Home-made Lube experts - Questions

[Reload3006]

I agree with Cajun but if you dont want to render it your self buy pure lard. You dont want to use lard or drippings from sausage bacon because of the salt. But all animal fats will have some salt because the animals eat salt. but the salt content is very low almost to be ignored. still its there and wouldnt be a bad idea to make sure you clean your smoke pole? but then the Black powder is much more corrosive than the salt so You are cleaning your smoke pole aren't you?

[cajun shooter]

Reload, The BP that I use today and I have tried several have no issues with being corrosive.
That is unfortunately the rumor of many years ago that refuses to go away because of it being printed by persons in gun magazines or range talk.
I've heard people who have never fired a single BP round down range say when I shoot; He's crazy for firing that nasty stuff in his guns. They are going to rust away.
The truth is that even up till WW 11 some BP ammo was used but it was the very corrosive primer that was the problem and not the powder itself.
I shoot three SASS matches a month with my 1873 LA, two USFA revolvers in 44-40 and a 12gauge SXS all with various brands of BP. I shoot Goex, Swiss, Diamondback, and KIK at this time with no problems from any gun. I shoot on Saturday and don't clean until the following Week.
I ask people to show me one time in history where any fight was lost because all the guns were rusted shut and would not fire.
There was one powder that was so good that the can said no cleaning needed until next firing session.

[Reload3006]

glad you have better luck than I did I let my son use my muzzle loader (an in line) so I know it wasnt the primer. He didnt clean it and he was using triple 7 cost me a new breach plug only reason I think it didnt cost me a whole gun was because the barrel was stainless. Something sure corroded the heck out of that gun and I know it wasn't the ww 209 primer.

[Kraschenbirn]

For those wanting to make a 'salt-free' Emmert's Lube without buying commercial tallow (or cooking up their own), most large grocery stores still carry old-fashioned unsalted lard in 1 lb. blocks, which, being cheap and lazy, I've used as a tallow substitute in BP applications for many, many years. While there are some subtle chemical differences, tallow and lard are, essentially, the same stuff - i.e. almost pure triglycerides - except tallow is rendered from beef or mutton while lard is rendered from pork.

Bill

[C.F.Plinker]

glad you have better luck than I did I let my son use my muzzle loader (an in line) so I know it wasnt the primer. He didnt clean it and he was using triple 7 cost me a new breach plug only reason I think it didnt cost me a whole gun was because the barrel was stainless. Something sure corroded the heck out of that gun and I know it wasn't the ww 209 primer.

When Hodgon created the black powder substitues like Pyrodex and Triple 7 they increased the autoignition temperature from 390* for black powder to 740* for the substitutes. They did this by changing the balance of charcoal, KNO3, and sulfur in black powder. They still use these as the main ingredients but the proportions are different. Then, in order to make sure it ignites, they added Potassium Perchlorate. Potassium Perchlorate and Potassium Chlorate were the ingredients in the old corrosive primers that caused the corrossion. You need to be even more diligent about promptly cleaning your firearms when you use the substitutes than if you use the "holy black".

[popper]

I've read here often that bullet lube can be too slippery or not slippery enough. Any quasi-scientific reasoning here or purely performance(experience) reasoning? I expect a bullet lube to 1) prevent lead from sticking or plating to barrel (it does). 2) lower coefficient of friction between bullet and barrel. 3) withstand pressure and temperature generated when shooting. Some say alox is an anti-flux, wax is a friction reducer and scrubber(carnuba), grease and oil are friction reducers. Thoughts?

[runfiverun]

i think of them as carriers, lubes, and modifiers.

for black powder the lube is to keep the powder fouling soft enough that it can be scraped back down the bbl and shot out by the next powder charge,
or to keep it possible for the next boolit to grab the rifling and not ride down the bbl on the hardened fouling.

[nanuk]

What I use instead of Crisco and have found it to be really good. go to your local market and buy 5 pounds of the cheapest ground beef you can get. Boil it thoroughly then let it cool and put it in the refrigerator .... then just lift the tallow (congealed grease off the top of the water.) finish making a pot of soup you got great boolit lube ingredient to use instead of Crisco. and unless you salted it it will be relatively low in sodium content.

and beef tallow, used in a deep fryer, makes the BEST tasting french fries

[Circuit Rider]

Question Gents, I googled Jojoba Oil and found different blends, for aromatherapy, and for massages. What do I need? Much obliged for any and all information. CR

[jfl1950]

What temp does this get soft at?
I need something around 160% where I live to leave around and not worry about.
And what is the mixture we ended up with?
Thanks

[excess650]

I've read here often that bullet lube can be too slippery or not slippery enough. Any quasi-scientific reasoning here or purely performance(experience) reasoning? I expect a bullet lube to 1) prevent lead from sticking or plating to barrel (it does). 2) lower coefficient of friction between bullet and barrel. 3) withstand pressure and temperature generated when shooting. Some say alox is an anti-flux, wax is a friction reducer and scrubber(carnuba), grease and oil are friction reducers. Thoughts?

I DO believe that a lube can be too slippery. After reading some of the formulas guys were using, I decided to give my own smokeless lube a try. I had successfully concocted some BP lubes and used them in competition. One of these blocks was still in a bread pan, and knowing it was ~50% beeswax I decided to use it as the basis. Lithi-bee is 50-50 beeswax and lithium grease and lots of guys use it and are happy with its results. I bought a tube of Castrol Pyroplex Blue (grease) and added it into my mix. The resultant mix was too soft for my liking, so it got more beeswax. Long story short, I found that as I increased the beeswax in my lube, it got firmer and my group sizes decreased. I stopped at 75% beeswax and still don't need much lube on my rifle boolits being shot from 7.5x55, 308, 30-06, 30-30 and 7.62x39. I'm not talking about mouse fart loads either....haven't tried it in weather less than about 35*F, but it seems to hold up in hot weather. My previous baseline lube was LBT Blue and Blue Soft, and I'm liking my own lube better. I have less fliers attributed to lube purging, and first shots from clean barrels are usually in the group. I don't claim to be an expert, but seem to have experimented into a mix that works for me. Click on the thumbnail to enlarge the picture. I'm only using lube ahead of the GC in this boolit for the 7.62x39 at near full throttle. More lube causes groups to increase in size.

[geargnasher]

Excess, Run and I have been doping this lube thing out pretty heavily and along the way have done a LOT of work with wax/grease/modifier lubes. Our recent tests and past experience tend to comfirm two major points that you made: Lithi-bee lubes need to be more on the wax and less on the grease because too much oil content in the lube causes inaccuracy (Typical #2 metal soap grease is about 85-95% oil), and that applying the minimum amount of lube to the boolit reduces or eliminates any purge flyers. Too wet or slick of a lube and too much lube volume often have a negative effect on accuracy. Too much lube is like hydroplaning your car, and too much oil is like driving on ice. A boolit needs a consistent and particular "driving surface" for best performance.

We're working on using wax and grease together with a higher grease content (50% or more), but are using harder greases with more metal soap thickener content and less oil to get what we want. There are several disadvantages to using large proportions of wax which can be countered with using more grease, but the greases have to be thick to counteract the effect of too much oil in the lube.

Gear

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Fellers in East ILLinois Daville area where I started making my own BP lube for cartriges suggested Beeswax and Olive oil in varying amounts due to temperature changes. Have never needed any reason to change. Does everything I need done with BP. Works great with patched ball. Smells great.. tastes good and can be used for any skin condition that needs covered up. Only lube I can make indoors on the gas stove. Only downfall is if bees get a wiff.. They can get pesterous.
Mike in Peru