Resizing TL Bullets, revisited.

[Mac1]

I recently bought the Lee TL die system. All I have is conventional moulds. Is there any reason one can not TL a traditional cast boolit? Thanks, Mac

[TXGunNut]

I haven't personally done it but my research tells me it will work fine. Which boolit are you wanting to try?

[Mike / Tx]

Mac1
I recently bought the Lee TL die system. All I have is conventional moulds. Is there any reason one can not TL a traditional cast boolit? Thanks, Mac

Hey Mac1, here are a couple of links which might help out with your question,

First Home Poured thru the 454....

Cast Boolits > Boolit Lube Page !

The first is my initial step into the world of shooting my own cast boolits. I did extensive research on everything about it well before I got up enough grits to actually drop the hammer on one. Not that I was overly concerned about failure, just I had a very bad experience with leading years ago in my 41mag, which left me with VERY bad feeling towards cast in magnum calibers.

The mold I am using is not a TL design, but after reading hours and hours worth of post where folks were using or referring to using ALOX, I figured I might as well use it since I had it. Since then I have ordered materials, and made up some of what is called Felix Lube also. I have used it to pan lube these same with no issues either.

The second link is to the "Lubes" section of the Castboolit site. There you will find just about every conceivable method of applying or mixing of lubes to use on CB's. There are several post, and a sticky, on using the ALOX to lube up your CB's.

I also highly recommend touching base with White Label Lubes, he is the man with the plan on lubes. Tell him what your looking at doing, and he has what you need and it works, and works well, and you won't break the bank getting it.

Hope this helps

[Rangefinder]

Mac1>> Since becoming "brave" and trying it with the notion I'd be spending hours scrubbing lead out of barrels for it, I tumble lubed conventional lube bullets---and haven't even looked at my Lyman 450 since. It works nicely. The trick to TL is a thin layer. I use tumble lube on everything smokeless.

[maillemaker]

I suspect a sizer may solve your issues as well, Steve.

Sizing might help reduce the size of the "lip", but the bullets are the correct size (.452", as I recall).

Another thing I have done with regard to the LLA completely coating the tips and all of the bullets is to dip lube instead of tumbling. Now when I say this I am using a 300gr bullet with plenty to hold on to, but even with the shorter nosed ones it wasn't too bad. I simply used a water bottle cap so that I didn't have a lot of LLA to deal with, and a pair of needle nosed pliers with duct tape on the insides of the jaws, to grab and dip with. It goes pretty fast, and everything just moves along on the wax paper as you progress through the bullets. It helps if you stand them up somewhat in rows ahead of time, then simply move down a row, picking one up, dipping, and setting it in a line above where your picking them up from. I cannot say how quick doing 4-500 might be, but knocking out 50 or so was pretty fast.

Hey Mike, that sounds like a good idea!

Do you have any problems with excess lube on the bullets? Do you thin out the Lee Alox Lube before dipping?

Steve

[maillemaker]

Is there any reason one can not TL a traditional cast boolit? Thanks, Mac

In their Reloading catalog Lee says:

"While it works well with all cast or swaged bullets better than any other lube, it works best with micro band bullets, which are designed for tumble lubing."

Steve

[Mike / Tx]

Hey Mike, that sounds like a good idea!

Do you have any problems with excess lube on the bullets? Do you thin out the Lee Alox Lube before dipping?

Steve

Hey Steve,

For the most part I haven't worried about having "too much" on those I am running out of the 454. With it pushing them easily over 1400fps I an just hopeful I have enough.

If you check out the second link there it will take you to the Lube section of CB's. Once there if you scroll down you will see a post called Dipping Alox Ranch Dog Style...That is for the most part all there is to it.
Here is a link to RD's Tip,
Ranch Dog Molds
Dipping Liquid Alox

Initially I didn't thin it down but it took all night to dry. The second time I used it I thinned it down with a bit of mineral spirits as per a couple of recommendations from CB's. It dried within a couple of hours and got a second coat.

While I am new to all of this for the most part I can say that the Alox has done what it was claimed to do, and even on the non micro banded bullets I have not had any issues. Honestly I feel the 454 with a stiff load of AA-9 or WC-297 under it, shoving out the 8.375" barrel at up to and over 1500fps, is about as harsh a test as I could come up with at the time, since I haven't quite made it into rifle bullets just yet.