Lemme know too, i'll throw in if needed.
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Lemme know too, i'll throw in if needed.
Well it's snowed pretty good for several days. I have about 18" at my 85 yard target and six aiming squares were above the snow....
At 4:00 this morning I got up to stoke the stove. I looked at the thermometer and it read -14° below zero!
So I stayed up. Can't waste this kind of morning! Two mules and their fodder went outside. There was a breeze too and it bit at you like the teeth of a Tryannosaurus Rex!
I had Gear's SL-68 in the .250 Savage. I have a different bullet from last tests and it really shoots! 1/2" or better on my 85 yard target in normal 30° weather. It's a 89gr GC at 2100fps.
My Savage Model 23 .25-20 had my best varmint hollow point load (2000fps) that scares every .22 Hornet that comes around it! These were lubed with a variation of 357maximum's 666,1. I reported last below zero test using 2% castor oil added to it; then later 2% Jojoba oil.. The Jojoba acts a lot like POE oils to me. Seemed too much even at 2%. So I took my two smaller samples and melted them together into a bigger sample! This lube is now: 33.3% Paraffin, 32% Beeswax, 27.4% Vaseline, 1.1% Jojoba Oil, 1.1% Castor Oil, and 5% dry grated Ivory. All by weight. Write down this formula if you want a good winter lube! I need to tell Mike it might rival his MML in the cold. I was shooting some pretty fast loads in a T/C .256 Win Mag I have and was getting some muzzle streaks (not wash) with my Polybutene Felix.
I tried the formula above same load and the streaks disappeared! So it's tough too.!
My usual bitter cold saturated test was done. (4 shots spaced over an hour) I had wiped the bore of the .250 Savage with an Ed's Red patch then dry. I fouled it with three shots. After 15 minutes I shot for group. The four SL-68 lubed boolits shot a one inch group!
The .25-20 was run concurrently; then I spent the 15 minutes at the wood stove.... It was a cold one! The .25-20 put 4 into about 5/8"! I said this last time and I'll say it again... this modified 666-1 shoots as good at a saturated -14° F below zero as it does above freezing! Like I said the above formula gets it in the cold!
No pictures today..... Most of you have probably not experienced frost bite in your lungs.... So trudging uphill through a foot and a half of snow was not a deep breathing treatment I wanted this morning.
I wouldn't worry about your SL-68 in the cold Ian. Ain't nobody going to hunt with a gun an ammunition using it as cold as mine were this bitter morning!
Eutectic
Gear I'll also contribute.
Eutectic if no one else says it. Thank you so much for your gallant efforts. I'll never hunt in that cold of weather but it's glad to know there are no cold shot flyers. Happy New Year sir and keep warm.
Courage is being scared to death-but saddling up anyway. John Wayne
A man has to do what a man has to do. John Wayne
Eutectic,
Thank you for getting out in the extreme cold and doing this testing. If I may ask, just how tacky is the modified 6661 lube? I've been using speed green, but it is just too tacky for storing lubed bullets anywhere but in the brass they are going to be shot in (at least to me).
wlc, just a note on something i tried lately, but haven't tested yet. I use Ben's Red alot which is pretty tacky. I had some lubed and then tumbled them in the new Ben's liquid lube over it and it really locked the Ben's Red in the grooves. As i said i haven't shot any of them yet, but like the way it dried and held the lube in the grooves.Originally Posted by wlc
Looks like it may be something to help this very problem with soft lubes.
Eutectic thanks for the cold weather testing....don't see how you do it that cold and still manage to shoot straight, which you obviously do!! Wow!
We, Sir, are not worthy! At minus 14F, I'd burn every single round I had just to have a warm barrel to snuggle up to!
WWJMBD?
In the Land of Oz, we cast with wheel weight and 2% Tin, Man.
Thanks, Pete! I think you really got a good thing going there with the modified "Satan's Eleven", I've been taking notes on it and intend to do some hot-weather testing next summer with it just to round things out. I'm still amazed that the SL-68 did as well as it did since it was engineered more really HOT weather and only mild cold, and has far more of the potentially troublesome soap in it than would ever be needed in cool weather.
