Lubes

[1Shirt]

Have been using Lyman Orange Lube now for the past couple of years and it has been pretty good. Am wondering about the experiance with this lube compaired with other lubes. Am not interested in anything that doesn't come in hollow sticks that I can toss in my Lyman sizer. Am only interested in accuracy, and in general loads under 2000 fps. Have noticed some home recipes on this forum which I always get a kick out of and comlpairing with some of the old timers brews. I gave up stinking up the kitchen, flash blazing the kitchen stove, cleaning up smoke marks, and getting the stuff off the stove and floor. Befor I could afford to by store bought stuff, I had a lot of sucess with a beeswax, Vasaline, and graphite mixture that I brewed up on an old coffee pot. Was a very precise formula, " good size block of beeswax, probably about 5 lb, one jar (good size) of Vasaline, and about 2 heaping tablespoons of fine graphite". Have no where it came from. Couldn't afford a jar of Vasaline one time and substituted crisco and it worked about as well. Anywho, the orange may be just fine, but if somebody is getting half inch groups with .225's through .312's and they attribute it to their lube, would be interested in hearing about it. Thanks in advance to all who respond to this thread.
1Shirt

[felix]

OneShirt, half inch groups belong to BR guns and loads which include exquisit boolit quality, not to the lube in itself. Inch groups can be made with a lube modification, a boolit modification, and/or a powder modification. Inch and a half groups can be made with any lube, provided the velocity is matched with the boolit style and quality. ... felix

[1Shirt]

The half inch group statement was made toung in cheek, Am happy with any cast load that stays aroung an inch or so. That said, am always willing to try what works well for others. But I am not so sure that I agree with any lube will work within vol limitations. Some of the things I tried way back just didn't work. Regardless, thanks for the reply.
1Shirt

[old gunner]

Have been using the old NRA mix, using alox and beeswax, works the best for Me,eapecially when pushing the velosity. For low velosity, I use Lee liquid alox. Works good. I still have a little alox that was made shortly after the NRA published the data on using the alox, by the way it is still good, even has a nice smell.
Bill

[1Shirt]

Old Gunner, I have used the Lee Liquid on some of my plain based 45-70 bullets, at abour 1400, and agree that it works great. Also used it to roll around some .310 Hornady Round balls and load in 30-30 over 1 gr. of Bullseye and got 1" groups at 25 yds. (Went to hell beyond that range however). One of these days I think I will try this 30-30 RB on sq. Thanks for the reply.
1Shirt

[azrednek]

I don't know about anybody else but I've never seen any difference in accuracy going form one lube to another. I use either the tumble lube or a hard lube requiring heat. I had a bad expereince with the NRA formula. A ride to the range, a stop at a gunshop and lunch with apx 500 rds of cast slugs in the trunk of my car were destroyed by the heat. Just enough of the Arizona sun to soften, liquify and melt the lube. The loads were still shootable but produced allot more smoke than accuracy.

[StarMetal]

Lubes do make a difference. NRA formula is a very good lube, possibly one of the best to a certain velocity range. Being you live in AZ you have known better about leaving or hauling things in a car in that very hot sun, especially in a trunk where there's no ventilation. There was nothing wrong with the lube, it was your negiligence that was the wrong.


Joe

[Bass Ackward]

Being you live in AZ you have known better about leaving or hauling things in a car in that very hot sun, especially in a trunk where there's no ventilation. There was nothing wrong with the lube, it was your negiligence that was the wrong.


Joe

Joe,

Hello! Some states require that you keep your ammo in the trunk locked. Dang, cut yourself opening a cold one or what?

[StarMetal]

Bass, I carry my lubed cast ammo in a little styro foam cooler to prevent that from happening, Dah

Joe

[Bass Ackward]

Bass, I carry my lubed cast ammo in a little styro foam cooler to prevent that from happening, Dah

Joe

Joe,

Now how did I know you would have a comeback?

All I can say is, you have to have priorities in life. In our little styrofoam coolers we carry other things. :grin:

[StarMetal]

AZredneck

I'm just agitating you. Really though the NRA lube is pretty good stuff. It does melt easy as you found out. Does smoke too, even when it isn't melted.

Joe

[45 2.1]

OneShirt, half inch groups belong to BR guns and loads which include exquisit boolit quality, not to the lube in itself. Inch groups can be made with a lube modification, a boolit modification, and/or a powder modification. Inch and a half groups can be made with any lube, provided the velocity is matched with the boolit style and quality. ... felix

I'll add a little to what felix has said. Half inch to one inch groups belong to guns that the bullet fits perfectly, no matter if it is a milsurp or commercial as long as it was put together right.

