Moly or Graphite Srpay on Lead Bullets

Ganderite

Ganderite

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I use a lot of hard cast lead bullets for my handgun shooting. Several thousand a week.

I like the bullets, except for the smoke the lube makes. On a calm day (or indoors) it is a real problem when hooting rapid fire.


I put some bullets in a plastic dish, spray them with moly and swirled them around to give a good even coating. I noticed that they smoked less when shot.

Today I have a box of 500 158SWC that are unsized/unlubed. I want to use them for my 38S&W loads. They are to be loaded mild - around 700fps.

I wonder if just the moly spray will be enough lube to prevent leading the barrel? or any other kind of dry spray on lube?

This must have been tried, already.
 
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doesn't look like anyone's tried it. years ago I think speer or somebody was manufacturing .357 148 gr hollow base wadcutters (swaged pure lead) with powdered graphite on the market. for whatever reason these bullets were discontinued. anyway, make sure to size your bullets to bore diameter, because if they are hard cast they aren't going to obdurate very much, if at all. if I were to try it, I would spray on some hornady one shot gun lube. stand the bullets up on their base and give them a spray and let the rest of us tightwads know what happened.



















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You need either a gas check, better lube or to just powder coat them yourself. You can't beat powder coating for cutting down on smoke vs. traditional lubes. If you were open to going through the trouble of what you mentioned PC shouldn't be any problem.

I haven't done it myself but guys have used Hoppe's and One-Shot to lube bullets, it seems to be marginally effective at best. Down at .38sw pressures you can likely get away with almost anything as a lube though, at least IMO. I know I have wondered about graphite lube before...
 
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Seems odd that Ganderite is asking. Usually he is the one with all the answers! A few years ago i tried this exact thing. Had some fresh lee TL cast 158gr 38 bullets. Sprayed them with a coating of dry graphite. Loaded them up. They all went bang. I only loaded a 100.
Using bullseye powder which is smokey anyways.
As for leading, I don't know. As my S&W 19-5 seemed to lead up anyways. I was using soft lead. Even with the lee lube.
I just went to powder coating and never tried again. No leading issues.

Maybe with a hard lead? I think you should try it and report back!

Sure would be faster to spray and be done.
 
The un-sized 158s measure about .360. This is about right for 38S&W, although my S&W Victory seems to be tighter.

If there is no lube, i assume the barrel will lead badly.

I have two dry spray on lubes to try - graphite and wax based mold release.

The mold release leaves a very thin film of wax.

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I load the 158 to 650 to 700 fps. I will test both coatings and use the borescope to look for leading.

I will try some Lee tumble lube, too, if I have some.
 
Have you tried the Lee liquid Alox? Apply the same way you do the case lube...shake em in a bucket and dump em out on parchment paper to dry.
 
I use 45/45/10 lube with Lee Liquid Alox, Johnson’s Past Wax (carnuba), and mineral spirits. It smokes far less than traditional lubes with lead Bullets. Might be worth looking into.

I also shoot this lube double coated on .308 Bullets at 2250 FPS with a gas check without any leading and great accuracy.
 
Hitzy said:
Have you tried the Lee liquid Alox? Apply the same way you do the case lube...shake em in a bucket and dump em out on parchment paper to dry.
Click to expand...

I had a bottle of this. If I still have it I will try this for sure.

I am assuming that a hard cast bullet at only 750fps will not tend to lead very much, so a light lube might work.
 
Ganderite said:
I am assuming that a hard cast bullet at only 750fps will not tend to lead very much, so a light lube might work.
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It's pressure not velocity you need to worry about. If you size your bullets to the gun you only need a lube capable of stopping the relatively low pressure gasses propelling the bullet down the barrel from flowing past it and leading your barrel. You may be able to use lubes that otherwise wouldn't be suitable, hard to say until you try. LLA is a decent lube but it's as smoky as anything...

You may have to do some fiddling in your case. I doubt your 158SWC bullets are sitting at the .361 or higher you are going to need for a good fit in a .38 SW. Typically you would size your bullets to fit the throat of you cylinder, not the barrel. They should remain in place if inserted with only a minor effort with a pencil or other tool to push them through. That will put you as far ahead as you can get to start experimenting.

I seem to recall the .38SW being a heeled bullet design though. Not sure what to do in that case.
 
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I tried the bare bullets lubed with the thin mold release wax. I see some leading.
PvmedC8.jpg


Next I will try some spay on graphite.

I would prefer to try moly, but don't have any and can't find any locally.
 
A couple years ago I had a box of pre cast and lubed bullets that I'm fairly confident were Cactus Plains. There was a slip inside that said they were lubed with a clear dry lube and didn't require any more lube.

Maybe that's a lead if someone has more details...
 
Ganderite, I have a bunch of moly powder And the tub that fits in the Lyman tumbler. I used to moly jacketed bullets and imagine it will work on cast. I also have Hoppes moly paste that you can coat the inside of your with. It lasts a long time.
PM me if interested.
Neil
 
Neilm said:
Ganderite, I have a bunch of moly powder And the tub that fits in the Lyman tumbler. I used to moly jacketed bullets and imagine it will work on cast. I also have Hoppes moly paste that you can coat the inside of your with. It lasts a long time.
PM me if interested.
Neil
Click to expand...

Thanks. I, too, have moly and a tumbler. I might try that, but right now I am trying to see if a spray will work.

I would be happy to use tumble lube, but I can't find the bottle I thought I had, and my LGS is out of stock.
 
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