The wax analysis shouldn't cost anything but our gratitude, it's a "friends in high places" thing.
Gear
wlc,
It is less sticky than Speed Green. It is just adhesive enough to stay in the grooves well. Not sure how it would store as I always lube before I load. One of those 'treatments' mentioned might help you if you think them too sticky.
I went out yesterday morning and tested my very accurate .32-20 Savage. It was the only one I had ready with the the lube tested above. Seems the weather man was talking 3° for a low and it was -15° below zero!! Nestled right against the Continental Divide I am usually cold then town... but not this much. 5° this morning forecast and it was -8°!
The .32-20 is the third mule tested that displays equal accuracy well below zero as well above. Three shots touched each other at 85 yards and the fourth was real close looking at them! Really want to know how this lube will do at 90° or so....
Eutectic
What kind/brand of paraffin wax are you using?
Gear
It's some Chevron Refined Wax 143. It's a high grade pure paraffin with a 143°F melt point. It was the best several years ago for candles. I bought a 55# case many years ago for relatives at my employee discount and ended up with some back as a gift. A big candle! So I guess I have 5 pounds left. Better stuff than today's Gulf wax.
Eutectic
Would that be fairly similar to the micro-wax Mike used in the MML lube?
No it's not a microwax..... Plain paraffin just a good grade with a good melt point for a straight paraffin. I believe Mike used BW-430 (along with Gulf paraffin) in his MML.....The Bw-430 has a 155°-160° melt point. My lube in these cold tests is basically Mike's 666-1 with 1% each of Castor Oil and Jojoba oil added and a little Vaseline subtracted by the way...
Eutectic
Branched-chain micro-crystalline wax and straight-chain paraffin wax have totally different properties in bullet lube, and I keep seeing how much of the time they compliment each other in bullet lube.
Gear
Deleted
Ok, wasn't sure.
Gear, how's the bill on that wax analysis?
I'm sure there are a few of us willing to throw a sawbuck at that problem.
Of course, what if knowing what it *is* STILL leaves it unreproduceable? Or almost worse, reproducing it being easy enough but mucho expensivo????
Gentlemen, I am by no means deep into this project. I just read a few pages. I am curious if any of you have ever heard of Nordstrom 555. It is a sealant/grease that was designed for steam valves. Very high temp resistant and they also make a extreme cold version of it. It is thich and heavy and sticky.
I have no idea if it would be feasible to use; I just thought I might throw that out there so more knowledgeable than myself could scrutinize it, if you haven't already.
http://www.flowserve.com/files/Files...tEquipment.pdf
"What makes you think I care" ........High Plains Drifter
Rick C.
I actually tried some valve sealant, it was some veggie oil/clay based stuff Bruce381 sent to me to test after the idea came up in conversation a couple of years ago about whether or not bullet lube acts as a sealant. It actually worked very well, and I still have some left, it was in a little stick like pipe dope. Not sure the question about lube's sealing properties will ever be answered without at million-frame-per-second camera.
Gear
J-lube is nothing more than high pressure valve lube.
it has shot well [consistently] over a pretty good range of temperatures, the issue I had with it was trying to modify it with other waxes or oils. [the poly-glycol base has it's issues]
the 3 am flaming dripping ball of lube and plastic was one of those attempts.
I had an experience tonight that indicates it's a definite factor. . .
Helped in the loading of some 400 grain .40-70's with four lube grooves filled and seated into the straight-walled case. These went on top of drop-tube compacted Triple 7 with a card wad in between. Lubed with Ben's Red. Seat and taper crimp done in separate operations.
After doing the initial seat, about 25%-30% of the slugs would push their way back out of the case up to as much as a quarter inch, simply from the pressure of the compressed air trapped inside the case. You could plainly see this movement - zombie boolits rising from their cases! I had to hold the press lever down for over 30 seconds on some of these for this air to find a way out so the boolit could stay put.
While this isn't anything like the pressures of firing, I've got to think that between good fit, base obturation, and multiple grooves and bands, there's a definite gasket effect going on.
WWJMBD?
In the Land of Oz, we cast with wheel weight and 2% Tin, Man.
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