Cast bullets in a Progressive?

LeeEnfieldNo.4_mk1

LeeEnfieldNo.4_mk1

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Thinking of going with a Hornady lock n load ammo plant complete kit to load primarily .223 and 9mm. But have a question.

I shoot cast 9mm bullets mostly, and had a thought about the progressive press. Since the cast projectiles have to be lubed with bees wax, I am guessing these won't cycle in the bullet feeder in the kit, correct? So I would have to feed them in by hand or will the wax completely mess with the cycle?
 
you could start powder coating them :)

if they are commercial cast you should be fine, but will very likely have to clean the tubes and bullet feeder every once and a while. if it's homemade lube that's on the softer side i would try a few and see how quickly it gets dirty.
 
You don't have to coat them in wax (and you don't have to use beeswax unless you're shooting black powder). Cast bullets with lube grooves filled with a solid, somewhat hard paraffin wax based lube shouldn't have too much issue. They come packaged loose in boxes so I can't see them having much issue going through a bullet feed tube.
 
LUTNIT said:
You don't have to coat them in wax (and you don't have to use beeswax unless you're shooting black powder). Cast bullets with lube grooves filled with a solid, somewhat hard paraffin wax based lube shouldn't have too much issue. They come packaged loose in boxes so I can't see them having much issue going through a bullet feed tube.
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the only problem part i could see is the bullet feeder plate that spins around could remove some of the lube. but i doubt it would be much of a problem.
 
The Lube I am using is quite soft and sticky, its almost like a thick waxy grease, and that's what brought up the question. What lube would be hard enough to run through a press?
 
Are you tumble lubing them in something like Lee liquid alox? If so they could junk things up.
If you are using commercial cast bullets or are sizing and lubing with a lubrisizer you can use most any of the solid stick type lubes and it shouldn't be an issue.
 
i make ben's red lube and add some extra beeswax to harden it up, even then i wouldn't run them in the bullet feeder as it's still sticky. stuff with carnauba wax would be best, i find most factory bullets use a hard lube that stays in the groves. wolf and DRG bullets have lubes like that.

otherwise powder coating the bullets would work very nicely.
 
I have a progressive press and I use cast bullets in 9mm. Never us a soft greasy lube! It will plug up your dies and you will have real problems with seating depths as the lube builds up in the seating die and your seating depths will be all over the place. I do not use a bullet feeder but I have absolutely no doubt that it would also gum up and cause you many problems.

Go with a hard lube, you will have less problems, not have to clean your dies constantly and your gun will smoke less when fired.
 
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