Lube and accuracy?

[barnabus]

how much does lube have on accuracy? Can a gun that shoots 5 inches at 100 yards with LBT soft become a 1.5 inch gun by changing lubes even if no leading is present? Shooting two guns with flat based bullets in the 1250-1400 fps range in 38-55 and 45-70. could you recommend a different lube.

[kungfustyle]

I think it would be a bit more than just changing the lube. A good 50/50 lube would work in that range. At 5 inches I'd look at bore size(slug the bbl), bbl harmonics (bed the bbl) Use a ladder load work up till you found your sweet spot. If you can't then change the lube and start again with the work up. How does it shoot with factory ammo?

[Rcmaveric]

Personal experience. Bullet size and load development make accurate loads. Lube won't make a poor load shoot better. It might band aid enough for a useable accuracy. It might make a great load shoot a little better but not much.

It can break a load though. Had that happen. A few times to lube purging and twice to lube failure leding to leading.


At 1200 to 1450 fps plane based about anything will work. Stick with the LBT soft and do some load development. Once a good load is found then play with lubes. I am a fan of soap lubes due to my weather. Nothing worse than powder fouling in the dead of summer. Sweating my but off plinking and having fun. Then the primer goes pop and no bang.

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

[Bazoo]

More lube than is needed will cause inaccuracy. So if you're filling all the lube grooves try filling just one or two. That is known for making a substantial difference.

I've not experimented personally with various lubes for accuracy, but the research I've done is that it does make a substantial difference in accuracy, even at pistol ranges. 44 man did some lube tests in 44 magnum and was telling me about the results. No changes but lube, and at 25 yards the results were from 4" down to 1", with the best being Felix lube. I found it very interesting.

It does make a difference in pressure too, so if you were running max, you'd need to work back up. Of all the lube testing I've read about, nra 50/50 has given the highest reported pressures when compared. Not out of the ordinary but if you had a max load with something else and switched to 50/50 it could be dangerous.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

SNIP>>>

Can a gun that shoots 5 inches at 100 yards with LBT soft become a 1.5 inch gun by changing lubes even if no leading is present?

LBT soft is a very good lube, I don't believe you will get any accuracy improvement by only changing out that lube with another lube, in fact if anything, your accuracy may get worse.

Rcmaveric mentioned "lube purging". That is the only thing that would have that large of an effect on accuracy, that I know of. One of the first Lubes I made was a clone of Speed Green. I used a 2 cycle Amsoil product instead of Bull Plate. Amsoil is PAO based, where Bull Plate is not. The PAO is super slippery and caused lube purging when used in the same percentage as Bull Plate in a boolit lube. Once I reduced the PAO percentage at the recommendation of one of the Lube Gurus, I had no more lube purging.

[Larry Gibson]

how much does lube have on accuracy? Can a gun that shoots 5 inches at 100 yards with LBT soft become a 1.5 inch gun by changing lubes even if no leading is present? Shooting two guns with flat based bullets in the 1250-1400 fps range in 38-55 and 45-70. could you recommend a different lube.

Yes, the difference between lubes can be that much. I did a quite comprehensive lube test, albeit at higher velocity, of 13 different lubes. It's in the RPM Threshold threads.

I've never been a fan of LBT, soft or regular. I have tried both numerous times and found it okay sometimes, other times not so good. never found it to be as good accuracy wise as several other lubes. Assuming both your 38-55 and 45-70 are with smokeless powders i also suggest an NRA 50/50 lube or 2500+. Both are available from White Label as advertised on this forum.

[DHDeal]

Barnabus,
I have no knowledge to add to this thread but I do find it a great question. The only bullets I typically use lube in are both BPCR heavy bullets with binary alloys. I've used either SPG or DGL which are both very soft lubes that I pan lubed. I never saw any difference and I believe that repeated accuracy had more to do with barrel prep between shots than any particular lube ingredients. These particular molds (Paul Jones, Brooks, and BACO) hold tons of lube.

For handguns, the little bit that I use lubes instead of PC, I've only used White Label BAC or Carnuba Blue. They are both easy to apply, allow very clean barrels, and most important to me make accurate ammunition. My velocities are in the 900-1500 fps range and are fired out of revolvers only and I use alloys no harder than 12 bhn.

I always read these threads as there's so much to learn.

[John Boy]

If in the 1800's era when calibers were being developed, if it was thought that lube grooves needed to be as wide as railroad tracks, they would have made the bullets that way and they didn't ... so why muck with them now

[greenjoytj]

Lube purging? I didn’t know what that meant, a quick Google search found the explanation.

https://forum.castbulletassoc.org/th...ing/?order=all

When I first read the phrase “Lube Purge” I envisioned a long line of liquid lube pooling on the bottom of my hot barrel like a trickle of water in drainage pipe. The flyer in the target group was from the bullet that pushed the bulk of the pooled lube out. That mental image is wrong.

The lube purge is referring to the lube that gets flung off the bullet upon muzzle exit.

If the lube in the grooves stays put or is quickly flung off an accurate shot will occur. Partial lube fling off results in an unbalanced bullet which lands out side the targets group, that’s the flyer.
The linked URL thread shows a photo of a down range chronograph screens splattered with lube along their hole length.

[Maven]

"Lube purging" was Tom Gray's description of flyers that may have been caused by excessive bullet lube. He wrote about it extensively in "The Fouling Shot" some years ago.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

...and here I thought there was only one definition for "lube purging"

[robg]

in 22rf different lubes dont mix need a few rounds to settle down between lube types on boolits from different manufactures.