Lee Tumble Lube Thoughts Please

Anyone ever try the Lee liquid alox tumble lube method with home cast 200 grain LSWC Bullets? Not Lee's micro banded bullet but an H&G 68 type. I got a mold and I'm going to start casting my own 45's but the lube and sizer press was beyond budget. I opted for Lee's sizing die and tumble lube method. Only after I bought the stuff did a friend loan me an extra Lyman lube and sizer but no die or top punch for it. I'll order those eventually and go that route but for now I'm limited to the tumble lube method and was curious if people here have tried it and what outcome they had with it.

I've broke 2600 using the Lee bullets. I've witnessed two pistols shoot 7/8" 50 yard 10 shot groups with them as well. My late mentor used them with great success. The only thing you have to be careful about is making sure the mold cavities are dimensionally the same. Very common to have different diameters on same mold. So be willing to mail them back until Lee gets it right. Let's just say Lee was on his phones speed dial.
Jon

I actually prefer the 45-45-10 mix of Alox, carnauba wax and mineral spirits(orderless)..  much thinner and dries harder...

also playing around with mixing LLA with  a Luxmark liquid floor wax as a easier method to obtain the same results... I mix it 60/40(alox/wax). So far so good. Lots' of folks using Johnson liquid floor wax but it has been discontinued...

But are you tumble lubing this mix or running it in a lube/sizer press?

Yes, many of us use a thinned tumble lube on all manner of grooved lead bullets.

Tim,

I recently did some playing with the 45-45-10 mix and I was impressed, but am not entirely done playing.  The tumble lubing works, but most of my molds were made oversize to be run through a lube-sizer die to get the "desired diameters," of .001"-.002" over bore size. As they drop now, almost all ae more than that, and some would really bulge a 38 special or .357 case, causing separate issues.

I will say emphatically, that leading should not be a problem in your pistols if driven at the very mild and low pressures that we bullseye shooters use. If there is leading problems then the issues will not be lube related.

-Ron

45-45-10 is a tumble lube... If I want to lube with the standard sizer I use BAC from white label lubes.

sizing is almost always the norm to get the best accuracy..

I have shot a lot of conventional grooved bullets and bullets intended for Lee Liquid Alox (LLA), both lubed with LLA.  If your mold drops bullets of the size you want, you don't need to size after swishing them around with the lube in a re-purposed margarine tub, then pouring out on waxed paper.  I have almost always found better accuracy without sizing.  LLA is just Alox 606, thinned a lot.  The 45-45-10 mentioned above is a modification of that.  

I still like using a Lyman 45 and 450 lube/size machine for many bullet designs, which allows me to grease-type lube a grooved bullet that is already the size I want, and not make it smaller.  I usually use the BAC mentioned above, which is very similar to what the NRA suggested many years ago, 50% Alox 2138F/50% Beeswax, but has some Carnauba wax added.  Allox 2138F is actually not available any more, so the very similar Alox 350 is used.  

For .45 acp and all bevel-based bullets, I like using a Star lube/size machine, but it requires bullets be as-cast .001" larger than I want them to be finished.  

If your 200 SWC has a bevel base, you'll have trouble with the 450 press lubing your bullets.  It will fill the void left by the bevel base with lube.