Problems with pan lubing

[sullivan]

Howdy y'all!

Just starting to pan lube my 44-40 cast bullets and I've run into a vexing problem (at least to me).

I made up a batch of lube of 50% bee's wax and 50% Crisco. Laid out the freshly minted bullets poured
the lube over them and let harden overnight. Next I pushed the bullets out of the lube but none of the
lube was sticking to any of the grooves. What am I doing wrong? Both the lube a the bullets were at
approximately the same temp. when I started.

I'm thinking that I should not have use LEE liquid alox on them before hand. But I needed to do so in order
to run them through my size.

Any help is welcomed!

Sullivan John

[w44wcf]

Howdy Sullivan,
Welcome to the forum. in my pan lubing experience, I get better results if the lube /bullets are still slightly warm when I push them out of the lube cake.

For your next batch, I would suggest not using Lee Liquid alox. Just pan lube then run them through your Lee push through sizer.....or just shoot them as they come from the mold if the cartridges will chamber ok.

Good luck,
w44wcf 

[Doc O]

I run my bullets through my lee sizer after cooling.
Go ahead and pan lube, after cooling I use a section of brass tubing the proper size that will go down over the lubed bullets in the lube pan.
When the tubing is full I'll push them out with a pencil.
Right or wrong this works for me.

Doc

Also I use a little crisco in the mix. I find the 50/50 mix a bit to stiff.

Good luck.

[sullivan]

Thanks Pard's

I will try your suggestions.

S.J.

[Hell-Er High Water]

sullivan,

Check out this web site.  http://goatlipstips.cas-town.com/panlubing.html.

Goatlips posted a real good article on pan lubing.  I think that you will find it answers most of your questions.

Good shooting.

HHW

[fourfingersofdeath]

I saw a neat twist on this recently, a guy was using those new silicone baking trays to lube the boolits in. He just gave it a twist afterwards and the cake popped out and he pushed the boolits out by pushing on the tips. Easy peasy!

[Dick Dastardly]

Howdy 4 Fingers,

That teflon pan sounds like a great idea.  I have an out of spec PRS LEE mold that drops .459" bullets.  I like to pan lube 'em and load 'em for my 45-70.  Make great plinkers and will run fine for plainsman.

Pan lubing is much overlooked, fast and easy.  I wish more pards would look into using it instead of lube/sizing.  All my new Big Lube® molds are being made exactly to spec and many pards are finding the bullets just right as cast.

DD-DLoS

[will52100]

I pan lube everything, well almost, some smokless is loaded and shot once in a while and gets liquid alox.

You said you lubed with liquid alox first?  That may be part of your problem.  Also not the best way to let the lube harden overnight.  I've done it when I didn't feel like waiting for the cake to cool enough but I tend to have more lube break out of the lube groves, especialy if it's cold out.  It is a feel thing, but I wait for the lube to hardend just enough I can twist the pan and pop it loose, then thumb press the bullets out.  Too warm and you don't get the whole cake.  I will have to look into the teflon pans, sounds like that would be a lot easier than the toster oven pans I'm using now.

I do use a lee push through sizer on everything, mostly because I get some bullets with an excess of lube and it knocks everything down and is easy to do.  One of these days I'm going to get a star sizer.

[Chance]

There's one or two items on Youtube.com about pan lubing. Just type in "pan lubing" or "bullet lubing" and you'll get them.

Chance

[john boy]

Thanks Pard's ... I will try your suggestions.

SJ, did you try any yet and if so, did they correct your problem?

[sullivan]

Howdy pards!

Thanks for everyones suggestions.  I found that lifting the boolits out with a brass tubed that just barely
fits over them works great. Before I was pushing them out with a stick and my fingers...didn't work out
to well.

Sullivan John

[Howdy Doody]

I have a method I use. I use the plastic molds that factory ammo comes in. That gives me 50 in nice neat rows. I also use the plastic trays that spaghetti dinners come it too. I also have an old microwave in my garage. Here is what I do.
I take my cast bullets and stick them in the ammo tray loaded ammo came in, nose down. I take the tray my frozen dinner came in and put it on the top. I then turn the whole works over and set it on my bench. Then I carefully lift the ammo tray off and I have 50 bullets sitting upright in the tray in nice neat rows. I then heat my lube in the microwave a few minutes until melted and carefully pour it into the tray until the lube is about at the crimp groove and above the lube groove. I let stand until it forms a solid mass and cool enough that I can put my fingers on the bullets in the cake of lube and leave them there. Then I take that ammo tray and carefully stick it on top of the exposed bullets and turn the whole thing over and lift off my frozen spaghetti tray. Now I take a pencil and using the eraser end, I push the bullets back down through the cake and into the holes of the ammo tray. Once all 50 are in the ammo tray, I take the cake of lube and stick it back into the plastic bowl I use to melt it in. Now I can take the ammo tray and tip it over and the lubed bullets fall out. All lubed and ready to go. I actually use 4 trays and using just the one ammo tray, I set up 4 times and then pour lube in the 4 at the same time. That gives me 200 pan lubed at once. It takes about 45 minutes due to cooling time, but if I am in a hurry I let the cake start to form to hold the bullets in place and carefully set the tray on the cement floor of my shop and that speeds up the cooling time and so will a fan. It is the fastest way I have found to date.

[Dick Dastardly]

I'm going to give that a try Howdy.

I use the black plastic trays that my sawbones gets his blood sample vials in.  They hold 50 bullets.  I'm thinkn' they might just work with your pan lubing method.  Sounds simple and orderly.

This one should end up in the Dark Arts library.

DD-DLoS

[Noz]

Yeah DD, I may try this as well. My first and only attempt a pan lubing was a total disaster. I had a lot more lube o me and the floor than I did on the bullets.

[Howdy Doody]

Howdy DD and Noz, Merry Christmas pards. Actually the foam kind of factory ammo trays work fine too, but don't seem to last as long as the plastic trays. I did a whole thing on how I pan lube with pictures a few years ago. I can't remember on what website it was. It might have been the one that went under or maybe it was the Brimstone Pistoleros website. 

[Fingers McGee]

Wow, simple and easy way to pan lube. 
FM

[Wills Point Pete]

 Another method is to cut the head off a cartridge case and use it like a cookie cutter. When there are a couple-three bullets in there then each new bullet will push one out/Then you have all the holes, nice and neat for the next batch o' boolits. This is not the fastest way but all the lube stays in the groove(s) and the bullet is nice and neat. If your mold is close enough in size there is no need to size them.

Even better is to use a rifle case of the right caliber, I use a .45-70 for my .45 slugs and a .35 Remington for my .38 slugs. It's nothing major, the rifle cases are simply easier to use. A feller shootin' .44s could use a .44 Mag or a .444 Marlin, even if shootin' a .44WCF although sizing would most likely be needed.

[sundance44`s]

Something I did to cut down on the mess of pan lubeing , I bought a cheap stove top coffee pot from the dollar store ..took the guts out of it ...use it to heat and store my lube mix ..
Easy to pour the hot lube because of the spout on the coffee pot , and when I`m finished ..let cool and put the top on the pot for storage .
I do my pan lubeing in the house ..and after makeing a mess on the wife`s counter top ....there had to be a better way ..

[Howdy Doody]

Sundance, that is a great tip. 

[Paladin UK]

WOW!!

Thars a whole lotta learnin going on here!!!

Kin ya`ll jest feel the Lurv 

Paladin (Whats gettin excited bout Santa comin  ) UK