Need advice

[Lightning Ross]

1st I a fella give me a can of pyrodex 3f powder intended project 150 grain 357 rounds do you have to use a black powder lube with pyrodex.
2nd I have cast some 250 grain prs big lube boolits to shoot out of a 45lc marlin lever action sized 454 with some spg lube that is orded and on the way.with hot summer temp in SE AZ would it be smart to put a card wad in so the lube would not melt and contaminate the powder? New to black powder.For the 45 I have 2f goex.. Thanks for advice

[montana_charlie]

I would say 'yes' to the card wad. As to the other question,
I dunno. Heck, I can't even spell Pyrodex...
CM

[Lightning Ross]

I had to go get the can still not sure My figers dont type very well.Kind of like ah hell ya know what i mean.

[McLintock]

If you keep your cartridges nose down in a typical 50-100 round box before loading in the rifle, you shouldn't need the card wad. If you want to decrease the powder capacity a little in that big case, then put in a wad or two, it won't hurt. I regularly shoot .44 Specials with a big lube bullet, no wad and a lightly compressed load of 2F KIK in the Arizona temps and have no problems at all. If the bullets are a tight fit in your cases, you don't get enough leakage between the time you take them out of the box and they're going downrange in a typical CAS match.
McLintock

[44man]

Yes to the black powder lube and water base cleaners or just water for Pyrocrap. Be careful as it is even more corrosive then black powder so clean the gun good.
One mistake is SPG! It is way too expensive and does not do as good as any home made lube I have ever tried. You should have bought some of Lar 45's lube instead. It is great!
SPG was the worst BPCR lube I used with the last 10" of barrel full of hard, dry fouling. Next was the junk with moly in it (Shaver's lube.) Vertical dispersion like you would not believe.
The lube is so important that with the wrong one, you will pull your hair out.
For the .45, use FFFG also. FFG is too slow even for CA but if it is accurate for you, go ahead and shoot it.
All you need is a wax paper wad over the powder. A paper or fiber wad is fine too, just find what is accurate enough. Store the boolits nose down and out of the sun.

[NickSS]

Pyrodex works OK in cartridges but there are a couple of things to be aware of. First is that it likes to be compressed. My more accurate loads compress the powder about .3". Second is to use a black powder lube. I make my own and it works for me out of bees wax and Olive oil (50-50 for winter and 70-30 for summer). Its cheaper too. Use water to clean with or a regular black powder cleaner. Clean completely as pyrodex will corrode like BP.

[w30wcf]

Lightning Ross,

PYRODEX-
My experience, in pistol cartridge leverguns, indicates that the NRA Formula 50/50 (Alox/Beeswax) lube works as good as any of the b.p. lubes.... maybe even better. I don't have any experience with other smokeless lubes though. As NickSS does, I compress the powder charge, but at .12" -.15", due to the shorter pistol case. As 44 Man advised, clean the gun well after shooting Pyrodex as it's fouling (potassium chloride) can be unkind to a rifle bore. (I cheat and shoot several smokeless rounds to clean out the fouling, then clean with regular hoppes.)

SPG LUBE-
In the PRS .45 250 gr. bullet application, will work just fine in your rifle (the bullet carries 2 1/2 grs. of lube!) I have used SPG and other b.p. lubes in my .45 Colt Marlin Cowboy, and bullets carrying 1 1/2 grs. of lube combined with Goex have kept the fouling soft in the 24" barrel for many shots from this neat repeating rifle.

PLease keep us informed.

Good luck,
w30wcf