Moly/Felix Hybrid Lube

[Newtire]

I just made up a batch of Felix-Lube about a month ago and then got a PM about the merits of moly lube and how it "contaminates"(lays down a barrier) so the maybe molten alloy won't stick like solder won't stick to a solder joint that hasn't been cleaned. It seemed to make sense to me!
Anyway, the Felix Lube worked fine but I made up a batch of 1/2 sta-lube automotive moly-grease-to-1/2 Felix lube by volume. I had a time getting the felix-lube to melt and had to use a heat gun but eventually it melted and looks like a non-stratified completely mixed batch. Has a bit more spreadability than the more elastic felix-lube. Will test it out next week hopefully. Anyone have any experience along these lines with any advice would be appurchiated.
Thanks in advance
Newtire

[Lloyd Smale]

the lube i use mostly is a felix hybrid too. I add about 1/3 magma hard blue or red roster to it a couple spoons full of cardouba wax and about 1/3 of a bottle of lee tumble lube in a 2 lb coffee can. The hard lube is only to firm it up as i store alot of bullets in the barn and temps can get pretty high out there. I use hard lube instead of paraphin because my thoughts are that if im going to add something it might as well be a lubricant. This is the best lube ive come up with after years of experimenting. My guns sometimes go 1000s of rounds without cleaning and even when cleaning i rarely brush out a barrel. Only downside to it is its pretty smoky to shoot.

[Bass Ackward]

I just made up a batch of Felix-Lube about a month ago and then got a PM about the merits of moly lube and how it "contaminates"(lays down a barrier) so the maybe molten alloy won't stick like solder won't stick to a solder joint that hasn't been cleaned. It seemed to make sense. Newtire


Newtire,

The bulk of leading cases start with the very first shot. This is because "naked" lead ahead of the first lube band hits clean steel. The wider the front band is, the worse this can be. The next bullet passes over the first lead, sizes down, and deposits MORE lead or extends it as lead sticks to lead and you lose balance. You lose hydrolic pressure. Now you have galling and gas cutting from the portion that is now undersize and the leading spreads.

So .... If you want a moly barrier, then why not spray it in the bore before you shoot? Like mold release agent. You can use one of those flexible hollow tubes and bend it to go in anyewhere. Use a light load for the first shot if you are running high pressure loads. See what happens.

Take a look at Carnuba. Carnuba leaves a hard wax coating in the bore making sort of a non stick surface. People usually comment how clean a bore is when using it. Almost any lube can be improved by adding some Carnuba because it blends well. That is my favorite ingredient. You would be surprised to see what beeswax and Carnumba alone will do as a lube.

[Newtire]

I guess it's the experimenter in me that wants to give things a try. The batch of Felix-Lube I made works fine and the bore is shiny with the carnauba wax I got from a can of "Tre-wax" (50% carnauba it says on the can) I picked up in the "Free-Pile" at our local dump. This lube appears to be a little softer though. I get lots of smoke from the Lee Liquid Alox. I can see that the naked part of the bullet is the first part so put a little Liquid Alox on first rounds myself. I am probably guilty of using too much lube. Don't know how you can tell?

[sundog]

Newtire, 50-50 Sta-Lube and bees wax. Worked great in an old Colt 1917 with Lee 454 RF which were .454+. The bbl on that Colt was larger than a S&W which shoots good with .452. I've always suspected that the Colt bbls might have been .454 because they made so many for 45 Colt. Anyway, the Colt 1917 didn't have the best bbl in the world, and until I discovered it liked the larger diameter boolit it wouldn't shoot all that great either. Then I read someting about moly grease and thought, what the heck, and tried it. Bore is still pitted, but the rifling is again visible, and it shoots halfway decent with the aforementioned boolit and the 50-50 Sta-lube and bees wax. Only down side is odor and smoke. sundog

[felix]

Too much lube is generally indicated by getting the lube star too early. Ideally, the star should start getting visible as a star in bright sunlight after about seven shots or so. If you get smut on the first three shots or so, and the smut is very black, then you have a carbon problem. The star should be gray looking for a good quality and quantity mix. Like Sundog says, whatever makes the gun shoot, use it, and forget what it looks like, or even smells like. ... felix

Sundog, if you want to make a better smelling moly lube, make a lube with the equivalent of a 7 percent commercial moly lube (most if not all are this amount). So, if you are mixing sta-lube at 50-50 with your existing lube, you are talking about 4 percent max of moly in your shootable mix. ... felix

Moly powder = MolyKote "Z" from DowCorning is the industrial standard stuff for all the lubes out there. Get it from an industrial bearing supply house. Use yellow pages. ... felix