[azrednek]

It was definitely one of life's lessons learned the hard way!! :) Fortunately learning the hard way about the melt temperature of wax I couldn't hurt myself. When I started casting bullets back in the dark ages there were no mentors, internet or anybody to turn to for advice. I didn't even know the Lyman manual existed when I started. Thought I knew it all from what I read in the gun rags. I also got a lesson from the School Of Hard Knox about adding damp wheel weights, lucky for me it was only my ego that got bruised.

I guess with the anonymity offered by the internet it is easy to admit my dumb mistakes and stupid moves. I can laugh at my errors, take a razzing and hope you got a chuckle out of it. A tale I heard at a gunshow is almost laughable but if it is true it is also very sad. Somebody supposedly picked a swollen tick off his dog and tossed it in his molten mix may be just another urban legend but as the story goes he wears a few facial scars.

I was fortunate enough to find a mentor, a blind man that asked for my help casting mini-balls. If it hadn't been for him I was getting ready to melt down lead plates from automotive batteries, simply said I just didn't know any better. A few hours in his backyard in our casting session he taught me about the hazards, water, lead oxide, ventilation, the need to scrub not just wash your hands etc.

[1Shirt]

AZREDNEK, Enjyoye your thread. I started back in the 50's with a used single cav 311284 and a cast iron frying pan on the kitchen stove. Stunk the place up, the only venting was from an open window (coundn't even afford a fan to blow it out the window back then). Better half soon put an end to that and relegated me to the cellar. Had an old gas three burner down there and it was close to the back door and I got a bigger cast iron fry pan. Did manage to get a used Lyman book, and made my own cake cutter from a cut off 06 case, and shot what I cast, without gas check as was until I could afford a lyman sizer. They shot fairly well as I remember. The lube was beeswax, vasaline, and graphite, and was fairly soft and messy, but shot into 3-5" with powder that I bought from Hogden in Shawnee Mission in plain paper bags for 50 cents a pound. I also did the blow the molton metal all over the place routine, not with moisture, but with very cold lead dumped into molten which caused condensation. Hard lessons learned are well learned however. It was probably that I was at the time an E-4 in the AF, and money was ultra tight that kept me casting and shooting that mess because I could not afford anything else to shoot. Used molds at gun shows and lots of reading got me on the straight and narrow path of doing things right, and have been hooked on shooting cast every since. Now if I could just get a load in my K-hornet that was consistant, would be a real happy camper. Like the Pa. Dutch say "We get to soon old, and to late smart!".
1Shirt

[azrednek]

1 shirt, my first two casting sessions were on the kitchen stove. The first I was using clean lead stock taken from swimming pool vacum heads. The second I was using dirty wheel weights. I put them on the stove and left to take a dump, when I returned the manure had hit the fan and the ol'lady put an end to casting. Lucky for her and me the heat had only smoked the oil and grease off the wheel weights. The wife (now X) had pulled the frying pan from the stove and put it in the sink and turned on the water. I returned to a steam filled kitchen. It took a few days to get the stench out of the house. After that I gave up casting untill a few years later. I lucked into an RCBS pot, sizer and a few molds and sizing dies at a yard sale. The yard seller's husband was on his way to prison and the wife let everything go for cheap. Now I'm hooked for life.

[454PB]

Amen to the statement about the vast knowledge available now via the internet and some excellent publications. Back in the late 60's & early 70's, I had to count on very little printed information, and some old time mentors that were willing to help a kid with a burning curiousity.

I also went through some of the embarassing trials of experimentation. I read an article by Elmer Keith about how great battery plates are for alloying lead. In the process of salvaging these plates, I ruined $40 worth of clothes to gain 50 cent worth of tin and antimony. My wife taught me early on that the kitchen is for food preparation, not concocting alloys and casting bullets.

Here is the recipe for a homemade bullet lube I recently mixed up:

6 ounces of beeswax.....2 tablespoons of mink oil boot dressing......2 ounces of Marvel Mystery oil.

I haven't yet range tested this mix, but I can tell you that is is so slippery, it's tough to hang on to the bullets after lubing. It's also a very pretty designer pink in color.

Oh, and I should mention that this is only the latest of a dozen different amusing recipes tried. Never stop learning and experimenting!