What type lube does one use on Maxi-balls? do you pack both big grooves full or just the bottom one? Will Barry Darrs lube work?
Can they be tumble lubed with Lee alox?
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What type lube does one use on Maxi-balls? do you pack both big grooves full or just the bottom one? Will Barry Darrs lube work?
Can they be tumble lubed with Lee alox?
lee states that they can be aloxed or at least theirs they do i tried a few as well as various plain round balls over the years , emmerts is supposed to be better for black than darr's is ( the crisco and beeswax vs. paraffin and vaseline - ie; natural vs. petro products ) i havent tried darrs with pyro ummm stuff and have only used emmerts and pearl lube with my current fav triple 7,
as for the grooves , i just pan lube and fill both ( see if i can find the foto ) oops it's on the other puter i'll edit to add in a minute
ahh there it is , the ones i call my mere lube grooves lolz
Might sound a little funny (and likely not the answer you are looking for), but... many guys in my area just give them a smear with Crisco cooking grease before loading them. Its cheap and works.
From what I've been told, that's how they did it back in the 1800s.
bigjake, What works in a .44mag. with smokeless powder won't necessarily work with BP, Pyrodex, or one of the substitutes, e.g. 777. Crisco will work, but it does nothing to "dissolve" or reduce BP or Pyrodex fouling. And since Maxi-Balls are used with heavier powder charges, there WILL be fouling even with Pyrodex. Darr Lube may work, but I'd recommend Emmert's as it uses bees wax. Felix Lube also works, but Emmert's is better. As for liquid alox, there are 2 problems. First, it isn't thick enough to adequately lube the Maxi-Ball. Second, I don't think it's compatible with BP or Pyrodex. In short, I don't think it will control powder fouling and may even make it and accuracy worse. (NRA 50/50 is no better on Maxi's in my experience.)
I filled the luve grooves with bore butter, then wrapped the lubed maxi-ball in wax paper. When I needed to load it, I just unwrapped one end and squeezed the boolit into the end of the barrel. The wax paper kept the lube grooves full and didn't get gunk on everything.
Ohio Rusty ><>
I use a mixture of 50/50 bore butter and beeswax. The beeswax stiffens the bore butter up enough that it doesn't get all over everything. I measure these out by volume when melted. Seems to work really good for pan lubing.
Back when minie balls and Maxi-Balls were the only conicals in use, suppliers used to sell 'grease' in large 'toothpaste tubes'.
It was somewhat thicker than Crisco, but much softer than beeswax-based bullet lubes.
Is none of that stuff still available?
CM
montana charlie, I haven't seen Blue & Gray, CVA, or Navy Arms "toothpaste tube" lubes recently. T/C also sold one (for Maxi-Balls), but it came in a jar (not Bore Butter). All were soft, even creamy, and worked very well.
Another tip using Bore Butter in the tooth paste tube.When hunting in cold weather ,keep the tube in your shirt pocket .Your body heat will keep it plyable.If left in the cold you will have a hard time trying to get it out of the tube.
TC sells their Bore butter in 5oz tubes. They also used to make what they called a 'pre luber' that screwed into the tube, and had hole to insert the maxi ball in, and when the lube groove is lined up with the opening in the tube, you give it a squeeze (the tube) and the lube flows into the lube grooves, in the same way the lube goes into the grooves in a luberisizer. I would think this would make a very handy package, as you could take the tube with the luber on it with you, and just lube the maxi right before you loaded it.
T/C's "All Natural Lube 1000 Plus Bore Butter" is said (by Thompson Center) to be the right stuff for Maxi-Balls.
It's the only currently available substance that Google pointed out for me.
Also saw a recipe of four parts beeswax to 5 parts olive oil,
One guy said he was gonna try straight JPW, but (somehow) that doesn't sound good to me.
CM
I shoot the TC Maxi-Ball at 1570 fps out of my TC Blk Mtn Magnum .50 cal. I mostly use my own lube made out of Beeswx (5 parts) to virgin olive oil (4 parts) but also use TC's "All Natural Lube 1000 Plus Bore Butter". I only lube the bottom groove with either. I use a 1-16 tin/lead alloy and 90 gr(V) 777 FFG powder.
I put my lube in an empty "All Natural Lube 1000 Plus Bore Butter" tube and soak it in hot tap water for 10 minutes or so and then use one of the TC lubers that screw on the tube. Works fine. I also use the .45 cal luber with the same lube to lube my 45-70 bullets if shooting "as cast". Red luber is .50 cal and the green one is .45 cal. The target is a 100 yard group of 6 shots (one down the barrel then the 5 out of the speed loaders) starting with a clean bore and no wiping or cleaning between shots. That's what i now carry when hunting with this rifle.
Larry Gibson
Unfortunately TC discontinued them. Still see them in some smaller gunshops and at gunshows. If you see one....get it. .45 is green, .50 is red and I think clear(?) is .54 cal.
Larry Gibson
Uhh ... it has been quite a while since the last time I tried to find a T/C pre-luber in .45 caliber.
Reminded by this thread I went looking again, and succeeded.
I am going to post a link to the seller (on eBay) who has them, but I WANT THE GREEN ONE.
If anybody jumps up to bid against me, I WILL come to your house and pee in your powder horn!
You guys can fight over the .50 and .54 caliber pre-lubers ...
http://www.ebay.com/sch/barryhawken/...id=p4340.l2562
CM
To bad they didn't make one for the .58cal. I have a TC .58 cal "Big Bore".I went back to using a Patched round ball anyways.
I have only fired maby 10 at a time lubed with SPG. 45 cal run through 4500 with .454 die seem to work well. SPG stays in the grooves better than Bore Butter much less mess.
I use TC Bore butter and the plastic type charge to carry them in. It all stays where it will not damage the other.
i use crisco and beeswax or the natural lube stuff, works good for me.
Larry Gibson, I see you have a peep on that caplock.
I too have a peep on my caplock. How do you make sure you keep the zero once you take it apart to clean and then put back together?
There was a guy who was offering a real trick aluminum tool on ebay a couple of years ago. You preloaded it with lube, inserted a maxi into the lube slot, cranked the pressure knob a turn of so and then pushed out your bullet all lubed and ready to go. They ran about $35 ea. I bought a 50, a 58 and a 54.
Blammer
"Larry Gibson, I see you have a peep on that caplock.
I too have a peep on my caplock. How do you make sure you keep the zero once you take it apart to clean and then put back together?"
I've bedded the rear of the barrel with MicroBed (unfortuately not made anymore:-( ) so that it goes back tightly in the stock. It, so far, returns to zero. I also don't take it our of the stock after shooting unless necessary. Triple 7 cleans up very easily and I use a drilled out nipple with a plastic tube on it stuck into a coffee can of hot water when cleaning the bore. The cleaning rod with a tight patch on a jag when pulled up sucks the water up into the barrel, when the rod is pushed down it flushes the water out. Works good, is quick and easy and really cleans BP or substitute powder esidue out. A hair dryer dries it quickly and a little WD40 or other preservitive/cleaner sprayed into the nipple hole and down the barrel is then patched out. A final coat of Kroil is put inside the barrel and on the outside. Not a problem with rust, even in the humid PNW, using that method. Sounds harder to do than it is.
Larry Gibson