Is it powder or lube fouling?

[woody2]

After every range session my handguns are filthy. Covered with a somewhat sticky black coating that readily comes off with Hoppes #9 but it covers everything and is a pain to remove. There's no leading, just the black gunk, and it's there on both revolvers and semi-autos. I'm using Bullseye, which I've heard is a dirty powder, and RCBS bullet lube. Is this from the powder, the lube, or both? Any suggestions on how to reduce it?

[waksupi]

The lube is the main culprit.

[StrawHat]

Try cutting back on the amount of lube on your boolits. When I shot 148 grain WC in my 38 competition revolver, I ended up lubing just one lube groove. Still had plenty of lube, great accuracy but a cleaner revolver at the end of the day. Notice, I said cleaner, not clean. There was still soot and stuff but not nearly as much.

[captaint]

+1 on what the other guys said about lube. I only lube one groove on my wadcutters, and no problems whatsoever. After loading & shooting for 40 years, I no longer use Bullseye. That must sound crazy to some folks. Years back when I did use BE, my guns too, were really dirty. Now, dirty is just a fact of life, but they WERE really bad. So, I started using Red Dot instead, and I still use Red Dot for low power loads. It is a little cleaner. enjoy Mike

[Mal Paso]

Clays and Titegroup are cleaner for light loads but if you've got good lube it goes everywhere. The powder just makes it darker. 200 44Mag loads and it's time for me to pull the cylinder and clean the shaft. Upside, I don't clean the bore much. A brush followed by a dry patch.

[dragonrider]

It is both of course, the only way to reduce it is to try other powders and lubes.

[mdi]

I would try another lube. Beeswax lubes seem cleaner/less smokey to me...

[btroj]

I find that lube is the bigger culprit.

I have found that ignori it helps. It is purely cosmetic. My stainless Ruger revolvers look horrible but shoot great.

[Jailer]

Yup, ignore it.

I run my Glock until the buildup on the breech looks like it might affect lockup. That's usually after around 700-800 rounds. A bath in low odor mineral spirits melts it all away.

[MikeS]

There is a way to never get that kind of dirt on your guns, and it works great. Just don't shoot them! But on a more serious note, something to consider would be to get the thin white disposable cotton gloves (the kind packaged in a kleenex type box like latex gloves also come in), and wear them when shooting. While they might not get rid of all the dirt, they will cut down on quite a bit. You can also try latex (or the synthetics), but they're too easy to melt, and if doing lots of shooting, and the gun gets hot, it could melt them. Of course probably the best would be to put on a pair of latex gloves, and then the cotton gloves, so when you take them off your hands will be perfectly clean. I keep some of the synthetic latex ones (the purple ones) in my car, and saddle bags of my bike, so if something happens where I need to work on either, my hands won't get all dirty.

[JeffinNZ]

I would try another lube. Beeswax lubes seem cleaner/less smokey to me...

I was thinking the same. I make my own lube that is none petroleum based; essentially I formulated it for BP but it goes well with smokeless too. The residue from my lube is much easier to clean off the suppressor baffles on my .32-20 than any of the Alox based products.

[**oneshot**]

The black is easy to clean off.

[kir_kenix]

As has been said, I would try a different lube. Or less lube. Sometimes it is better to lube just a couple of grooves, especially if it is a midrange target round. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[.22-10-45]

Hello, woody2. I have gotten back into shooting revolvers after a long layoff..due to my first love..single shot rifles. The other day, I put 70 rounds of cast thru a Colt .45 S.A.A. Loads were Tightgroup & TrailBoss. bullet for both loads is from an old S.C. Lyman 454190..cast soft from range lead. Lube was my #5A1..a Beeswax-Anhyd. Lanolin-Castor oil mix..fairly soft.
As is my habit, I always clean at the range. I noted while the cyl. was heavely sooted up...the frame was noticeably clean. Cyl. was cleaned using Bore Tech Carbon Remover..giving it time to work a bit. Bore cleaned right up with patches. No leading.
Could be the Bullseye..but I am thinking more of a lube issue. I did an informal test some time back..comparing commercial lubes to my softer pan-lube varity..for pure accuracy..the softer won hands down..but for convienence and time savings..the commercial in a lube-sizer was oftimes "good enough".

[geargnasher]

I just wipe the worst of it off with a dry terry hand towel and park the gun in it's home. Nothing like a wax film applied hot to keep away the rust.

Too many guns that shoot a dedicated diet of properly lubed cast boolits seem to end up getting cleaned to death. If you have the load working well, there's really no "need" to scrub the whole thing to bare metal and then add back a coating of oil to everything like often is the situation when shooting "dry" jacketed bullets.

