What lube to use? A newbie question.

[Timb1]

I want to start out by thanking everyone here for all the great information. I have lurked for sometime but have never posted.

I have reloaded now longer than not, around 25 years. I have also casted for a few years with good success but I know there is plenty room for improvement.

My I am running low on lube in my old 450 so I thought now is a good time for my first post here. I am would like to know how some of the lubes actually compare. I would like to find one lube and stick with it and never look back. I had rather send time casting and shooting not experimenting.

Here is what I am casting for: 38, 44 revolver and 45ACP auto, all target loads and 25-20 and 45-70 rifle low to medium velocity all smokeless powder.

My considerations are: accuracy, cost, ease of gun clean up and the amount of time the rounds stay loaded before firing. I would think gun clean up and loaded round storage time would be the same with all but I do not know that for a fact.

With all that said what is the difference between Felix lube, BAC White Label, LBT soft blue and some of the other homemade lube?

Thanks in advance for all the wisdom, Tim.

[Junior1942]

Answer: Lee Liquid Alox. It's now all I use for smokeless loads.

[Little Joe]

I like the Lee brown alox too.I have a Star lube sizer and have used RED and BLUE with good results but the Lee brown alox is KEY when used with a Cool Whip bowl

Out of here,
Little Joe

[rmb721]

The more people you hear from, the more different answers you will get. My answer is Whitelabellube from Lar 45. He is a member of this site. I use his carnauba red which requires heat. He also has 50/50 and BAC (mix of beeswax, alox and carnauba). His prices are really reasonable. He is great to deal with.

[GP100man]

+1 for LAR45 carnauba red!!!

iv cleaned my sizer the last time.

GP

:castmine:

[44man]

Yes sir, C.R. and Felix!

[Larry Gibson]

I've been using Javelina for 30+ years and it's as good as any others and better than a lot of them. I use it for low end "cat's sneeze" loads to 2400+ fps loads in every caliber for smokeless loads. I also vote for LLA (same basic beeswax/alox compound as Javelina) for use with Lee's TL bullets though a lot of them get sized and lubed in the 450 with Javelina Lube.

Larry Gibson

[Char-Gar]

For your needs, just about any decent lube will do. The good old NRA 50/50 (beeswax and alox) will work and the Javalina brand is as good as any. My homemade formula of 65-35 (beeswax to Vasaline) will do the job if you want to make your own.

[shooterman]

i used javalina lube for many years until i started reading paul matthews stuff. in cold weather and especially with the 45/70, i was getting lube spatter on the target out to 100 yards. as matthews put it, if you get lube hitting the target, then it is flinging off in flight. i switched to spg which is very soft but gives good results even in cold weather.

[Slick Pilot]

I have good luck with 50-50 beeswax and petroleum jelly. Extremely easy to make in a double boiler. Most petroleum jellies come in 13 ounce jars now and that is light enough to use a cheap food scale to weigh out your beeswax. I don't think 10% off either way is critical anyway.

I use a cinnamon scent and candle tint to make it a pleasing red (actually sort of a rather gay pink - not that there's anything wrong with that!). My grand-daughters like the color.

Shoots great, a batch of about 26 ounces goes a long way. Equals about 20+ sticks of lubes from Lyman, RCBS, etc.

[SharpsShooter]

Bullshop has a good line of lubes that work very well. Check him out at
http://bullshop.gunloads.com/

SS

[Timb1]

Thanks for all the input so far but how do these different lubes compare. I am sure all the lubes are good but does one out shine the others or is it mostly personal preference and if so why do you prefer one over the rest?

Thanks again Tim.

[Char-Gar]

Tim... You are asking a question that has no answer. There are only two kinds of lubes, those that work and those that don't work. For real critical applications, such as extreme long range shooting, real cold weather, red line velocities and bench rest shooting, there might be some differences show up in lubes.

You question did not list any such applications. Any of the lubes in this thread will do what you want. Over the years each of us have developed our own way of doing things and have not done sysematic scientific studies of the various lubes and it doesn't really make a difference.

I live in South Texas where there is no cold weather. I use my home brew beeswax and Vasaline for handgun and rifle loads up to about 1.9K fps. Above that I go to Felix lube. Felix works just fine for all other applicatiions, but is harder to make.

With these two lubes, I git all the accuracy the rifle, bullet, alloy and powder charge have to give. I just don't worry about the lube anymore.

I think all of us would like to see some definitive study of the various lubes, but no such study exists. What you get is folks opinions and personal preferences including mind.

