Alox

I've never used Alox before although I'm told it makes shooting hard lead bullets a lot less messy in terms of lead fouling. I decided to give it a try so I bought a small bottle of the stuff, brought it home, and read the directions. Yes, I know it takes all the fun out of a process, but I'm willing to do it once before abandoning them.

It calls for putting a "small amount" on an indeterminate number of bullets, shaking them gently in a plastic container to distribute the stuff, then letting the bullets dry overnight on wax paper. Small amount is your call and plastic container is suggested to be an ice cream box. This means I get to make things up as I go along with just nebulous guidelines to work from. Just like real life.

In my version I put some 250-350 bullets (92 gr, 9mm) in a peanut butter container (3" high, 4" dia) along with enough Alox that if it had been toothpaste, I could have brushed my teeth 2-3 times. How's that for an accurate measurement? In lieu of shaking I put the jar, which has a screw-on lid, into my tumbler along with the walnut shell media and ran it for about 5 minutes. NOTE 1: I have a rotary tumbler. This trick may not work as well in a vibratory model. Then again it might if you leave a generous load of relatively soft media in to dampen the shaking. NOTE 2: Media on the outside, bullets on the inside of the jar.

Result: A big load of sticky bullets. I'm guessing that half the amount of Alox would have sufficed. OTOH the fellow who sold me the stuff suggested that the 4 oz bottle would be good for 1000 bullets. At this rate I'm guessing it will be good for closer to 10,000. Nice even coating too.

Observation: They call this stuff "liquid". It has nearly the same consistency as light bearing grease.

Next stop is the range with the chroney.