Lubes & Cast Rifle Boolits...

[lovedogs]

Guess we'll always be striving for perfection, huh? So far all I've used is SPG for lubing everything. It's working okay. Just for curiosity I might try some others sometime. My only experience with hard lubes has been with some custom cast bullets I ordered once. They had some hard blue lube and white powder on them and I've never had anything that leaded like they did. It was horrible!

Steve Garbe has an interesting write up on lubes on the SPG web site that some may want to read about. I'm not sure I'll continue using his lube though. I tried to contact him to ask a question and he never would respond. I figure if he doesn't care to respond and give a customer a moment of his time I can probably get my questions answered by someone else who wants my business.

[jh45gun]

Guess we'll always be striving for perfection, huh? So far all I've used is SPG for lubing everything. It's working okay. Just for curiosity I might try some others sometime. My only experience with hard lubes has been with some custom cast bullets I ordered once. They had some hard blue lube and white powder on them and I've never had anything that leaded like they did. It was horrible!

Steve Garbe has an interesting write up on lubes on the SPG web site that some may want to read about. I'm not sure I'll continue using his lube though. I tried to contact him to ask a question and he never would respond. I figure if he doesn't care to respond and give a customer a moment of his time I can probably get my questions answered by someone else who wants my business.

Thats interesting I emailed him a email a couple of times and he responded. It took a while but hey not all guys may check their email every day or be online.

[Bret4207]

Junior- Pinko Commie ***?! I shocked a good Democrat would use such lanuage. HAR! ( I'd stick a big smilie here, but don't know how).

I bought a case of 50/50 Alox from GAR a few years back and still have a lot to go through. It works good for me. I never had good luck with what we used to call "crayon lubes", the hard ones in bright colors.

FWIW- If I use Lee's Liquid Mule Snot or have some otherwise sticky boolits I dust them with moly/mica/graphite powder. Slicks them right up. Yes, you will have to wash your hands.

[44man]

Lovedogs, SPG has been the worst lube We have used for BPCR. The last 10" of barrel will be caked with hard fouling and it is HARD. A total waste of money because he charges 4 or 5 times the amount it costs to make it. Every single home made recipe we have tried is way better then SPG. I don't know anyone in our shooting bunch that uses it. Brian, who set all the national records last year, does not use it.

[Maven]

rbs & Bass, A clarification is needed since I just cut & pasted the relevant sentence from Junior's post (and it actually worked!). To wit, rbs asked whether Junior's lube proportions were by weight or by volume. The cut & pasted sentence and Jr's. original post say by volume. Sorry for any confusion I may have caused. More to the point of the original query, I've made Felix Lube using both mineral oil and ATF and find they work very well. My batches are on the soft side since my reloading bench and lube sizer reside in an unheated basement (50 deg.) and I need them to flow given pressure and little added heat.

rbs, Junior lives in Louisiana so I guess his lube meets the no-drip-in-hot-weather criterion you mentioned. Maybe we should ask him?

[shooter575]

[QUOTE=Edward429451]Great pic! I have all that stuff in the garage. I may just be mixing my own sooner than I thought. Is that PCF still in the tube? Speedgreen onthe side? Do you mix that stuff double boiler style or just directly on low heat?


Nah, them are all B/P lubes. The amber stuff is Beeswax and olive oil. 60/40.The redish stuff is BW,neetsfoot oil and lanolin 50/25/25 That is my main BP lube. Color is from a hunk of lumber marker.The green stuff is something my daughter mixed up.The color came from some of her old lipstick.You cant see in the pic but it had some metalflake in it [yuck] It is long gone. Anyway I color the stuff just for ID.
I use a poormans double boiler. coffee can in a old sauce pan. My Felix lube not shown comes out dark brown

[Junior1942]

rbs, Junior lives in Louisiana so I guess his lube meets the no-drip-in-hot-weather criterion you mentioned. Maybe we should ask him?

PCF/411 gets a little tacky on the hottest days of summer but still shoots just fine.

One point about making it: the lithium grease doesn't want to blend. Use a melting/blending pot with flat sides and squeeze the globs of lithium grease against the sides of the pot with a spatula. It'll blend just fine then.

Just pour the melt into your sizer/luber.

Tpr. Bret: please don't tell any of my liberal friends what "PCF" means, ok?

[lar45]

About the lube molds and getting it out afterwards.
If it sticks real bad, you can freeze the whole thing, then tap it on the table a couple of times and they will usually slide right out. If not, then I use a 1" hardwood dowel and hammer the lube out. I use a 5/16" bolt with a similar setup for my lubes.

And if anyone wants a sample, just email me at idahobronco@aol.com I will be out of town for the next week or so though.
www.lsstuff.com/lube

[Bret4207]

Junior- My lips are sealed.

[lovedogs]

44Man... All I've ever used is SPG, but I use it with smokeless so have no idea what it'd do with black powder. It has worked fairly well for me but sometimes I do get some leading. I'm thinking, for all the reasons mentioned, of switching to something else. I'm not at all interested in making my own so don't know yet what I'll try. I use cast 20:1 alloy in my .45-70's (500 gr.) and Lyman #2 in my .44's. I'm thinking of something like some of the alox/beeswax mixes, like Lee or Javelina. Any comments? Suggestions?

[Dale53]

If you are not going to mix your own, I suggest you contact Lars45. He has the best price I have seen on alox/beeswax. Hardly worth TRYING to mix your own. You just can't beat $1.00 per stick (unless you ask him about a large order).

FWIW
Dale53

[Cayoot]

I have to second that statement. I have bought from Lars45 on my last few lube purchases. He is great to deal with. I'm more than happy with him and when I FINALLY use up the lube I bought from him, I'll be going back for more!

[lovedogs]

Thanks for the friendly advice. I sent off an e-mail to Lars45 and looked at his web site. It looks like it ought to do the job. Sounds like it'll be a while hearing from him though so I'll have to wait until I can catch him at home. His prices sure do sound reasonable. Ain't it refreshing to find someone who's not into ripping folks off?

[swampmaster]

If you are not going to mix your own, I suggest you contact Lars45. He has the best price I have seen on alox/beeswax. Hardly worth TRYING to mix your own. You just can't beat $1.00 per stick (unless you ask him about a large order).

FWIW
Dale53

What is considered a large order? I might be willing to buy some for myself and resale also

[Jon K]

Dale,

What's the web address for LARS45?

Jon

[lovedogs]

Since those other posts I've gotten ahold of Glenn Larsen, LAR45, and tried his lubes. I think I'm going to line my garbage can with all the SPG I have. Glenn's lubes are great. No more leading. Great accuracy. I'm using Glenn's and never looking back... or looking at anything else. Why bother? His stuff is great. His service is great. His prices are great. What more could we ask for? Glenn, you're the man!

[Dale53]

JonK and others;
Glenn's web site is:
http://www.lsstuff.com/index.html

Dale53