has anyone got ideas on what to use as a dip or something for my maxi ball cast bullets. i want them to look like they came from the thompson center factory. that bore butter is a mess to keep in the grooves. also has anyone found a case or storage tray for maxi balls for more than 20 like the factory boxs. thanks !

As for those little box that hold twenty maxi balls, that is what I save (those yellow plastic ones) everytime I buy some store bought conicals which I do from time to time. Then when I lube up a bunch of R.E.A.L. concials, I have a twenty pack to take with me to the range or in my possible bag. Granted I only have four of them yellow plastic boxes but it holds plenty of conicals for me.

As for the lube well I make my own. I actually agree, it is messy packing the conicals. But to me that is all part of the sport. I just carry a towel and make sure I wipe my fingers off real good after I am done.

In the past I used to melt down my homemade bullet lube and pour the conicals. You put them in a shallow tray (a plastic bird suet mold works great for this. Buy a pack of bird suet, feed the birds, and keep the tray. By the end of spring I have dozens of them).

I would double boiler melt my lube which is 2.5 parts pig lard to 2 parts paraffin wax and 2 table spoons murphys oil soap. Line your .50 caliber conicals up in the tray. then pour the melted lube until it reached the top rib.

Let it harded then use a speed loader to push over them. A speed loader will continue to pick them up and the ones that come out the top are perfect lubed. Those I put in the freezer and let them really get cold and set that lube up good. Then I pack my little yellow boxes and have 80 rounds of conicals.

Another way to avoid all the mess is to use LEE liquid Alox. You pour them and let the bullet sit and dry and it has a hard coating of the alox on it which my friend who uses this method claims is as good as the vegetable and fat lubes that I make, He claims he has no leading in the barrel.

They also sell a pre-luber that screws onto the top of your bore butter tube. You push conicals in one end and when they reach the center, you squeeze until the ribs are filled. When you push the next conical out through with the next conical you feed the tube. The lubed one come out the other end.

i tried the pre luber from thompson center. it just doesnt work that well thats why i think they discontinued them. i was told to stay away from using any wax for lube. i will check out the lee lube. thanks for the help!

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There's more wax in the Bore Butter you're using than paraffin.... which is really a hardener or sealer for stuff like candle wax.

Who ever told you to avoid using waxy substances??? Which waxy substances did he/she tell you to avoid using inside of a ML bore???

theres a guy on ebay selling 50 cal maxi balls that he makes himself pretty cheap too. i asked him what to use for a lube and i cant find his old email. i think he said stay away from bees wax . i also noticed with my old cast maxi balls i get a white frosting on the top of them and some of my bullets are shedding some lead. like a thin crusty layer. is this normal? i usually buy a box of balls to melt down to make sure im getting 100% lead. is there a cheap place to buy 100% lead?

When looking for lead be sure and look for pure lead. A lot of times people will have mixed lead. For black powder projectiles pure lead is the only way to go. Check plumber supply houses in your area. They often times carry "plumber's lead" (or at least used to).

Another place is salvage yards. Here is where they will give you the mixed stuff. I ordered some from a salvage/recycle yard once and it came as old bullets. Well we all know old bullets are not pure lead. There was copper in there, and tin, and goodness knows what else. They got a little upset when I refused to buy it stating they had bought it for me. I explained what I was needing it for.

A friend doing me a favor dropped off some lead pipe. It was so full of crud inside from years of service doing something I would rather not talk about, I have not used it yet. This is last resort lead...

I have been ordering pure 99% (at least) lead from MidSouth Shooters Supply on line. This is lead is so pure you do not even need to flux it most of the time. It is a 5 BHN from what I understand. When you order it you might as well order the #30 pound amount. It gets used up a lot faster then you think, and the shipping will kill you in most cases.

I cast my own round ball, and conicals, and have so for years. The projectiles I cast out of pure lead I have noticed are much more likely to expand when they hit something hard then the ones other people cast or I buy. I shot some 533 grain conicals a person casted. They were shot into a pine log. You would think they would be flat. Not so, I swear they are almost good enough to load again. He claimed they were cast out of pure lead. I also shot some of mine and they were so deformed you had a hard time telling what they actually were.

That white crud on your bullets means you need to get out there and shoot more... I make up hundreds of conicals at a time and as long as you do not pre lube them they stay fine.

so your saying its better to not lube them till your ready to use them. what about the factory thompson center maxi balls. do they have a shelf life because of the lube already in the grooves? also i was told that the liquid alox lube is petroleum base so if i use it on my maxi balls and shoot pyrodex will i run into fouling problems?

The only reason I lube them right before I am going shooting is so the lube does not mess all over the place. I make my own lube and it will soften some if it gets to warm. I really think the lube they put on the T/C maxi balls is a harder version of bore butter, it really seems to stick in there unlike bore butter out of the tube.

I have never heard of my friend having run into a problem with the liquid alox. After you coat the projectile and let the alox dry on them it looks more like a varnish then anything else. I have shot his projectiles and they shot fine.

I have not real fear of petroleum products. I swab with denatured alcohol, and I clean the gun with a petroleum based product. I am one of them that is not real concerned with seasoning the bore.