Lee Loader

I'm doing some pan lubbing using Barry Darr's lube (1lb paraffin, 1lb vaseline, 2TBS STP gas treatement and a crayon or two for some color).

This lube works very well for my pistol loads (38SPL and 9mm Luger). I have 0-leading.
I have an aluminum pan into which I place 100 bullets in existing holes from previous session, heat the pan on the stove to melt it, wait till solid, typically overnight for a good measure, then flip, use heat gun or hair dryer to just melt off the 'cake' from the bottom and push out the bullets. Sometimes I am even able to shake the 'cake' out without heating the pan.

Everything is OK, but the bottom of the bullet has some lube on it. It's hard to measure the thickness, but I'd say it's about 1/32 of an inch. It seams that the bullets are getting lifted off the bottom of the pan during cooling and 'suck in' some lube underneath in the process.

When I pulled apart an assembled bullet, there was quite a bit of gunpowder stuck to it. Not sure if that powder burns during firing or is it being wasted and uselessly burns further down the process if at all.

Do you guys have any tricks up your sleeves for keeping the lube off the bottom of the bullet? Should I even care? Do you just wipe them all off (that's a step I could do without)?

On my BP cartridge bullets I don't worry about it as the wads keep it off the powder and every little bit of lub help in a 30" bore. If I have a batch where it seems excessive I'll take a double thickness of paper towel and wipe the base with a twisting motion.

I think the cause of this is the near impossible to remove thin film of lube that stays on the pan. The hot lube has about zero viscosity and it gets pulled under the bullets.

For smokeless loads the only time I have a real problem with it is when I seat gas checks after the pan lube.

Make smoke,

I use Darrs lube also . I had to alter it some its too hot here in the summer and it made a mess . More STP oil treatment less Vaseline . There's not much you can do about that lube migrating in priority loads ,in straight cases, that I intend to store , (hunting loads etc) get a wad card . Worked up with the load of course .

Yes that lube is a powder killer .

The best solution I have is that I'm a finger luber and check over/ after the lube and or the wad card trick . Wipe the base and seat.

So, I've decided to go ahead and wipe the bottom of each bullet (against paper towel - went quite quickly).
But I've noticed that my bullets were at fault - the ones with the lube on the bottom would not sit flat on the table. Upon closer inspection, the sprew was not cut smooth. Then I recalled a few times having to retighten the sprew plate as I was casting the bullets.
Dang, everything is so interralated...
I guess I would have to pay more attention to the casting process...or just keep on wiping...

jloader wrote:So, I've decided to go ahead and wipe the bottom of each bullet (against paper towel - went quite quickly).
But I've noticed that my bullets were at fault - the ones with the lube on the bottom would not sit flat on the table. Upon closer inspection, the sprew was not cut smooth. Then I recalled a few times having to retighten the sprew plate as I was casting the bullets.
Dang, everything is so interralated...
I guess I would have to pay more attention to the casting process...or just keep on wiping...

or both

Make smoke,