Hi All
I thought to start a new thread- not to clutter up the other one. I would like to hear from anyone who has used tumble lube on normal or tumble lube cast bullets and shot them in rifles. To show you what I am wanting to hear about- I'll go first.

I shoot a round nose tumble lube bullet in a .357 rifle. I use the tumble grooves as my crimping grooves ( I wouldn't try that in heavy loads where the rounds 'feel' the recoil.) I actually use .38 special brass ( and load the bullet out..closer to .357 lenght)for my light load because I want a billion of them. Friends & family show up and a BIG can of them is GONE.

Anyway, I have been putting on 2 coats of lube and now wonder if 1 would be plenty. The bore looks wonderful after 1500 round strings- in fact I have only cleaned it twice...and neither time it needed it.

Everyone comments how well it shoots....granted open sights & offhand. .....fun,fun,fun on 1/2 size silhouettes at 1/5 the normal distance.

I have been considering heat treating from the mold and seeing just what velocity I can get with good accuracy.

I really considered this catridge/rifle combo a toy....until I played with it. Now I reach for it pretty often. Dale

I don't think you will have any problems unless you try to get into the 1900+ fps range.

I've been doing this for 15 years and several thousand rounds. Bought my son an H&R .357 & 20 gauge two barrel set when normal folks would have bought a first .22. I was loading .38 WC in bulk on a progressive to shoot PPC at the time and it was no trouble to keep him in ammo.

Even a casual single coat of LA is a plenty for TL WCs at about 800 fps. A little heavier coat worked fine on 135 TCs intended for a 9mm at 1200-1300. I have never had any luck at all with plain based bullets past about 1400 fps in that rifle.

I hear you about the little rifle and cartridge combo growing on you. That rifle stayed behind when my son went off on his own, and with a house full of rifles, it's the one I reach for the most. Low cost, low noise, and those slow WC rounds discipline me into working on my followthrough.

For heavier loads, if you were in on the C358-180-RF WC buy or can talk someone who was into casting you a mess, that bullet is gonna be mighty hard to beat.

I've been using the alox to lube my 30 cal bullets for years and they shoot great! I try to keep them at about 1800 fps. My 30-40 loves the LEE 180 gr RN and can keep them in about 1 1/2" at 100yds.
TUMBLE ON......they work great!

Hi All! A little off topic but the on the Lee bullets.... I had a 200 grain 30 cal that shot just ok....until I chucked it up in the lathe one day and changed the nose from .295 to 'about' .302. Why 'about' you say? Because I didn't have it exactly centered. It was off center at one end a little and a little more at the other! Oh boy, it shot great! Ugly as homemade sin to look at though. The front edge ended not in a taper to the nose but with an edge. I finally gave all my single cavity molds away. Too slow.

Hey fellows...
I recently worked with Lee on a custom mold order for the 444 Marlin using the Micro-Bands. They work great! I'm shooting the bullet out of a 444P with three coats of Liquid Alox at 2000 FPS. There is a pretty good star of wax at the muzzle and residue out the ports. I shoot the bullets out of a 44 Mag Winchester Trapper with two coats of wax at 1600 FPS.

I put one coat of wax on prior to sizing and then add the others when I'm just about ready to work on reloading. I size with the Lee Sizing and Lube Kit. This system works so well that I just can't picture using machinery to accomplish the lubing task.

My intent is to push this bullet at 2300 FPS out of a 24" barrel 444 rifle.

Michael

Hi Mike!
You have my attention! My friend greg is looking for a good bullet for his 444. That isn't as easy as it sounds. A custom only mold? weight? Picture available?

And for me... What kind of wax? How fast can you go plainbase? Ever tried it in .30? Details please.

Thanks, Dale

More questions, Mike

ever used this wax with a gascheck bullet and no lube? ( I assume that is what you are doing now. )

I would like to find a lube to use on bullets without lube grooves- a leap forward! think about what that would mean for production of molds and bullets!


Dale

Oh, it is Michael...not Mike
Sorry, Dale

Looks to me like the "wax" Michael was referring to was Lee Liquid Alox.

Something else that I ran across over on handloads.com is tumble lubing with Johnson's Paste Wax. Put some warm bullets (like 120 F) in a can or jar with a spoon of the paste wax, tumble 'em around till well coated. As they cool it thickens and turns cloudy; at that point you can take 'em out, stand 'em on paper till they dry overnight. Works OK for mid-velocity loads.

http://shootersforum.com/showthread.htm?t=12201

This link should take you to the 444 mold story