liquid lube / long term ammo storage / bullet hardness loss

[twoshooter]

If you are not using a sizer/ lubricator. I did not see any of the liquid lube on your site. Do you market any? If you do not, what do you recommed?

[Veral]

  Purchase our Blue Soft, in solid sticks, and apply it with just the index finger of your master hand, just before seating bullets into the case.  Keep the finger greased while loading.  Just hold it up out of the way.
  Blue soft goes on about like modeling clay if temperature is between 70 and 100 deg F, so it is real easy to apply this way.  It is nor more messy than any liquid lube, but performance will back any liquid into a corner.

  For customers who purchase ready cast bullets which are NOT lubed with LBT lube, and if they give leading problems, give them this same treatment, using Blue Soft.  Apply the thinnest smear over whatever lube the bullets are carrying and almost always, your leading problems will disapear.

[twoshooter]

I have also seen where the lube is melted and poured over the bullets and then let harden, then "cut" out" with a fired case that is expanded to just over bullet diameter, like a cookie cutter. Would the melting and hardening deteriorate the lube at all?

[Veral]

  LBT lubes are not effected my melting and resolidifying, no matter how many times.  Nor does it break down or loose effectiveness with age.  I've only been able to test it for 30 years, using stored samples, as that's how long ago I started making it.

  The melt around the bullet method is actually called the cookie cutter method by quite a few who do it.
  If you do it with LBT lube watch the solidifying lube closely and cut them out just after it becomes solid, while still nice and warm, or you will hardly be able to pull the cutter out of the block.  -- I dispise the method personally, finding it more messy than just keeping a dab on the index finger of my master hand.  I inspect the bullet for visual flaws, wipe the lube on, tip the lube finger up out of the way and run the loading press with that hand, to immediately seat the bullet.  I've loaded probably 10,000 rounds this way, before I bought a lubricator.  If using gas checks, the bullets must be sized to crimp them on, which is the operation which follows the lube application.    If you want to try finger lubing, get my Blue Soft.  It will work well with the cookie cutter too, but Commercial is best for that method, if thats the way you like to do it.  When you make the cutter cartridge be sure to get a good snug fit to the bullets so it wipes them fairly clean.

[twoshooter]

I appreciate the information, I am going to try to get an old 450 Lyman machine I found back into operation and will try your recommendations as soon as it is functional. One last question, do you recommend storage of loaded ammo base up, or base down for long term storage?

[Veral]

  It makes no difference how stored ammo lays, if it has LBT lube on the bullets.  Even at extreme temperatures the lube will not wet powder as long as the lowest lube groove is contained inside the case neck.  However, try not to store ammo in high temps if at all possible as it does cause very fast degrading of bullet hardness.  I have some ammo which was exposed to several summers of high temperature, and bullet hardness is now around 12 bhn.  The bullets are water quenched WW alloy with a hardness of 20+ bhn when the ammo was loaded 20 years ago.  It still shoots great though as it is all 357 and 44 mag, and gas checked, so the velocities possible even from a rifle, will not cause leading.  That is 1800 fps with both loads shot from Marlins.

  The warning here when making ammo which you expect to store for long periods is  to keep it in a place which NEVER gets hot, and preferably stays well below 60 deg F.  Storing in a deep freeze at 0 F is ideal and gives the least bullet hardness loss.  If you can't be sure of cool storage temps, be sure to work up loads which cause no leading problems and shoot accurately with the bullets at the softest state which they can reach.  That is around 12 for Wheel weights, and about 14 for Linotype.  Some of the so called Lyman #2 mixes which contain high tin quantities will go extremely soft, and tin lead in mixes over 1-20 will degrade rapidly down to about 8 bhn.