Having fallen again for the .38 spl. I find that the single cavity bullet mold I have is very slow, plus running them through the luber takes more time. Has anyone used the the Lee tumble type bullet in 158 gr.? I have tumble lubed rifle bullets and had good luck but never tried the bullet designed for tumbling.
Russ
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RussL; I can truly understand your comments about a single cavity mould. I have been casting bullets so long it was before tumble lubing came on the scene. I, early on, got a Star luber/sizer so have never been enamored of the tumble lube style (I have a number of Lee bullet moulds but most have normal lube grooves and get lubed on the Star).
However, I have experimented with tumble lubing and had decent results. After trying Lee's tumble lube, I got better results with Recluse's home mix (look it up on the Cast Boolit Forum for all of the details).
If I didn't have a Star I wouldn't hesitate to try the Lee tumble lube bullet of choice, but I would use Recluse's formula for best results all round.
FWIW Dale53
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I've had good luck with Lee's 6 cavity molds. The 125 and 158 RF are great. So is the 158 TL design. I've used tumble lubing with conventional bullets and it works fine. A little goes a long way.
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RussL:
I use tumble lube on every caliber I shoot cast and like it very much, both Lee LLA and 45:45:10.
The pistol shooters that are unhappy with tumble lube all have the same shortcomings in their methods. You can be very happy with tumble lube for your 38 if you avoid their problems:
1) bullet fit is more important than lube. If your bare bullets drop through your cylinders they are too small and will lead up your gun, smoke excessively and shoot all over the place. Your bare bullet should take a 1-3 pound push with a pencil to get them through your cylinder. Smaller and you will have the problems. If you don't have that kind of fit, change stuff till you do and use an alloy that is appropriate to your load pressure so your bullets will obturate and seal the bore.
2) Less is better with tumble lube. application should only be enough to just give the bullets a wet appearance before drying.
3) Drying problems are completely avoidable, don't use too much! Warm bullets and lube before applying. I warm the lube in the bottle 30 seconds at a time , open in a microwave or place the closed bottle in HOTTEST tap water for 5 minutes. I warm the bullets in a brownie pan in the oven on warm 5 minutes or use a heat gun to heat them but not so that they are too hot to handle. Heated lube and bullets dry the tumble lube much quicker and leave them non tacky if your application was correct.
4) Bullet design is irrelevant to tumble lube, bullet fit is what matters much more for your 38..
Here is a post of mine on 45:45:10 if you missed it: http://www.castbulletassoc.org/viewtopic.php?id=9290&forumid=16
Gary
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I tumble lube all the handgun bullets i shoot. Use 45/45/10 these days.
I am also using the .38 158 gr TL bullet in my 4” Smith Model 10 (38 SPC). I have yet to get good accuracy, but not really done any load work-up.
And could be that the gun is an old Aussie Police turn-in gun. I think it has been carried way more than shot (looks like it wore out at least two holsters!).
All my other guns/calibers/bullets shoot great w/ TLing. All big bores...
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Thanks for all the replies I will order a lee mold. Russ
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I say go for the six cavity. The old Two's were okay but the six is the way to go. If you can swing two of them things pile up in a hurry. I have a pair of old H&G 148 wad cutter molds. I can almost keep two pots going. This is America! More is almost always better.
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Thanks for all the replies I will order a lee mold.
Russ
The Lee 358-125 RF is a real good shooting bullet. You are wise to get it in the six-cavity configuration as they are having a lot of trouble with the two cavity molds in that the pins are falling out.
Pat.
If someone else had of done to me what I did to myself . . . I'd have killed him. Humility is an asset. Heh - heh.
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I just got back from the range today and my bullet was the Lee TL358-158-SWC in 38 SPL brass at 1.55” pushed by 3.5 BE (ED's Load) tumble lubed using the Lee Factory Crimp die. My 686 loves 'em and I use Lee Tumble Lube on all my CB's. All my CB's are made from WW's..... Gene
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I have tried some bullets from the Lee 6 cavity molds.
And lubed them with Lee Alox and with the more economical Xlox and 45-45-10 from Lstuff.
Sizing with 357-358 and 359 Lee push through dies .
And not sizing them at all.
And using any alloy from plumbers lead to hard type metal.
I am not an academical ISU olympic champion , but I love plinking and Steel plates and Cowboy action shooting , and for those sports the high hour output of gang moulds and tumble lubing is a great thing.
You just have to use bullets that are not too small for the throats of your guns and stay away fronm magnum velocities.
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Also had good luck with 45-45-10 used as an add'l lube for commercially cast bullets. I have about a thousand Silver Creek .358 dia. 158 gr LSWC's that have a hard blue lube in them. Moderate loads of 231, WST, Unique, and Herco always gave me some, but not much leading in my .357's and a cpl .38's (one Ruger Flat Top, a Smith M19, two Smith M60's, a Smith M36 and another Smith M637). Not wanting to slug them all, but rather just shoot the Silver Ck bullets without a lot of add'l work, I re-lubed them using the swirl method with slightly heated 45-45-10.
Results were quite surprising...virtually no leading for over 100 rounds in all of the above...and best of all, about ten minutes of work at the outside. I'm getting some add'l smoke...not a problem on my own farm range and super accuracy. Offhand groups from a modified, Weaver Stance, two-handed with the double action revolvers run down around an inch from my 12 yd line. In some cases, I'm getting one ragged group with two consecutive cylinders full.
Seated with a back rest (Keith's old long range position), twenty five yard groups with my 5” bbl'd M60 Smith and the 4-5/8” bbl'd Ruger Flat Top are < 1.5” if I"m having a good eyes day and the morning sun's behind me...
Using that 45-45-10 is a no-brainer and works just as well with some commercially cast .44's and .45's. I don't push my velocities beyond 1000 fps for the most part and use the above for practice SD shooting and some informal bullseye work.
Best Regards, Rod
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Don't overlube, when I tried them in my 45 and 9mm they were messy to load and had to keep cleaning the lube out of the seater. Went back to regular bullets. Later was reading some posts about them and someone posted some pics, barely any lube. I realized my problem was too much lube, mine looked like they were chocolate coated.
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Been there done that. The old 'if a little is good then...' approach. I used to lube my tumble lube bullets with straight LLA with two heavy coats. Now I go for the least amount of lube possible. There's been a lot of work done here shooting unlubed bullets.
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reminds me that back when i wuz shooting 22 rf bench, i played with moly lubes ... i found that i only needed to lube very lightly ( glisten ) every third bullet ...
wonder if anyone has tried ... say ...45-45-10 on every 2-3-? bullets ?
i could mention i always thought i was conditioning the barrel more than lubing each bullet ...
and also i find it frustrating that our lowly 22 rf match rifles grouped 1/2 moa and often better ..i keep thinking we should get an inspiration from that ammo .... need to rethink real soft lead ... , maybe rebated base bullets are not the bad idea we have been taught ?? anybody built a match grade 300 rook ??
ken
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