Does the pan you use have tappered out sides? I have to wait until the lube is pretty cooled off. Then I gently put pressure on the corners, a slight twisting. this usually loosens the cake. (for me this is where the cheap-o pan helps, just how I do it. Have never tried a stiff heavy or cast iron pan) Normally at that point I can turn the pan upside down and it will fall right out. I may have to wrap on it a bit to get it to jar loose. Very rarely, I run a dull knife around the outside of the lube next to the pan to help break the adhesion of the lube to pan.
May be that the lube I use (normally homemade or spg) lends itself to breaking free easily. What lube are you using, and anyone else have thoughts on type of lube and how it attaches itself to the pan?

The Nov Dec issue of the Single Shot Journal had a excellent article on pan lubing.

Sendaro if you are having issues with the lube sticking in and filling out the grooves, place your bullets in the oven on bake warm and leave the door cracked open. After about fifteen minutes or so take them out and pour in the lube and this should eliminate that issue. I was having the same problem when I first started pan lubing back in the late 90's and Charlie Dell turned me on to the pre-heating approach and I have not had any issue since. I store my bullets in the foam cartridge containers and I place them in nose down, I then set the cake pan over two of them containing a total of 100 bullets and flip the whole works over. The bullets are now standing on there bases and I leave the foam containers on them while transporting from the garage, to the oven and then back to the garage at which time I gently remove them. This keeps the bullets from falling over while transporting them. After the lube cake has cooled I remove it from the pan, stand it on edge and poke out a bullet from each corner. I then place the foam containers over the bullets poking out, lay it back down and then simply push each bullet into there assigned places. Put a foam top on each one and attach it with a heavy rubber band and they are ready to take to the range. I also place a note on top with a piece of blue masking tape stating alloy, weight, batch etc.

J.Louis

J Louis,
      What a neat way of pan lubing! I like it, and will have to try it. Where are you getting the little foam boxes. I understand that they are like the boxes that come with loaded ammo.
      I have been storing my lubed bullets in the small MTM plastic ammo boxes used for 380 or 9MM live ammo. I also have placed labels in the box to ID the bullet's lube, alloy, mold, and date cast. 
              Thanks again, Sendaro

Sendaro the ones I use came from Midway several years back and they came with a fold down card board box for each container. I had enough on hand to not have to use the card board box as I prefer to use one foam container as a lid and setup this way it creates an R insulating factor that keeps the lube from melting and or getting to soft on hot days. The issue I had with the plastic containers is it does not take very long in the sun light to melt the lube on the bullets and they should be keep in a cooler of sorts to keep the lube cool. My original supply of the foam containers amounted to 100 each and that was enough to store 2500 cast and if desirable pre-lubed bullets in and to have on hand. Taken care of they will last a lifetime and I have lost very few over the years from being damaged. 

J.Louis

Sendaro you won't know if it will handle the higher velocity until you try it. The proper lube is critical for extreme accuracy and it either provides small groups or it doesn't. Just because the rifle does not lead does not mean it is the best choice of lube for the occasion. A good example of this is on page 124 in the book The Story Of Pope's Barrels by Ray M Smith. Pictured is a target with two groups shot with the 38-72 Kelly Pope with the only thing being changed the lube. One group if you can call it that was shot with Leupold Lubricant and it appears to be around 2 inches and the other group was shot with Pope's Lube and it measures .53 of an inch. Load used was 18grs. DuPont bulk shotgun powder screened, 1-32 alloy breach seated. Both Lubes had an outstanding reputation and I would hesitate to say one was better than the other but this load in this rifle definitely had a preference for the Pope lube. I have had the opportunity to test just about every lube out there including a couple variations of my own and to date the Dell 59C has provided the best small group size consistency for me day in and day out and it is not affected by either very cold or very hot weather conditions either. It is also not sensitive to higher than normal velocities. If you have had the opportunity to review Jan's amazing 10 shot 200yd target you will notice he is having great success with Emmerts Lube. My rifles and my loads do not like it at all and the performance for me has always been very sub-standard. 

J.Louis

When I used a tin pan I lined it with tinfoil first.  My wife has since turned me on to a rubberized baking pan that works even better.  I also now use J Louis' method with the foam boxes -when the pistol shooters finish up a box of .38 specials.  Thanks John!
Regards, Joe

MIKE are you pan lubing using Smiley's, I pan lubed some bullets recently with 50/50 BW/Alox using a double boiler, the smell in the house was quite objectionable;  
Do you have the same problem with the Smiley's?
MIKE-T
MAD MIKE wrote on Feb 18^th, 2012 at 2:03am: