Re-lube 33 year old Speer swaged bullets?

[robert1804]

I have 500 Speer 158gr swaged swc bullets that are 33 years old. Whatever the original lube was has dried to a flakey, almost wax-like stuff. I'm worried about leading if I shoot them as is.

My question is, could I tumble them in some Alox? Or is there some other way to easily re-lube them?

[reddog81]

Reload 25 to 50 and see what happens.
I'd guess that re-lubing is going to be more work than it's worth.
The Hornady and Speer swaged bullets I've worked with barely have much "lube" to begin with.

[Calliope]

I've always gotten some leading with Speer swaged bullets as is, so I re-lube all my swaged bullets including Speer, Hornady & Magnus. I give them a bath in 50/50 mineral spirits/liquid alox and let them dry on a cotton rag base down.

If they look that bad I would experiment with dissolving the old lube completely with mineral spirits, then applying the 50/50 mix. Or just try adding them as is to the 50/50 mix and see if it smoothes them out.

A lot of guys add Johnson's paste wax to the mix, but I've found just Lee liquid alox & mineral spirits will eliminate leading completely up to about 1,100 fps with the soft swaged bullets.

A little work lubing the bullets pays off by never having to scrub lead out of the bore, my least favorite part of shooting. With the alox coated bullets the bore comes clean with just mineral spirits and cotton patches.

[4barrel]

What reddog said. Just don't go over 800 fps. Alox & roll sideways & let set over night if needed.

[Pisgah]

I say yes. Heck, I Alox-lube brand new ones -- not that the lube they come with doesn't work OK in light loads, but with the Alox I run them up to 1200 fps in .357 loads with zero leading.

[robert1804]

Thanks to all for the informative and useful responses. Got some Alox coming and will use it on these old bullets. I keep the velocities in the 700's range for swaged lead anyway. I'm just getting back into reloading and shooting after 33 years. Almost tossed or gave away lots of bullets, powder and primers, some of it pushing 40 years old. I was in for a big surprise when I went for reloading supplies after all that time. I'm SO glad I kept all that old stuff. It all still works fine!

I'm an old hand with leaded bores. A Lewis tool and some Chore Boy copper scrubber material makes short work of the nastiest leading.

[mikld]

Mostly good info so far. Yes you can relube with alox, but swaged, soft bullets should be loaded on the low side, to eliminate leading...