pan lubeing

[zacharoo]

Can you pan lube with factory lube. A friend of mine quit reloading and gave me a box of Lyman lube sticks and another Friend gave me 400 or so cast lead bullets. 45 caliber. Can you melt the Lyman lube and pan lube with it? I don't have a sizer or heating set up and would like to use the bullets.HELP!!
Zacharoo

[ron haralson]

Probably the easiest solution would be to use your choice of decent automotive grease applied by hand. Just seat the bullets to the first driving band, fill the grease grooves, seat the bullets to the desired depth and wipe clean. The automotive grease usually works very well.
Good luck.
Ron

[mdi]

I've done it. I bought 800 or so cast bullets that had been stored in a hot shed and some of the lube melted off. I placed the bullets base down on a pie tin and added chunks of commercial lube (NRA formula Alox). Heated the bullets in 175 degree oven (wife was not at home) and adjusted lube depth by adding slivers of lube until the lube groove was covered. Thouroughly heated bullets for a few minutes (makes the lube adhere better). I made a 44 cal. "cookie cutter" to remove bullets from the lube after the lube had fully cooled. I also played around with making my own lube from beeswax, paraffin, vaseline, crayons, etc. Worked for me.

[blhof]

Follow mdi's advice.  I pan lubed as he did for a while, until I had to cast in larger quantities.  If the lube is soft or can be made soft by rolling in your hands; you can roll small sticks and force it into the lube groove with your finger or thumb, messy but works.  Cleanup requires mineral spirits or WD40 for your hands or lava soap.  I've done it this way while waiting for a part for my lube/sizer.  Lee also sells pan lube kits that will work with any lube.  It includes a small pan and cookie cutter for the caliber you order, they're fairly cheap, but a waste if you aren't going to be doing it regularly.  You'll have to provide a heat source.

[Calamity Jake]

To answer your ? YES

[howdy doody]

I did a little thread on pan lubing a little while ago. There are many methods, but you might like to take a look at what works well for me.

http://www.frontierspot.org/viewtopic.php?t=1427

[jpuke]

Howdy Doody's method is VERY similar to mine except that I use a Pyrex measuring cup (1 quart size) in a pot of boiling water to heat the lube and then I can carefully pour it into the Teflon-covered bread pan full of bullets.  I let them sit at room temp for 30 min, then I put them in the freezer for 30 to get the lube to shrink enough that I can get the "bullet cake" out of the pan, then I let them sit at room temp overnight and push the bullets from the top downward to free them from the lube - works great for me and is pretty fast.  I tried using a cookie-cutter setup for a while but found it much easier to push the bullets out of the lube.  Great post howdy doody!

[bilmac]

I have a 45-70 bullet that shoots much better when hand lubed with lithium based (white) automotive grease. Another option for low vel loads is Lee's liquid lube. Pour on some ,shake them up and let them dry. Nice when you are loading and shooting gobs of bullets. It seems to me that if you keep them loaded for very long they tend to deteriorate, maybe the lube contaminates the powder.