New(ish) to Reloading - Advice and Guidance Appreciated

[potnoodle]

I've only been shooting in this country for a couple of years, and have (for the time being) settled on the following hardware:

Taurus LBR in .38/.357
Marlin 1894C in .38/.357
SGC 9mm LR (most recent acquisition)
A couple of rimfires which I'll not bore you with here :)

Getting into shooting was quite difficult as I had neither friends nor family members already associated with the sport / hobby, and my God, don't clubs vary in terms of attitude and standards!! I'm now a member of three clubs, at least one of which only permits the shooting of lead bullets. I'm likely to be sticking to straight-walled, pistol calibers for at least the mid term future.

A kindly gent at my first club got me started with reloading, and I've been using 158gn Hannam's lead T/C heads, loaded with a Lee 4 turret press. I coat the heads in as small a quantity of Lee Liquid Alox as I can get away with, such that I can barely see the discolouration. That said, I'm still managing to get some LLA fouling in my seating and crimping dies. I'm having the same issue with the 9mm dies.

I wash my brass in an ultrasonic cleaner, then dry and tumble to get things shiny. I'll freely admit to being a little obsessive, but not having a huge amount of time to spend shooting and reloading. I also have to do all of my reloading in the house, no shed or workshop at my disposal

So... a number of questions, apologies in advance!

1. Is there a commercially available 'better' bullet lube available in the UK?
2. Are there equivalent, common UK products with which to make 45-45-10, which, by all accounts, seems to be the best thing since sliced bread? Or ideally, can 45-45-10 be acquired in the UK? I'm all for saving money, but with time constraints I'm unlikely to spend half a day cooking up recipes for the sake of saving just a few quid. No disrespect intended.
3. Can I clean the Lee dies in my ultrasonic cleaner? If so, which cleaning and protective agent should I use? RCBS gun cleaning solution seems to be pucker, but it's hard to find and very pricey.
4. Are there commercially available polymer coated bullet heads in the UK? These seem to be the best option if I've understood the concept. No lube to apply, no leading, and happy with magnum loads. I really don't have the capacity for experimenting with moly or doing my own coating. Much as I like the idea, I can't ever see myself casting my own heads.
5. I've heard that it's only really necessary to apply lube to the base of the bullet. Is this true? If so, could I simply brush the bottom of an inverted tray of heads with a light coat of LLA? Thinned perhaps? It would save any contamination of my dies, but would it do the job?
6. For my .357 magnum loads I'm using Accurate #9. When using the Taurus I get that much smoke that the cylinder is totally discoloured by the time I've gone through 50 rounds. I'm using the recipe in the Lee Loaders Guide, from memory the starting load is 11.5gn. Anyone know why I'm getting so much smoke? Too little powder? Simply a poor choice of powder? Alternative suggestions welcome.

That's probably enough for now, apologies for the 'dump' of questions. Thanks in advance for your help.

[Alpha1]

If you are buying cast bullets from Hanams why are you applying lee lube they come all ready lubed dont they.
You only need to lube bullets you have cast your self comercially sold bullets come ready lubed.
Use edds red to clean your dies or any thing to do with cast bullets. Check the libary for the recipe.
Forget about the sonic bath.*
You probably need to review the powders you are using as well.

[Alpha1]

I just had to go back and re read your post a kindly gent at your first club got you into re loading that's great. But I'm not sure you have been lead down the right path my friend.
First of Tim Hannams cast bullets come ready lubed so you just load them out of the box you don't need to do anything else with them you certainly don't need to add Lee Allox. If you are casting your own bullets then that's a different story.
You don't need to wash your brass in a sonic bath just chuck them in a tumbler.

So to answer your questions:
1. you dont need a commercially better bullet lube the ones you are buying are all ready lubed.
2. you dont need this either as I said the bullets come lubed out of the box. Who told you you needed to lube bought bullets. Next time you see him/her poke your finger in there eye. They dont know what they are talking about.
3. you dont need to clean your dies in a ultrasonic bath you just need to clean them with edds red.
4. forget polymer coated bullets a waste of your time.
5. The bullets you buy from hannans are all ready lubed just buy them re load them and go shoot.
6. Change your powder buy Vitavouri.

If you want specific load data pm me.

Any way that's enough for now I'm sure all the experts will be along very soon and provide all the answers you need to your questions.

[ColinR]

It is unlikely the smoke has anything to do with the powders you are using. After all they are Smokeless. Probably the smoke is from the excess lube you are applying burning off in the barrel. As Alpha has said commercially available bullets are usually already lubed. Do your bullets have a blue or red band of waxy material below the crimp cannelure? If so they are already sized and lubed and need nothing more before loading.

[potnoodle]

Thanks for the replies.

To answer the main question you've thrown back, yes the bullets do have a blue lube ring. The LLA was recommended as a belt and braces approach. This is the challenge that the novice shooter faces when long established club members have been doing their own thing for years. There seems to be little in the way of authoritative material on the subject, and I've had more than one shooter at more than one club say that they use it on 'bought' bullets.

I'll try a batch without, thanks again

[Alpha1]

Buy a copy of the Lyman cast bullet hand book I recommend it. You should be able to get a copy off Amazon or try pukkabundhooks web site.
If you have any more questions ask away all ways happy to help a new shooter. Just be care full there are a lot of so called experts out there who in reality know very little about the subject. Cast bullets area bit of a dark art especially to a beginner.

[dromia]

The trick with any cast bullet is correct bullet fit with out that all the lube in the world will not stop fouling and inaccuracy. The other problem with commercial bullets is that they are way too hard so good bullet fit is even more important with them. At the low velocities you will be shooting them at the poor quality commercial lube will suffice no need for adding coatings.

Powder/epoxy coatings have no benefits over traditional coatings like xlox and 45-45-10.

[ColinR]

If you buy cast bullets already lubed and sized and load them within their capabilities and the capabilities of your firearm you do not need to know much more than that. That only changes if you intend casting your own bullets and that initself is whole different area in shooting. Within reason and velocity you can treat commercial lead bullets much as you would jacketed and just get on and load them without any further preparation.

Load up a batch without any additional lube and they will work fine and by all accounts solve the smoke problem too.

I shoot commercial 158 grain soft lead bullets (already lubed) from Shellhouse Bullets in my Marlin loaded with 5.4 grains of Nobel GM3 in a magnum case. This gives me 1200 fps and they work well from 25 yds to 100 yds - if anything a bit fast for 25 yds gallery, but a load that works well in my Marlin 1894SS with little or no leading.

I think you have initially made things difficult for yourself by over thinking a problem that does not exist.

[potnoodle]

Again, thanks for the comments folks. I'll have a tinker as time permits over the next couple of weeks.

Overthinking?? Hmmm I'll have to think about that....