how to choose a lube "newbie"

[wc870]

Bare with me guys, new to casting here, (not to reloading). Im planning on casting for the first time this weekend, not sure if I'll get to the sizing or not, I have acquired a lyman 450 and a Star sizer! I have Lyman, RCBS, and some Hogdon lube that came with my recent scores on the sizers, I believe they are all alox.
so I guess the simple question is, is there a "stickey" for dummies, lol, or a simple guide for how to choose a lube depending on application? the usual suspects are... 45 acp and 38 for target and steel, 41mag and 44 for hunting, mostly the 41.
I think ill stick to a bought lube at this point to keep things simple for now (if thats possible!)
Also just wanted to say this is an awesome site with tons of information! Sometimes a little overwhelming for the new kid on the block, I have bought several molds here and they all look great, Thanks in advance , Wc

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

There is no simple guide, sorry.
If you ask a 100 boolit casters about Lube, you will likely get 100 different answers.

Most lubes work in most applications. It seems some lubes were better in cold weather, and some work better in hot weather, and some work best inbetween but not at either extreme.

The commercial lubes you mention (seemingly all "Alox-Beeswax" blend) is a very common and all around lube that even the NRA has endorsed and they all should work fine in all the calibers you mention. It can be a bit smoky and smelly, if you have a sensitive nose or are shooting at a indoor range. You can end up with a greasy-sooty gun when shooting most lubed boolits in revolvers and the Alox-Beeswax lube is worse than most. Another drawback is a fairly low melt temp, so if you were to leave some loaded ammo in a hot car trunk, you may experience lube weeping from the loaded ammo...and possibly into the powder.

Hope that helps.

[wc870]

yes it does, thank you. Ive been shooting a lot of Carrol bullets (because there were local to me) and have a bunch that worked well, I'd like to try and determine what they used.

[wc870]

Fortunately I still have about 2500 left for my 41 mag, so Ive got time to figure it out lol.

[NuJudge]

You need to do a lot of reading. Some is available on-line through websites such as the LA Silhouette club:
http://www.lasc.us
Pay particular attention to this portion:
http://www.lasc.us/ArticlesFryxell.htm

NRA and Lyman have done a lot of publications about cast bullets, about what works, and what does not. Some of them you will find on-line.

The calibers you are mentioning are mostly revolver calibers. Your considerations for them are different from those for automatics and single shots. With either, you need to take some measurements of both your firearm and the bullets produced by your molds. Your molds will produce slightly different bullets depending on what you pour into them, and you will find some info on that here. Start with reading these:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...olver-accuracy
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...s-in-a-new-9mm

It would be good if you had immediate success with lower investment and low difficulty. Some bullet/powder combinations have a long track record of working in most any firearms that will ever shoot well. I call them "Pet Loads." The older Lyman manuals listed a lot of them. Handloader magazine has lots of articles on such. Decide on a firearm you want to load for, then look for such loads.

I would suggest a low technology/low capital investment cast bullet lubing system, at least initially. These are messy, but they mostly work. They are unsophisticated. They work with most any cast bullet design. "Lee Liquid Alox", or "LLA" is the most common of them. The former Alox corporation had lots of products, many still made by a successor corporation. LLA is Alox 606-55, if I remember correctly. Another is used to make a grease-type bullet lube referred to as "NRA Formula" or "50/50", made up originally of 50% Beeswax and 50% Alox 2138F. The successor to Alox corp stopped making 2138F, and replaced it with Alox 350. Now they have stopped making 350. Run in circles, scream and shout.

As you will find from the above references, you get the firearm and do lots of measuring first, then you buy a mold to fit it, of a design compatible with it. A cast bullet will shoot best if not sized at all. A too small bullet will probably Lead like mad, and may hit your target sideways. Some rifling designs have specific demands. With cast bullets, you can do everything right, and if the particular firearm is Accursed, it won't work. Jacketed bullets are structurally much stronger than Lead bullets, and Lead bullets driven hard need to be supported in various ways, possibly by the chamber and possibly by a structural stiffener for the base called a "gas check."

T

[wc870]

thank you NuJudge for the links. I have been shooting cast bullets for years I just never got around to making my own, as far as the low cost capitol investment.. that ship sailed years ago! lol I'm kind of a reloading hoarder, Ive been collecting all the necessary tools for the task at hand (casting) for a long time. Now its time to start making them, I have never shot gas check bullets in my revolvers but plenty through my 45-70 Marlin.
I will definitely start with what I have on hand first (might as well use it up). As far as what you mention for pet loads, I agree I usually start with what has been proven many times in the past, there has been many before me that I can learn from, thanks again, Wc

[Rcmaveric]

Lube is tough one as previously mentioned. I have only used what I made. I have never bought it so I comment on that or direct you.

