cable pulling lubricant for tumble lube

[Lloyd Smale]

We get it at work by the 3 gallon pail so i took some home. Tumbled bullets just like i would with alox and let the dry overnight. It dries to a clear waxy type coating. I shot them in my sti. A gun thats had a couple thousand rounds at a time without touching the barrel. I first shot 4 6shot groups with the load it likes with the rcbs 120 rn. It shot into an inch or less which is normal. Then i went to the lee tumble lubed 120 tn that shoots pretty well in it usually just under 2 inches. Shot 4 6 shot groups with it and they averaged like usual around 2 inch. Then i went to the cable lubed bullets. First group went 1.5 which was real promising second went 2 inch which is like i said about what that bullet usually does third was 3 inch. Figured maybe i might have pulled a couple. Forth 4 inch now i know something aint right shot another 6 and the group was minute of paper. I looked in the barrel and it was plugged about solid with lead. So that ended up being a short term experiment!!!!

[slughammer]

1. I wonder how oksmle is getting it to work? Application technique. (Post #6 in the other thread).
http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=9488

2. If not a good lube by itself, perhaps it could be used as a non sticky boolit sizing lube and left in place. (Thinking about ease of sizing large numbers of boolits through the star).

[oksmle]

Lloyd Smale .... Don't know what to suggest. I've only used the GB Wire Aide & haven't tried any other brand. GB was selected because it was handy & not for any special properties it might or might not contain. The barrels of all my pistols & rifles in which I shoot cast bullets have been fired lapped. Even those purchased new off the shelf. The velocities are slow to moderate: .38 S&W - 650 fps, .38 Spec. - 800 fps, .44/40 - 850 fps, .44 mag - 850 fps, .45 acp - 700/800 fps. Those pistol bullets fired in rifles would be a moderate load.
I believe if I were going to have problems with the GB wire lube they certainly should have occured by now.
oksmle

[Leftoverdj]

OK is using a specific cable lube and he's shooting it in pistols, probably with moderate loads. I'm not sure what Lloyd used nor what he is shooting it in. Someone posted that there are two types of cable lube, wax and polymer. I would not expect the polymer type to have any bullet lube properties. I would expect almost any wax to work for moderate pistol loads.

[Lloyd Smale]

the brand name is polywater its a water based lube that leaves a hard clear wax like coating when dried. The velocitys were low. I was shooting them out of a 5 inch 9mm and the load was 3.8 grains of bullseye. This gun wasnt firelapped but has a real smooth barrel and has never leaded in the past. IVe put thousands of rounds through this gun without cleaning the barrel and its allways been spotless when it came to leading. It doesnt lead even with tumble lube and im not a big fan of that stuff. Ive got a 5 gallon pail of it sitting here. I guess next experiment will be to see if it can be cut down and used a spray lube for case sizing. I guess a guy could do some experimenting with different calibers guns. other powders, differnt alloys ect but i just dont have time to waste on it. In all reality the star is just as fast as fooling with tumble lubes anyway and it know that that works.

[slughammer]

I so happen to have a bottle of the GB Wire Aide so I added some to a ziploc bag and added 100 HG 68s. Dumped them out on cardboard and let them dry overnight (thought they could have used a fan or more time). Today I loaded them for 45 acp with 4.7gr WST and a WLP primer. Shots 35-39 were at 50 yards and hit nose first, offhand accuracy was good. Shots 91-100 were shot at 25 yards. Before I shot them I looked at the end of the barrel and noticed the leading in the bore. Only had 10 rounds left and had forgotten my sand bag, so I shot a 10 shot group off the end of the bench. Accuracy was still acceptable, able to put all 10 into about 2.5 inches; probably all the better I was going to do after seeing the leaded bore. The barrel is out and the Outer's Foul Out is running right now.

It seems I was close to having it work.
oksmle, how are you applying this stuff? What boolits in 45 acp do you use?