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silvercreek
01-31-2012, 04:07 PM
I've been at this boolit casting for over fourty years now. I always try to keep lube off the boolit base so it won't contaminate my powder. I use 50/50 alox and beeswax. Sometimes I store my reloaded ammo for a long time and always worried about powder contamination. ( hasn't ever happened that I know of ). I have thought about putting a wad over the powder to eliminate any possible contamination.
I shoot cowboy action so my loads are "starting loads" from the Lyman manual to keep velocities down. So Then I'm worried that the wad may not clear the barrels, especially on my carbine.
Any experiences from you all would be appreciated. Am I worried over nothing?

Silvercreek

Larry Gibson
01-31-2012, 04:42 PM
If you have at least .001 neck tension on the bullets with straight walled cases you should not have any problems with powder contamination from the powder with your lube. Many, many years ago (mid '70s) I tested that with .357, 44 and 45 ACP cast bullet loads using bullets lubed with Javelina. I loaded a box of each, chronographed a 20 shot string of each, and then left the rest sitting on the dash of my PU in the hot sun for several days. I then chronographed another 20 shot string of each. I found absolutely no difference in the before or the after loads. Subsequently I have used Javelina and other makes of 50/50 alox/beeswax lube and have not had a single case of powder contamination from the lube with such cartridges.

In bottle necked cartridges I either do not seat the GC or bullet base below the case neck (preferred seating) or if I must a dacron filler is used to keep the powder away from the lube. If I can't use the filler with a particular powder then I switch to a powder I can use it with or use another bullet.

Larry Gibson

geargnasher
01-31-2012, 04:56 PM
I don't see any reason to worry unless you're using black powder and a really soft lube like Emmert's than can weep oil past the base band on hot days. If it hasn't been an issue for 40 years, doesn't seem like it would be now.

If it really concerns you, and you shoot low-velocity smokeless loads, have you thought about using Rooster Jacket or Recluse's 45/45/10 tumble lube formula? The tumble lubes have a hight melting point and don't run. Even if you did get your ammo hot enough to melt the lube, there is so little there (if applied properly it's merely a light varnish) that it wouln't affect your powder much if any at all.

Gear

rintinglen
01-31-2012, 05:10 PM
the only times that I had problems involved bevel based boolits back in my pan-lubed days. I had more than one instance of "Blooper" rounds till I gve up on the BB designs and went with plain based boolits. The range I used to shoot at had about as much shade as a frog has eye brows, and those hot summer afternoons in the blazing California Sun could make the gun too hot to pick up off the bench. These days I shoot in milder conditions and mostly use Recluse formula TL for most of my shooting.

silvercreek
01-31-2012, 05:14 PM
I usually use Unique or 700X powder. My worry (actually) is the lube residue left on the bottom of my boolits because no matter how hard I try, lube seems to get under the bullet while sizing on my Lyman resizer.
I adjust the sizer as close as I can to eliminate lube getting under there. It's pretty hard to get it perfectly clean.
I tried an experment, after wiping what I thought was all the residue from the bottom of the boolit, I sat the boolit on some powder and sure enough, the powder stuck to the boolit. Is this enough to contaminate the powder - - - say after setting on the shelf a year or so?
I like to load up enough to get through the cowboy action season, sometimes some ammo is left over for the NEXT season. I always wonder about these loads. Like I said, I never noticed a difference in them, but it seems the older ammo would be more contaminated with the lube.
I've been conserned over this for years but never shared it. I figured you guys would understand my delema better than anyone so I figured I'd ask.

Silvercreek