Soap lubes have my fancy here in Florida.

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

[P Flados]

Using what you got is probably fine for starting.

When you use up what you have, check out White Lable Lubes. A small operation that has a very good reputation.

[wc870]

White label lubes will definitely get my business now that i checked them out. Veteran and Boy Scouts! My son is working his way to Eagle Scout as well. Good stuff.

[LenH]

Welcome aboard, Glen & Leah are great people to work with, I'm a bit partial to their carnauba blue. I use it mainly in rifle rounds.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

Until you start pushing bullets faster than 2000 fps, most lubes work just fine, with the alox lubes as good as any. There is a lot of fuss and carry-on about lubes, but the 'standard lubes', including the alox blends do work. Trying to make lubes better than the folks at White Label is mostly a waste of time and money.

[Outpost75]

But if you decide to make your own lube, it is very hard to find anything better or easier than beeswax and ATF, try about 70% beeswax at start, and 30% ATF both measured by melted liquid volume and just pour your lubricator full. Works for high velocity rifle as well as pistol and revolver loads. Add some more ATF for a softer lube.

If you are shooting mostly mild loads with softer alloys like wheelweights, with plainbased bullets in the black powder and cowboy calibers, a simple, traditional mix which works well is olive oil and beeswax. A 50-50 mixture is great with black powder, but is a bit soft to go through a Lyman 450. In that application I would try the same 70-30 ratio I suggested with the ATF, for a firmer lube which works fine with smokeless loads in revolvers to 1000 fps and in rifles to about 1400 fps with plainbase or 1700 with gaschecks.

[Kavein]

Wc870 I’ve been casting for a few years now and I do the calibers you are planning to do. I use a different alloy for 38 and45 as I do for 44 mag. I threw quite a few bullets back to melt cause I used a poor alloy or sized them too small. I made the mistake of not enough research on the front end of the project. A good amount of information is available on this forum and I used a lot and that’s why I joined.

[Maven]

wc870, Somewhere in an old issue of "The Fouling Shot," there is a summary of then extant cast bullet lubes written by Ralph Schneider of Eleva, Wisconsin. The title is Cast Bullet Lubricants (Third Edition, 2002) You may want to see if any of 2002 Fouling Shots are still available and if so purchase one and settle in for an excellent (and lengthy) read.

[wc870]

https://castbulletassoc.org/uploads/...cblube2016.pdf

Maven, thanks, is this the one? this is very informative. not exactly a exiting read, lol, I got up early this morning (4:30) it had me back asleep by 5:15! Seriously though, thats what I was looking for.

[wc870]

Outpost75, at first I didn't plan to make any home brewed lubes but thats just to simple! I have three buddies that are into bee keeping so I'm sure I can get my hands on bees wax pretty easy. I can see how y'all get in deep, once the wheels start rolling its hard to stop in this hobby !

[Maven]

wc870, That's the one! Not an exciting treatise, but certainly is (was) thorough enough.

[marshall623]

White label lubes will definitely get my business now that i checked them out. Veteran and Boy Scouts! My son is working his way to Eagle Scout as well. Good stuff.

They are top notch folks , I've used Carnuba Red with good results . Last year or late 19 I gave their 2500+ a go , and I've pretty much settled on it for everything 9mm to 7mm 08

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[gwpercle]

Don't over think the lube selection .
You have some store bought lubes , go to makers site / catalog and read what the maker says . Usually they give an indication of what to use it for . White Label Lubes has descriptions and you can E-mail them with questions . Low and standard velocity Handgun boolits are pretty easy ... just about any lube sold will do ... even the old black colloidal graphite based Lyman lube.
When you get into magnum handgun loads you need something with alox/beeswax or even better Lithium / beeswax or one of the lubes designed for heavy handgun / rifle boolits .
I have always found soft lubes , that don't require a heater to apply better than hard lubes .
I have found So many recovered boolits that still have hard lube in the lube grooves ... it needs to be in the barrel not stuck in boolit lube groove .
Try to keep you selection simple . I have found a lube made with Lithium Grease and Beeswax
( sometimes called Lithi-Bee) to cover a wide range even up to 30-30 Winchester .
Gary

[tazman]

Good advice from all posters. I can't add much other than my own experience.
I don't cast for rifles at present so I won't address that aspect.
I have used LLA and NRA 50-50 for decades with great results in all my handguns. No leading and great accuracy in a large variety of handguns and cartridges.