Issues with lubing a new bullet

[TexasMac]

I’m trying out a new .40 cal bullet (BACO JIM409420M2) in my Sharps and ran into an interesting problem when attempting to lube 240 of them today. I’ve got a lot of experience with pan lubing but regardless what I tried some of the grooves would not fill out, especially the bottom groove. When pan lubing I normally preheat the bullets with a hair blower while they’re standing up in the pan just prior to pouring the lube in. In the past this has eliminated lube from rolling out of the grooves as they are punched out of the lube cake. But not this time. I tried heating less and heating more, and waited for the lube to soften more than normal after pulling the cooled bullets out of the frig. Nothing worked well. The softer lube filled out the grooves better but still a bunch did not fill out. So I gave up and decided to use my SAECO Lubrisizer, which has been collecting dust on the shelf for several years since last casting up a bunch of smokeless handgun bullets.

But first I had to get the old smokeless lube out of the lubrisizer, which is a mess even after heating it with a heat gun and pouring it out. Anyway, after setting everything up and pouring in some White Lightning the lubing process went smoothly. What I’ve concluded from this is the grooves, which are significantly wider than on bullets I’ve been using in the past, do not capture the lube as well (easier for the lube to roll out of the wider groove as the bullet is punched out of the cake). I’d prefer not to use a lubrisizer for a couple of reasons, the process is slower and the lube ends up softer due to work softening. But I’m not about to resort to using a cookie cutter approach which I abandoned a few years ago. So with these bullets the lubrisizer seems to be the method I’ll have to go with.

BTW, in my Sharps .40-65 with a 14.5-twist bore the bullets shoot extremely well with 55grs of Swiss 1.5. Due to its length (1.450") they may not work as well in a 16-twist bore.

Wayne

[CBarnard]

When pan lubing, I use a non stick pie tin, the lube is left in the tin after pushing out the bullets ready to take the next lot, I just push each bullet in the holes left from before, put the tin on top of a saucepan with boiling water from the kettle, keep it at a low heat while all the lube melts, leave to cool - well, and push out the bullets, never had a problem with any of my bullets of various calibres. No messing about with pouring in melted lube from another container. I think this is the way Steve G does it.
Good luck,
Chris

[Glen Ring]

I use a non stick pie plate. I initially poured lube around the standing bullets and when it gets firm I place the pie pan in the freezer. I later push out the bullets and the lube stays in the grooves well.

Later batches of bullets are placed in the holes, I stick the pan in the oven on low heat and start all over again. I tried my lyman lubrisizer and that's where I didn't get the best results .

SPG and Lyman black gold are lubes I use.