[Timb1]

Chargar, thanks for the reply I kind of thought this would be the answer. I am probably worrying about the little things and over looking the big things.

I would still like to hear more about LBT Blue, Felix and White Label BAC.

I think my final solution will be either Felix lube and White Label BAC. Will the only major difference be, one I buy one I make?

[robertbank]

Well Charger sumed it pretty well. I shoot 9MM, .38spl/,357mag, 45LC and .45acp in pistol for the most part and Felix Lube does it for me. I experience little to no leading in any application I have tried in those calibers.

I also shoot .30-30 and .30-06 and Felix Lube does it for me there as well. I don't care for the hard lubes in pistol applications and found the Felix Lube is consumed in the firing process which is what I want to see.

One other note. I only have one lubricator and one reason I don't switch to a harder luber for rifle simply is I am to lazy to clean out my RCBS Lubricator to make a switch and I don't load enough rifle to warrant the time it takes to clean out the lubricator thoroughly.

Here is a good article on lubes that you might want to read.

http://lasc.us/FryxellLubeCastBullets.htm

Happy New Year

Bob

[Lloyd Smale]

my favorites in cooler weather are felix and javalina in warmer weather I make a harder mix of felix or use lbt blue soft. My appologys to the lee tumble lube users but about all i use it for anymore is adding to a felix mix to use up the few bottles i have left. Its to much of a dirt magnet and ive had to many cases of bullet lube contaminating the powder in warm weather and when storing long term.

[Sven Dufva]

I use carnuba red from lar45 and felix.
Im pleased with both.

[45r]

I buy whatever I can get cheap on Ebay and mix with lyman super moly or sta-lube moly grease. I have my lube a little hard and put a light bulb close to my luber untill it starts flowing just right.Super moly is good lube but too sticky so i just add the cheap stuff to it to make easier to work with.Will start using Sta-lube now that Im out super moly.Have a lot of blue angel I got cheap on Ebay and it works very well wixed 2/3 blue to 1/3 moly.RCBS lube with 1/3 moly works very well also.I bet lars lube or felix lube would very well with a little moly added also.

[mag_01]

I use Felix lube-----easy to make----I use a sardine can on a wood stove---that will fill my luberciser about 3 times----It is mostly brown but when I add a red candle paraffin to it to harden it turns pink. I also use LLA 1 coat for light loads and 2 coats for heavy loads mostly on tumble lube boolits. Both are easy and effective. ----- Mag

[bmblong]

I just bought some BAC White Label yesterday. I will let you know how I like it. I was using Thompson Blue Angel but I think it was too hard for my purposes. It worked it was just really hard. I lubed up some .45acp yesterday with the RCBS lube that came with the press and it is sticky as heck.

Anyone know if the BAC White Label lube is sticky at room temp?

[TCLouis]

I think at least one person here uses a formula much like yours.

BUT

They just go with 50/50 Moly Sta Lube and Beeswax.

Least that is what I read elsewhere and NOT in his article about cast boolit lubes(unless he added that later). Think you will find it in the article about "The boolits (sp mine) of SSK".

I use Felix Lube cause I got in on the giant batch buy (there are two characters over in some state west of TN that do everything in BIG batches). Have you ever seen their alloy/WW melting pot?

[45r]

I guess that hard lube is mostly pariffin and carnuba and works at high velocity and easy to use with heat and soft lube is mostly bees wax and vasaline and is like SPG(some say samething) and is easy to make and good for pistol loads.Im using up the last of some RCBS pistol lube mixed with blue angel and lyman super moly and have been getting very good groups and no leading and not to sticky to work with and only needing light bulp heat at the start to flow very well untill Im done.Mixing in the moly is something Ill do from now on.I have some hard green lube and thinking about mixing in some of that in because moly makes the lube a little sticky.Im thinking then Ill have moly,pariffin,carnuba,beeswax,blue angel and that sould be enough.Im trying different stuff but moly and beeswax or moly and blue angel works plenty well enough.I add the hard green if it comes out to sticky or add vasaline if it comes out to hard.My last mix is a little sticky but OK and flows well. Ill put a little more hard stick lube in the mix next time.I dont really think it makes that much difference but I have fun experimenting.I think the easy way to go is beeswax and moly with enough blue angel to make it not to sticky.The moly makes cleaning a revolver a lot easier also.I clean my revolvers every time I shoot them and that make a big difference in how well they shoot.Lots of flitz and tetra bore cleaner and oil.