Dear Forum Members,

I have decided to try my hand at casting bullets for handguns. I have gone to Midway and other internet stores and found all that I needed to start casting including a myriad of bullet lubes. On this forum I have been able to answer the bullet lube I should purchase, but I have been unable to locate HOW MUCh one should purchase when starting out. I need an idea of how many stix of bullet lube I should purchase for say...casting 100 9mm and/or .45ACP and/or .38Spl? Thank you.

RenegadeRN

Boolit lubes are like powder, primers and loads. It is best to test each lube before buying a large quantity. I make my own Felix lube and if I buy any, it is Lar's Carnauba Red. Both work good. Some lubes will cause leading or destroy accuracy. It is a very touchy subject with me. Many use much too hard of a lube in handguns and all commercial boolits have hard lube for shipping.
Make sure you get what works before spending a pile of money. Most lubes cost way too much for what is in them. Lar (Glenn) has the best lubes at the best prices. Forget the factory crap.

One stick will lube several hundred cast boolits, get 2 or 3 of the lube you've decided to try, then if you decide to switch lubes you don't have a bunch setting around.

I will agree with BFR, at least in part... What I would offer you is this: the Lyman #2 lube is as good as it gets, and this is a long-known, well-documented fact. This is a commetcially available lube you can get from Lee, Lyman, even GAR reloading, as well as probably some others I am not aware of. Yes, it is sticky, and yes, it will require you to clean a seating die now and then, but half Alox and half beeswax is well proven, for both cast handgun and rifle bullets. It is a touch messy, but so what. Unless you are casting for someone else, I would use the #2 (Alox stick) lube and be done with it. It requires no heat, it sticks in the grease grooves, and does as good a job as any.

doubless is right. 50/50 alox/beeswax is all you need. He's right it will do for all handgun loads and most all rifle loads. I've gotten over 2400 fps with cast rifle loads using Javelina. Javelina is good and it's reasonable from places like Midway or Grafs.

I agree with the guys, it is good lube. Lar also makes it and a bunch of other lubes. It will cost you far less to buy it from him. Go to white label lube.

Yup, Lar sells the basic 50/50 Alox/beeswax cheaper then anyone...good deal.

Many years ago I found a new cheap lube Microlube. Tried several sticks of it and ordered a couple dozen sticks from the maker.
Tried LBT Blue, found it worked well for rifle and pistol so ordered 20 sticks. Then found Rooster Red had good results, never got around to ordering a quanity of it, because LBT's bulk price was better.

Did lube several hundred 45 Colt bullets with a mixture of LBT, Rooster, Micro and Paco Kelly's Apatch Blue with good results.
Take a look at the old match results of the CBA and matches were won using Prep. H.
Jim

I've used a bunch of lubes over the years. Some worked better than others. The NRA formula 50:50 Alox is pretty good.

I like the performance ... and price ... of Lar45's lubes. Pretty much use his Carnuba Red now.

I used to think lubes didn't much matter, until doing an accuracy test, and I was suprised.

I think you'll be hardpressed to find fault with LBT blue.

quote:

On this forum I have been able to answer the bullet lube I should purchase, but I have been unable to locate HOW MUCh one should purchase when starting out.

Each stick will lube several hundred bullets.

Paul is right! It depends on the gun, load, boolit, velocity, alloy hardness and on and on. A lube that is super in one gun can blow groups in another. Testing is always in order for each of the above. You should find the most accurate load for a gun, then test lubes just like you did with the powder, etc.
I use Felix but made some with a little carnauba wax in it. It does shoot good but groups are a little larger on the average where as Lar's carnauba red has not shown this. Any change in a lube can have a wide effect in an individual gun.
If you only worry about leading, you can miss out on an accuracy improvement.
Some lubes like 50-50 are all around lubes, decent for some, bad for others and the same can be said for most lubes. There is no one lube for everything.
If you buy one stick of every lube made and test your gun extensively with each, there will be a lot of unused sticks of lube in a drawer.

One stick of any lube will lube way more then 100 bullets. Seems the guys from castboolit forum want to make everything too scientific and way over complicated. You're not, from your post, going to be shooting rifle right off the bat nor competition matches. With that said just about all the lubes on the market are going to give you sufficient lubrication and accuracy for handgun accuracy. Just remember with the very hard lubes you will have to use a lube heater and you just don't need that kind of hard lube on handgun bullets.

Sorry guys, you all are just over complicating things and bum fuzzling this guys mind.

This is the sort of discussion that I needed. You all answered all my questions in one thread. We all know that being new to anything can be difficult even with the advent of the internet. We have limited knowledge. We could possibly flounder around for awhile and may still. It truly helps to have those who have a variety of experiences and knowledge. THANK YOU!

I like your sig line, Renegade!

Thanx Ricochet....and thanks to everyone who answered my questions about lube.

Renegade