and Easy
 
Appears your bullet has a slight bevel base, and it’s almost unavoidable to get a slight bit of lube on base, depending on sizer setup used. I have both Lyman and RCBS sizers and loaded straight/flat based or gas check molds to avoid exactly what you’ve encountered. Powder coating seems like a good option, which wasn’t available to me a long time back when I cast everything I shot. As long as your alloy throws a bullet that would net a bullet diameter that was appropriate to use in your load/chamber once coated, that might be a be a solid process to follow. Good looking bullet for the 10mm, by the way.
 
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^^^^^Once my bullets are powder coated, I run them through a sizing die. It doesn't really squeeze them down very much, only a couple thousandths.
 
To your main question, That little bit shouldn't hurt the powder unless you load and then store for 6 weeks or so, especially if they will be subject to summer heats.
One think you might notice is a bit of smoke when shooting these "boolits" and a little more time required to clean your weapon.
Since you have a BB mold, first clean the top of the knock out pin in your H&I die. Second , try adjusting the depth on your lubersizer so that your bullet doesn't go in as deep but still fills the lube groove .
Where the hell did you come up with that ? 6 weeks , myth . Little bit of lube on base will not hurt a thing, ever . As long it is actual bullet lube and not a bubba mixture of petrol products .
 
Appears your bullet has a slight bevel base, and it’s almost unavoidable to get a slight bit of lube on base, depending on sizer setup used. I have both Lyman and RCBS sizers and loaded straight/flat based or gas check molds to avoid exactly what you’ve encountered. Powder coating seems like a good option, which wasn’t available to me a long time back when I cast everything I shot. As long as your alloy throws a bullet that would net a bullet diameter that was appropriate to use in your load/chamber once coated, that might be a be a solid process to follow. Good looking bullet for the 10mm, by the way .
This bullet did have a slight bevel - I call these my flops and I re-pour them - only used it here for example - all my loaded rounds look a lot better - I sort out the weird ones.
 
Where the hell did you come up with that ? 6 weeks , myth . Little bit of lube on base will not hurt a thing, ever . As long it is actual bullet lube and not a bubba mixture of petrol products .
It is actual RCBS lube - the formula recommended by the NRA and I believe they say it is 50-50 Bees wax and Alox. Thanks!
 
It is actual RCBS lube - the formula recommended by the NRA and I believe they say it is 50-50 Bees wax and Alox. Thanks!
Good to go then . A little of that won't hurt a thing, of course big blobs should be wiped off some . They don't need to be spotless .
 
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