Decision- BAC or 2500+

I'm fairly new to the casting art. We shoot Cowboy action with 45 Colt and 38 Special. I am dabbling with 30/40 and 7.62x54r as well. We will be using light to moderate loads in all of these calibers.

Pistol boolits are sized in a Lam II and rifle in a Lyman 45. We don't shoot in freezing temperatures so that is not a factor.

We started off using White Label 50/50. It's worked fine but is a bit messy. Recently I loaded the Lam II with a stick of the green RCBS lube. It is stiffer but more importantly less messy to work with. :)

I would like to switch to something comparable from White Label. BAC and 2500+ seem to be the obvious choices as I want to stay away from heaters.

Any thoughts or advice are welcome.

I need to use a heater for 2500+, even at 75*F to get it to flow in a LAM II. I have no experience with BAC.

I would go with the Carnauba Red. This is from the FAQs

I have switched to C-Red for all of my cast bullets. I put on a Cowboy Action Shoot at a family reunion and we ran around 1600 38 special rounds through 2 revolvers and a Rossi M92 in one afternoon and the guns needed very little cleaning.

I guess I need to wrap this up before it turns into a book.

I would suggest that you try our Carnauba Red and BAC lubes. The C-Red is our only lube that needs a heater to flow in the luber, but only needs to be around 100F. A light bulb or hair dryer can work if you don't have a regular heater. I mounted my luber on a long steel plate and sit an old clothes Iron on the plate next to the luber.

Of the two 2500+ is the stiffer of the two. But I found it works best w/ a heater in temps below 50. I cast in my unconditioned garage so everything is at ambient temps. It also doesn't hold up to mass ammo can storage in a hot environment. BAC would be even worse for this. But it shouldn't need a heater. I've been using 2500+ for a few years w/ great results. But it's as soft as I want to go due to environmental conditions. I started using Carnauba Red. It's not August yet so I can't say how well it will hold up to mass storage in a hot environment.

carnuba red needs about 100-f to flow well.

If you don't have a heater then BAC. BAC will be less smokey but will be tacky and sticky just not as bad as 50/50. For lower pressure rounds I think BAC works better because it has better flow capabilities vs 2400. C-Red also will need a heater and if you don't mind the boolit having the lube in the groove all the way to the target it works well at lower pressure/RPM's too. The problem with the stiffer lubes is flow characteristics and uneven lube dispersion (from muzzle to target) with higher RPM's and cooler/colder temperatures. If it was going to be one from white label it would be BAC. One can also get the BAC with some sticks of C-Red and add to ones liking some of the stiffer lube to the softer BAC (melt down the two and pour into lubricator) for less mess/softness and tackiness.

I have standardized on BAC for both rifle and handguns. Cheap, effective, quick shipping and nice folks to deal with! What's not to like?

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Originally Posted by Treetop

I have standardized on BAC for both rifle and handguns. Cheap, effective, quick shipping and nice folks to deal with! What's not to like?

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I think that I'll give BAC a whirl, especially for pistol. Thanks for the advice guys.

I went from 50/50 to BAC and I think it will fill the need for my rounds from pistol up to rifles going up to 2300 fps. I like the 50/50, has a distinctive but pleasant smell but I don't think it does well over about 2000 fps. I think BAC will go faster than 2300, just haven't tried it. 2500 may be a good idea if I want to play the XCB game, understand Lars has a 2700 lube as well for the hotrods.

I have been using Xlox 2500 and it works like a champ no heater required.

I tried the Xlox 2500 out for the first time a few days ago. I'm new to the art of casting & lubing, but I found that I needed just a touch of heat to get the lube to flow & then turned it off. I live in central California & it gets hot in the summer. I can see that for me, the lube is a bit sticky. Flows onto the bullet really well but I can see it rubbing off plus it's on the tacky side when you reload. I'm going to try the Carnuba Red & the Commercial 160 & see if it suits me better. I did try sticking some lubed bullets in the fridge, & that really helped out the tackiness but I don't shoot much in the colder weather. It does a great job shooting it with no leading & minimal cleaning. One thing that I found it really good for is hand lubing 385 gr 45-70 slugs. Just pinched a little off & applied it to the bullet with my fingers. I shoot an old trapdoor so the velocity is pretty low (~1100 fps) with no leading plus it's a heck of a lot easier than pan lubing! I don't have a sizer die for the 45-70 plus it's really late, couldn't sleep & I'm rambling on! I'll sign off now! lol

BAC is my do-all pistol bullet lube and I'm pretty happy with it.
However, a 7.62 x 54R may need 2500+, can't say for sure.
I would try BAC and see if it works for you. If it does, then great, you can stop right there.

You can solve your problems with little cost and try the two ways that I did while using the White Label lubes which if shooting smokeless powders is the best way to go.
You may obtain some Carnauba Flakes and it takes a very small amount added to it in liquid form to firm up the BAC and make it one of the best lubes around. I made a couple of PVC 1inch ID molds to make my new lube sticks and they work well. Just remember to spray the inside with a store brand cooking lube so that the sticks may be pushed out for use. If you have a lube/sizer that needs the hollow center then just put a piece of 1/4 inch dowel rod in after the pouring starts to gel.
If you want to use the straight Carnauba Red then it needs a small amount of heat to flow into lube grooves in an easy manner. Go on to E-Bay and purchase a piece of 1/2 inch thick x 12 inches long aluminum stock. You then use c-clamps to hold the sizer and aluminum stock to your loading bench. This works well as you may remove it to store after use and have no bolts and nuts to fool with each use. It also leaves the room on the bench for other uses.
Purchase a travel iron for your heat source. The reason is two fold on the travel iron purchase. They are smaller and easier to handle and fit on the aluminum stock. The second is that after testing by labs, it was proven that the heat regulator on travel irons are much more accurate with the heat settings than the larger standard models. I've used this set up many times and it works perfect and I still have the very same iron that I purchased over 10 years ago for a Colorado trip. Good shooting, David

I switched over my Lam II sizer to BAC.

So far, everything works as advertised. Stiffer and less sticky than 50/50 NRA lube which is what I was after. It flows well enough at room temp that I would not hesitate to use it in my old Lyman 45.

Next step, load and shoot!

I run Carnauba Red from slooooow .38 S&W loads (400fps) right up to full-power rifle loads.

I've been using BAC for .45acp up to .375 H&H with easy clean up and little to no leading. Seems to stay on the bullets well if stored properly in my "Unconditioned" shop (stealing that one).

White Label Lube is a great little company to do business with.