bullet cleaning

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Nicodemus38

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what are people using nowadays to clean manufacturing lubricants off of lead bullets? Carbon tetrachloride was the best back in the day but thats not available anymore safety reasons.

So whats the new chemical on the block?
 
Water.... I had some and I simply boiled them in a metal coffee can. Let it all cool down and the lube will get harder on the surface and you can scoop it off.
 
I guessed that you are talking about the lube that gets on the bases and noses of bulk packed commercial bullets?

An old bath towel and mineral spirits paint thinner.
Go out in the drive-way and dump a batch of bullets on the solvent soaked towel, then pick it up by the corners and raise & lower the ends so the bullets tumble back and forth in the wet towel.
It removes the excess lube without removing the lube in the grease grooves.

BTW: Mineral Spirits works just as well as carbon-tet and has much safer fumes to fool with.

rc
 
Nicodemus38 Sorry, I misunderstood your question. I thought you wanted to change the lube on some commercial cast bullets.
 
Hi Nicodemus38,

I will assume that you are referring to 'extraneous' lubricant that has been deposited onto the bullets where the lubricant should not be? If this is the case, then the answer depends on the makeup of the lubricant. To remove extraneous lubricant is a labor intensive operation. It will be difficult to perform this operation without interrupting the lubricant that is hopefully in the lubricant groove(s). For you see, once the 'solvent' comes in contact with the lubricant, it will permeate through it and degrade it (soften it, etc.).

Good luck!
 
well its that my father loaded thousands and thousands of rounds of ammo back in the 60s and 70s and well, he always talks about having to degrease bullets after popping them out of the mold. I was curious what kind of cleaning is needed for commercially available bullets on the market now.
 
Commercial cast bullets are ready to go out of the box. They ususally have a waxy lube on them, but you need that to keep from leading the barrel. There's always a thin coat on the rest of the bullet from rattling around in the packaging, but it's pretty much inert so you don't really have to clean it up. My last step in reloading is to wipe the exposed part of the bullets off with a dry rag before I box them up, but that's just because I'm neurotic and I like them to look a little shiny.

Some people use a release agent on their molds, but I don't think that it really has to be removed before adding lube. If you had that much in the mold you'd be casting some really funky bullets.

-J.
 
Hi Nicodemus38,

The cast bullets that you purchase should not have any extraneous lubricant on any portion of the bullet. It should only be in the lube groove(s). The entire surface of the cast bullet should be clean and devoid of any debris. The bullets should also be dry, slippery, and shiny. The bullets should not stick to each other rather they should slide against each other without any adhesive tendency (like a handful of marbles). You may use this information as your standard of quality the next time you purchase your bullets.
 
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