Straight JPW - Impressed so far

[colonelhogan44]

I tumble lubed some heated 356-120-TC bullets with a little dab of JPW, and loaded them in some .38 specials on top of 4.5 gr. of Green Dot. They all fired flawlessly from a .357 mag carbine, with no leading and a nice little star at the muzzle. It's cheap, easy, and leaves a hard, smooth coat on the bullet...no tack at all. I'm impressed so far.

[Recluse]

We have a member here, Boerrancher, who has done some extensive testing of loads using nothing but straight JPW--and he's gotten some pretty impressive results.

Lube is a tool (what I always preach). The right tool with the right boolit with the right powder/load configuration in the right gun will give great results.

Keep experimenting with it--sounds like you're off to a good start.

[randyrat]

I'm no lube expert, but I've learned a few things about it over the years.
If everything is perfect, boolit fit ect... One doesn't have to depend on a super lube to cover up a problem.
I've shot hundreds of 45 acp and even 40 cal with JPW boolits.... Not at nuke levels, just nice loads with out leading.
It would be interesting to see the limits of JPW

[Doby45]

How is the smoke with just JPW? I take it this kinda similar to the Rooster Jacket liquid lube.

[randyrat]

There is just enough to keep mosquitoes away if you can load magazines fast enough. Your legs get nailed, so i use repellent on my legs.
No large plooms of smoke like some lubes.
Load all the mags before you get out of your car and have your gear squared away before you hit the range and then it's possible to keep up with the the little blood suckers.

Among other lubes, i use some 40-45-10 (with a touch of beeswax to replace some of the Alox). Very low ploom if used right. Just enough to keep mosquitoes away. Some times the ploom of smoke depends on the "load"

[David2011]

Randyrat,

You really have my attention with your comments about smoke. I fight it constantly. My biggest smoke issues are with .40 S&W. Some people told me that I shouldn't worry about the amount of smoke as long as the lube does its job but that's not realistic for IPSC or Steel Challenge shooting. I'm interested in running JPW through my Star but looking for guidance instead of re-inventing the wheel. Will JPW work in a lubrisizer? Any additives required? Are there any JPW/powder combinations that seem to produce the least smoke? I'm always shooting major power in the .40 so there should be sufficient heat and pressure that smoke isn't coming from incomplete combustion. I'm open to all suggestions.

David

[cajun shooter]

David, I can give you a load that works in cowboy action matches. It is using White label Carnauba Red with Clays powder. It does not produce any or very little smoke . This keeps it from covering the front site or target so that your speed or rhythm of fire.

[riverwalker76]

I'm interested to find out the final review as well. I've got some 45 LC that I could use a little 'cheap lube' when loading. These are just used for plinking, and I don't want to waste my good lube on plinking rounds.

[Recluse]

I'm interested to find out the final review as well. I've got some 45 LC that I could use a little 'cheap lube' when loading. These are just used for plinking, and I don't want to waste my good lube on plinking rounds.

Big, fat and slow stuff--like 45 Colt--will have no problems using straight JPW in a tumble-lube application. Best practice would be to lube, size, lube, load, shoot, rejoice.

[riverwalker76]

I think I'll try that. Thanks

[chris in va]

I melted some JPW on some fresh 9mm tonight, so I'll report how they function here in a couple days.

[colonelhogan44]

I bumped the charge up to 5.5 grains of green dot to get a little more fun factor out of the carbine and am now getting a little bit of leading (great accuracy though). After about 50 rounds, the last 10-12 inches of the barrel are completely clean, but the first bit had some slight leading, getting progressively thicker the closer to the chamber. Do any of you casting gurus know a probably cause for leading early in the barrel like that?

[David2011]

Cajun Shooter,

I'll look into your load. Clays is kind of marginal in a .40 for IPSC Major but it might make a good load for Steel Challenge. Thanks!

David

[Moonie]

colonelhogan44, this is usually caused by skidding or poor boolit fit. I would assume your boolit fit is good and sized at least .001 above bore size. Skidding is usually caused by an alloy that isn't hard enough for the pressure you are pushing the boolit, too soft for the rifling to grip the boolit at the pressure level when it first starts in the barrel.

[colonelhogan44]

the bullets are large enough...there was absolutely no leading at 4.5 grains of Green Dot in a .38 special case, with a water dropped WW bullet. Maybe the green dot is peaking in pressure too quickly with the higher charge and cutting the bullet as it jumps in the .357 magnum chamber...I'll have to try some blue dot to see how that works.

[sargenv]

Initially I was going to do some kind of Moly coating on my boolits when I started casting.. that didn't really work out well since I didn't have the method down to get it to stick to my lead. Someone here suggested JPW and I have been using it ever since. What I've been doing lately.. and I don't know if it makes any bit of difference, is that I've been putting a small amount of the powdered moly into the container with my boolits and about a tablesppon of JPW and then tumbling that all together. The boolits I am trying this with are 110 gr SWC from the Lee 105 SWC 6 cav mold. With my alloy, they come in a bit heavy (ww's). They drop out of the mold at .358-.359 and I load them unsized.

The boolit comes out slightly sticky with JPW and a nice black color due to the moly. I put them on waxed paper to dry for a few days. BHN for them is in the 16 range. I then load these with 5.1 gr of SR 7625 in a 38 spl case for use in my Marlin 1894C. They are subsonic, making about 966 fps and I can stay on an 8" plate at 50 yards all day. I recently bumped the load to 5.3 gr of the same powder, and the group appeared to open up. I have not chrono'd the new load, but they are still subsonic. They don't smoke all that much. I have yet to sandbag them for a true accuracy test, but with the plain jane iron sights that come with the rifle, they are plenty accurate for plinking. I don't know that the moly coating does anything.. I guess I'll have to do a head to head to see if it helps or hurts..

[randyrat]

Cajun Shooter,

I'll look into your load. Clays is kind of marginal in a .40 for IPSC Major but it might make a good load for Steel Challenge. Thanks!

David

When i shot the 40 cal more than the 45 i had a bunch of 200 gr plated bullets. The best accurate and super light load was 200 gr plated over 3.2 grs of Clays.

I never competed with the 40 cal so i never paid attention to smoke and the "major" factor, but i found good fitting medium hardness cast 180 gr under a stiff load of Unique worked best.

The lube was Alox (small amount) +JPW (mostly) + a touch of BW. I also used a ton of Unique..One thing you will find with Unique, load closer to max* with cast boolits it's cleaner/accurate burning that way. I would think Unique and 180 gr cast would make Major easily. You gotta love the SLAM a stiff load of Unique will give your hand with the 40 cal.
I would bet Speed Green would work real good also with low smoke.

*Definition of Max= max for your gun, bullets and load