Too much lube?

[brotherdarrell]

In trying to educate myself I come across different things that for some reason don't completely penetrate my pea-brain. My searches are coming up with spotty results and I would appreciate help in a better understanding of having to much lube. I don't "think" I have this problem just trying to better understand the concept.

a couple of questions:

1 - what are signs of too much lube

2 - are any lubes types more likely to be used in excess

3 - are any caliber/gun combos have a tendency to be over-lubed

FWIW - my most used lube is a jpw/lla combo that is stiffened with toile wax ring. I have lately acquired some bees wax so will be using that in the future. This lube has proven more than capable in my .44 mag(sbh hunter), 45 colt(bh & puma)and 45-70(marllin & no#1). I am currently working with .308(rem 788), 38 spl(14-1) and .222 & 22-250(both rem 788). Always looking to improve/advance knowledge.

thanx in advance for any and all thoughts

brotherdarrell

[mdi]

I would think "too much" would apply to handling the boolits after lubing, or if there is lube on the base. I haven't read of too much lube on a bullet except when alox/xlox is used in excess or unthinned, and then it isn't the shooting but the handling that becomes problematic...

Your lube seems to work, but toilet bowl wax rings seem to be made from different low grade waxes that they are rarely the same and repeating a recipe can be difficult.

jes an old guy's .02.

[fryboy]

some guys report better accuracy with only lubing one or two grooves on rifle boolits ( especially with the multi groove type ) excessive lube star is one indication , possible opening of groups after several shots ( if the first ones are decent that is ) is another indication , best case is to try various amounts and see

[waksupi]

On all of my Loverin type boolits, I only lube the bottom two grooves. Eliminates frequent lube purging. If you have a lot of purging, you will have a flier each time.

[rhbrink]

#1 What are the signs of too much lube?

A couple of years ago I decided to have a custom boolit mold made for the new castboolit bench rifle that I had just built. Had it made very much like a Loverin with a wider front and rear band so with all those grease grooves I of course lubed them all up with LBT and head for the range. I had shot this rifle a little and it was coming along real well until I shot my new boolit, promptly shot a 12" group at 100 yards. How could that be? Boolit was perfect, great barrel, action, chambered up by a well known gunsmith, and it had been shooting very well with various Lyman and Saeco boolits. After thinking about it for a while I started removing lube one groove at a time with my thumb nail. Each groove removed shot a little bit better eventually got down to one grease groove plus the gas check groove and it shot great. I guess the answer is if you have everything fitted up as good as possible, reasonable powder charge, rifle and scope are good and you are not getting good enough groups cut down on the lube. Of course there are a lot of variables like condition of the barrel, bedding, bench technique. Just have to try less and see if it will work better for you.

On #2 and #3 I have no idea.

Richard

[cajun shooter]

I read a article in one of my old gun books while in the hall library a while back that was about this very thing.
The author was shooting a model 14 S&W with the 148 grain wadcutter of his own casting. He had some with all lube grooves filled and on down to where some were only filled in one of the four grooves.
The results were quite surprising as I shot this bullet in PPC and never thought about the lube grooves. I always had great results with the pre-lubed Speer that had a white film over the entire bullet.
His results were that the bullets that had only one or two of the four with lube had much better results downrange.
Gives you something to try on your next range trip. Take Care David