MikeS
12-03-2011, 03:28 AM
Hi All.
I've been using the old NRA formula 50/50 lube on my boolits, and it works great, leaves my barrels all nice and clean! But, the one problem I have with it is the fact that it's so soft, and if I store my boolits sized & lubed in a bulk format (just loosely tossed into a plastic container) I get the lube coming out of the lube grooves, getting onto the noses, etc. Well, I thought about trying one of the harder lubes, maybe Carnauba Red, or something like that, but I've seen several messages from folks that while it works great, it (and other hard lubes) tend to leave the barrel a bit dirtier than the old NRA formula.
So, my question is, if I were to mix in some carnauba into the NRA formula to harden it up to where I would need to use heat, will the lube still work as well as it does now, or will it too start leaving the barrels dirtier than it does now?
A while ago I mixed up a lube to use with BP that consisted of beeswax, citronella candle wax, and some neatsfoot compound oil. It turned out to be a harder lube than I expected, and so I tried mixing the 2 lubes together in a 50:50 blend, and that made a lube that was harder than the NRA lube alone, but still left my guns nice and clean, but while harder, it was still usable without heat, and while it does seem to stay in the lube grooves better, still some comes off when the boolits are stored. I have some sample carnauba flakes that I got from RandyRat as a sample when I bought some beeswax from him a while back, and I melted them separately into a small dish, and while still liquid I mixed in 3 teaspoons of it into the 50/50 blend of NRA & my BP lube. The resulting lube feels much harder, and I'm guessing I'll need to use heat to get it to flow properly, but that's what I was actually looking for as I think a lube that needs heat to flow will stay on the boolits much cleaner when at room temp.
Is my thinking right? What are the chances that this new lube mixture will still keep my gun barrels as clean as when shooting NRA 50/50? And what should I call this lube? Basically it's 45% beeswax, 25% Alox 350 20% Citronella wax, 10% Neatsfoot compound oil, with 3 teaspoons of carnauba wax. Did I just reinvent the wheel, or is there already a lube formula that's similar to what I have mixed up?
And one last question, would this lube work for BP, or does the 25% Alox make it unsuitable for use with Black Powder (the real stuff, as well as some 777)?
I've been using the old NRA formula 50/50 lube on my boolits, and it works great, leaves my barrels all nice and clean! But, the one problem I have with it is the fact that it's so soft, and if I store my boolits sized & lubed in a bulk format (just loosely tossed into a plastic container) I get the lube coming out of the lube grooves, getting onto the noses, etc. Well, I thought about trying one of the harder lubes, maybe Carnauba Red, or something like that, but I've seen several messages from folks that while it works great, it (and other hard lubes) tend to leave the barrel a bit dirtier than the old NRA formula.
So, my question is, if I were to mix in some carnauba into the NRA formula to harden it up to where I would need to use heat, will the lube still work as well as it does now, or will it too start leaving the barrels dirtier than it does now?
A while ago I mixed up a lube to use with BP that consisted of beeswax, citronella candle wax, and some neatsfoot compound oil. It turned out to be a harder lube than I expected, and so I tried mixing the 2 lubes together in a 50:50 blend, and that made a lube that was harder than the NRA lube alone, but still left my guns nice and clean, but while harder, it was still usable without heat, and while it does seem to stay in the lube grooves better, still some comes off when the boolits are stored. I have some sample carnauba flakes that I got from RandyRat as a sample when I bought some beeswax from him a while back, and I melted them separately into a small dish, and while still liquid I mixed in 3 teaspoons of it into the 50/50 blend of NRA & my BP lube. The resulting lube feels much harder, and I'm guessing I'll need to use heat to get it to flow properly, but that's what I was actually looking for as I think a lube that needs heat to flow will stay on the boolits much cleaner when at room temp.
Is my thinking right? What are the chances that this new lube mixture will still keep my gun barrels as clean as when shooting NRA 50/50? And what should I call this lube? Basically it's 45% beeswax, 25% Alox 350 20% Citronella wax, 10% Neatsfoot compound oil, with 3 teaspoons of carnauba wax. Did I just reinvent the wheel, or is there already a lube formula that's similar to what I have mixed up?
And one last question, would this lube work for BP, or does the 25% Alox make it unsuitable for use with Black Powder (the real stuff, as well as some 777)?