test update: Cast bullets some missing wax ring

[chop house]

About 10% in a vintage box of Hornady I dug out of the archive. Okay to shoot them scattered among the lubed bullets?

 

[PhilC]

Am assuming these are pistol bullets, older Hornady cast was pretty soft to begin with. Soft lead, no lube = leaded bore. I cast my own and would not shoot any without lube.

 

[chop house]

Am assuming these are pistol bullets, older Hornady cast was pretty soft to begin with. Soft lead, no lube = leaded bore. I cast my own and would not shoot any without lube.

Yes 249 grain 0.430" loaded in .44 spcl brass to be used for practice in RSB. Maybe I should mark and use sparingly at end of sessions. Really are not enough pieces to go get some ALOX I suppose.

 

[243winxb]

Fire 10 lubed to condition the barrel. The alternate, firing the rest.

Only clean if not going to fire for a long time.

Some lubes will make a lube star on the muzzle.

 

[GotRDid]

Are they the knurled style Hornady lead bullets from decades ago? With this pattern?



If so, there is lube in each of the tiny revetments formed by the knurling of the bullet circumference. Should be good to go.
Perhaps a SWC design, like the .38 cal they still make?

 

[chop house]

Are they the knurled style Hornady lead bullets from

No such luck. They actually have a groove with a (sometimes missing) ring of wax.

 

[brokeasajoke]

Ii powdercoat all mine. You could cull them and do a pan lube when you have them all separated.

 

[RegionRat]

Could try the pan lube and see if it works out. Another way is to just warm them to remove the bulk of the old lube, and then run them through the lube die again.

 

[dellet]

If on 10% of the bullets in a box have lube so dried out it fell off, the other 90% aren’t much better.

I’d probably either melt off the old lube and re lube, or melt down the whole bullet. Too much work cleaning a loaded barrel to chance it.

 

[rlporter507]

wont hurt them to run them back through the luber sizer. hard lube falls out sometimes. only 10%, mixed with the lubed ones wont hurt, might lead up a little more, but will clean out ok. i wouldn't worry.

 

[chop house]

To all. Thanks for both the encouragement and the cautions. Hahaha. I bought these so 'relubing' is not an option unless spraying, dipping, or rolling. Even then I don't have the products.

Shot about 50 this morning - by the smoke you'd think it was black powder. Took the teslong along but tablets screen was hard to see in bright sun. Will complete the examination this evening.

 

[searcher]

You can buy some Lee alox bullet lube to treat them - pretty simple.

 

[chop house]

Using accurate #5, fired 6 rounds with intact wax ring in super Blackhawk averaged 921 fps. Fired 1 round completely missing lube measured 751. Followed with another properly lubed bullet and measured 1347!

This over chrony at about 5' from muzzle. Don't know if 1347 is real data or some sort of blast effect. Followed with two more properly lubed rounds averaged 973.

So ten total rounds, two outliers, the missing lube one and the one immediately after. Decided not to repeat the sequence.

 

[PhilC]

What does the bore look like?

 

[243winxb]

This over chrony at about 5' from muzzle. Don't know if 1347 is real data or some sort of blast effect.

Set chrony at 15 feet, test again.

 

[chop house]

What does the bore look like?

Iirc it had just a light streak or two on a couple lands. Patch came out with a couple small flakes.

 

[chop house]

Set chrony at 15 feet, test again.

Point taken.