Accuracy difference with different lubes???

[wlc]

I was out shooting today and started wondering. If the only thing that was changed in a load was the lube would you notice a difference in accuracy? I'm not talking velocities on the higher end of the spectrum, but loads in the 1000-2000fps range. Would conventional lubes be more accurate than TL???

[btroj]

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

A good lube, in the right temp window, has a neutral effect on accuracy. Outside the right temp window some lubes can adversely affect accuracy.

Temps outside the 45 to 80 degree window tend to be the biggest problem. Cold is often a bigger issue than heat.

[35 shooter]

All i know about that is my groups got more stable when switching to "soft, slick" type lube. It eliminated flyers for me. So yes, groups got better in my case. Although i got a lot of tight groups tumble lubing with straight alox, i kept getting the odd flyers, which is why i switched.This was in my rifle at 1400 to 2400 fps. at the time. Fixing to try tumble lubing over regular lube and see what that does though.
My handgun seems to shoot the same tumble or regular lube...no flyers.

[geargnasher]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Alox calcium stearate buildup/purge. Soft, sticky lubes put in the grooves where it's intended to go work best.

Gear

[paul h]

Years back when I was into testing all sorts of different things I decided to do a lube test. The speciman was a ruger srh 480, the load a 400 gr cast bullet (coww water quenched) under 21 gr H-110 lit off with a CCI 350 clocking ~1200 fps and the gun scoped from a rest would group 5 shots into 1" at 50 yds at will.

I'd worked up the loads with LBT blue and decided to try some other lubes. As I recall (this was nearly 10 years ago) the other lubes I tried were home made lithi-bee, rcbs green, and stick alox. The lbt blue and lithi-bee grouped 1" at 50, the stick alox grouped 3" and the rcbs green grouped 4".

I didn't thoroughly clean the gun between different lubes, nor did I fire multiple groups to season the barrel. But it did affirm for me that in an accurate gun, different lubes can have a significant affect on accuracy, and an otherwise accurate cast gun may be dismissed as not friendly with cast when using the wrong lube.

BTW, another super accurate load in that gun was a 310 gr LFN cast from COWW and liquid alox tumble lubed as cast over 9.7 gr of unique lit off with a CCI 300. My best group with that ammo was 3 shots into 1 1/2" at 100 yds. Honestly I think the gun was capable of an honest MOA with that load but I don't think I was good enough to shoot moa with a revolver.

[Grump]

Think it was the 50s or 60s when a lot of machinist types were sending in observations and experiments to The American Rifleman...some lead bullet lube tests, the focus then was on preventing leading. As I recall, adding motor mica, or graphite, (as in either of them) to whatever base lube they used totally eliminated leading at Magnum velocities, but the accuracy went to the Hot Place. 5-inch or larger groups at 25 yards, when using the stinky 50/50 Alox mix with the same loads and guns would reliably go 2 inches or less.

[.22-10-45]

Few years back I did an informal lube test. Using the Lyman 358477, I lubed as normal with commercial Micro Lube..this has been my std. revolver lube since the early 1980's when I used it for .357 & .41 Mag. Silhouette loads. The other was a fairly soft Beeswax-Anhyd. Lanolin-Castor oil mix. as well as another with same ingredients but with Carnuaba wax added. Firing at 25yds. clearly gave an edge to the softer home-brew. However for practical use..it was very little improvement. These bullets were pan-lubed & since the 45' is still full of Micro..I'll continue to use that.

[bobthenailer]

I had been using a load for years in my 357 sil pistol i was using Red Rooster Zambine Red lube i then switched to LBT commercial accuracy at 100 yards was equal @2.25 inches for a 25 shot group, but the LBT-C lube produced a average of 67 less fps than the RR-Z lube so i had to raise the sights.
Every componet for both loads was the same lot # of brass, primers & powder and loaded at the same time on my Dillon 550