Side by side bullet lube test

[metricmonkeywrench]

So I have some 358311, lubed up with both Lyman and Hodgson Alox lube to do a side by side comparison of the lubes performance. I intend to mark the cases so that when loaded and the cylinder comes around the Lyman will be on the left with the dividing line at 12 O’ clock position for half the box and at 6 for the other half. We will see if one side of the barrel or the other shows any sign of leading and if lube causes the bullets to veer to one side or the other of the target or some other result.




I know-I know- I’m bored, got family in town and apparently it’s bad form to spend the day at the casting pot or loading bench… just go with it…

[35 Rem]

If I understand correctly, and looking at the photo I THINK I do, you have managed to use two different lubes on the same bullets in a controlled manner? How the heck did you do that? Surely by hand...but it looks too neat as if the lube were injected by a lube sizer press.

[scattershot]

That would be my take, as well. Wouldn’t the spin of the bullet in the bore make it impossible to tell anything about the lube? A better plan might be to lube one set of bullets with one lube, clean the gun, and shoot another batch with the second lube?

[Walter Laich]

That would be my take, as well. Wouldn’t the spin of the bullet in the bore make it impossible to tell anything about the lube? A better plan might be to lube one set of bullets with one lube, clean the gun, and shoot another batch with the second lube?

+ 1

[metricmonkeywrench]

Ok you caught me havin a bit of fun- it was quite a consequential accident of sorts. This was actually what came out of my lyman 45 which was originally filled with new stock Lyman Alox lube. When that reservoir ran down rather than cleaning it out i just threw the old stock Hodgson Alox stick in and continued to lube away. My basic figuring they were both likely near enough the same composition for my purposes in the .38. After a while I noted the red dots starting to appear as the H lube worked its way into the size die as time went by. This last session left me with a perfect half and half as shown. I figure a couple of hundred bullets from now I will be all red with an occasional tan streak as the Lyman is pushed out. I will likely never get that precise symmetry ever again.

The rest was of course complete nonsense and would not prove anything at all.

(Also thanks to a member who clued me in that I'm supposed to use purple font for sarcastic or funny stuff)

[35 Rem]

Yeah, written words can't convey intended humor. I thought you might be joking but you never know!

I've had mixes of lube as I'm sure everybody has when changing lube and it doesn't all use up symmetrical to the sizer die but yours was so perfectly split between the two kinds of lube that I figured you had somehow done it on purpose.

[WRideout]

You got me this time.

Wayne

[MostlyLeverGuns]

It is much easier to use alittle color in one of the lube's when making such a comparison, that way you can use a bore scope to check which color lube worked the best in the barrel, then carful inspection of the target should let check where the bullet was by the two different color lubes in the bullet hole.

[Texas by God]

As I was reading it; I thought to myself- Self, this guy is going down a rabbit hole!


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[Walter Laich]

good one!

[Walter Laich]

when I get ready to change out lubes I'll heat the luber with a hair dryer to get the current lube liquid then pour it out (been known to use a propane torch to do this also)

I then melt the new stuff and pour it in

most time I just melt the new lube and pour in on top of what's already in the luber--I like that there are no air pockets when you pour it in.