Gear

[woody2]

Thanks for all the ideas. First, I'm going to try lubing only one groove if my old Lyman lubrisizer will allow that and still size the boolit. I'll try it tomorrow. Since there were several recommendations for a beeswax lube I'll look for some. Any brand name recommendations? I have several pounds of Bullseye on hand so changing powder now isn't really an economically viable option.

Jailer - do you detail strip and immerse the entire weapon in mineral spirts or just give it a good wipe down?

[badgeredd]

I just wipe the worst of it off with a dry terry hand towel and park the gun in it's home. Nothing like a wax film applied hot to keep away the rust.

Too many guns that shoot a dedicated diet of properly lubed cast boolits seem to end up getting cleaned to death. If you have the load working well, there's really no "need" to scrub the whole thing to bare metal and then add back a coating of oil to everything like often is the situation when shooting "dry" jacketed bullets.

Gear

I agree with Gear, but if the cosmetics bother you a wipe down with mineral spirits to the outside will fix the exterior look of the piece. I just run a clean dry patch through the bore once to remove the powder fouling. The powder fouling will draw moisture and cause some problems eventually. A little lube left in the bore not only protects it, but leaves your barrel "seasoned" for the next go round. If you intend on storing the firearm for an extended period, I'd then give the gun a thorough cleaning, but only then.

Edd

[runfiverun]

man cleaning.
i put a little oil on the cylinder spinny part.
and run the rag over the outside sometimes i even clean off the black stuff.
i just don't use lubes soft enough to blow all over the gun.

[40Super]

I had started out shooting those goldish shinny things in my autos and cleaned them after every time I did a bunch of shooting. Used a lot of oils and greases to stop occational rust spots , mostly from fingerprints. After switching to lead almost entirely and figured it doesn't pay to obsess over a little black dirt or "hase", I now just do a quick dusting with a dry cloth and clean the inside after maybe 1000+ rounds (just a drop or two of a heavy oil/light grease on the rails before going to shoot).
I no longer have any little rust spots and in general the guns have that slight slippery waxy feel to them. I think all that wax vapor(if you can call it that) coats everything and does a good job of protecting the finishes. I know that my barrel bores are sure a bright "polished" look that does its part in keeping leading away.

I usually only have a dry powder"hase" after a couple hundred rounds, my original homemade lube that was rather soft worked good but did end up with a liquidish coating around the chamber and muzzle. I added 20% Carnuba Red ,by weight, to harden it up.

[StrawHat]

I just wipe the worst of it off with a dry terry hand towel and park the gun in it's home. Nothing like a wax film applied hot to keep away the rust.

Too many guns that shoot a dedicated diet of properly lubed cast boolits seem to end up getting cleaned to death. If you have the load working well, there's really no "need" to scrub the whole thing to bare metal and then add back a coating of oil to everything like often is the situation when shooting "dry" jacketed bullets.

Gear

Agreed, most of the guys I shot with cleaned only once or maybe twice during a season of competitive shooting and then only if functioning was problematic. A swab down the bore and a quick wipe of the exterior and the revolver went back into the shooting box until next maatch.

[Jailer]

Thanks for all the ideas. First, I'm going to try lubing only one groove if my old Lyman lubrisizer will allow that and still size the boolit. I'll try it tomorrow. Since there were several recommendations for a beeswax lube I'll look for some. Any brand name recommendations? I have several pounds of Bullseye on hand so changing powder now isn't really an economically viable option.

Jailer - do you detail strip and immerse the entire weapon in mineral spirts or just give it a good wipe down?

Detail strip. It only takes a couple minutes to completely disassemble so there is no reason not to.


I had started out shooting those goldish shinny things in my autos and cleaned them after every time I did a bunch of shooting. Used a lot of oils and greases to stop occational rust spots , mostly from fingerprints. After switching to lead almost entirely and figured it doesn't pay to obsess over a little black dirt or "hase", I now just do a quick dusting with a dry cloth and clean the inside after maybe 1000+ rounds (just a drop or two of a heavy oil/light grease on the rails before going to shoot).
I no longer have any little rust spots and in general the guns have that slight slippery waxy feel to them. I think all that wax vapor(if you can call it that) coats everything and does a good job of protecting the finishes. I know that my barrel bores are sure a bright "polished" look that does its part in keeping leading away.


Same here. Between detail strip cleanings nothing but a dry cloth to wipe down any excess deposits.


Agreed, most of the guys I shot with cleaned only once or maybe twice during a season of competitive shooting and then only if functioning was problematic. A swab down the bore and a quick wipe of the exterior and the revolver went back into the shooting box until next maatch.

I don't run anything down the bore until I detail strip and clean. When I do its dry patches on a jag. The bore always looks shiny so no need to scrub the snot out of it.