I found a quick and easy ( all things are relative ) way to clean the waxy lube off of cast lead bullets. Why I say easy is that I tried several methods and scraping it off one bullet at a time and then finish cleaning with xylene was the easiest until today.
I took a box of 500 9mm cast bullets with lube, placed them in a small sauce pan, covered them with cheap vegetable oil, placed them on the stove and heated slowly. When the pan reached about 200*f the waxy lube disappeared into the oil. Just vanished out of the lube groove.
After letting it cool to about 150* I strained the oil off and placed the bullets on paper towels to absorb the excess oil and rubbed them with a few more towels until the towels quit looking oily.
I then placed the bullets in a bowl with table spoon of Borax and two tbs of liquid laundry soap in a quart of hot water. After letting them soak for 5 minutes I agitated them with my hands for another 2 minutes. Rinsed thoroughly and let them dry. See easy, 500 done in just about half an hour (minus the cooling time).
background:
Ten years or more ago I bought a lot of prelubed cast bullets for my 9mms. All of them shot well but leaded the barrels (minor problem but still). I read up on solutions and then began powder coating the bullets which works great, no leading, great accuracy, no sticky fingers when loading. But the big problem was getting the lube off. Hence this post.
I took a box of 500 9mm cast bullets with lube, placed them in a small sauce pan, covered them with cheap vegetable oil, placed them on the stove and heated slowly. When the pan reached about 200*f the waxy lube disappeared into the oil. Just vanished out of the lube groove.
After letting it cool to about 150* I strained the oil off and placed the bullets on paper towels to absorb the excess oil and rubbed them with a few more towels until the towels quit looking oily.
I then placed the bullets in a bowl with table spoon of Borax and two tbs of liquid laundry soap in a quart of hot water. After letting them soak for 5 minutes I agitated them with my hands for another 2 minutes. Rinsed thoroughly and let them dry. See easy, 500 done in just about half an hour (minus the cooling time).
background:
Ten years or more ago I bought a lot of prelubed cast bullets for my 9mms. All of them shot well but leaded the barrels (minor problem but still). I read up on solutions and then began powder coating the bullets which works great, no leading, great accuracy, no sticky fingers when loading. But the big problem was getting the lube off. Hence this post.
