Finally got my BEEZWAX!

[bryonbush]

got it in today and got the weekend off so planning on making some lube! would love to hear what you are using in the .40 and .45's. im running it through a star and would like something that i have to use very little heat with since i dont have a heater. im pushing the .40's through a beretta 96A1 and a SA XD. leading in the .45 has never really been in issue but in the .40's it has been. loading the .40 with 4.5 gr of WIN231. looking at Saeco Green as it looks like good stuff. would love to hear what people are using in their .40's. Lookin forward to gettin a little more shootin edumicaton!

[geargnasher]

.45 Colt and ACP work great with a simple concotion of about 50/50 beeswax and dollar store Vaseline. The .40 might need something a bit stiffer depending on how hot you load it. I prefer either home-made Felix lube or a 50/50 mix of White Label Carnauba Red and BAC, but it requires a heater. Comparing the .45s to the .40 is like comparing a .30-30 to a .30-'06, a whole class apart in the stress they can put on a boolit.

Balancing the alloy to the powder burn rate and the fit of the boolit is generally more important than lube, though, so make sure you have that straight first.

Gear

[runfiverun]

bac/with lanolin does well over 40k, so i'd try that in the 40.
you can soften lube easily with vaseline,lithium grease, or with some atf.

[.22-10-45]

Hello, bryonbush. Well...you did say .40..though this probably isn't the .40 you had in mind. I shoot cast in an Axtel Sharps .40-70 (2 1/2"), All my lubes are beeswax based. To this I add anhydrous lanolin, castor oil or pure neatsfoot oil (NOT neatsfoot compound) I haven't yet tried jo-joba oil,
I vary the hardness of lube depending if for black powder, and/or hot weather.
You have to watch the oil content, too much & in warm weather, it will leach out.
I weigh ingredients on reloading scale, 10-15% is usually tops for oil. The lanolin gives it tack..& helps to stick in lube grooves.
Some of my softer B.P. lubes would probably make a nice hand cream!
You might have noticed that all ingredients are organic..I am no chemist..but I know what works for me.
One thing I have noticed, the softer lubes tend to give better accuracy than the harder ones, I found this out shooting target loads with soft cast bullets in a .38 spec. I did extensive tests after this with rifles & found it to be true in these arms as well...some of the lubes were too soft to be used in lubesizer & had to be pan-lubed..but the accuracy increase more than made up for the trouble.
Of late, I have gotten back into black powder shooting. recently obtained a large bag of lamb kidney fat.
Last weekend, I rendered some of this down to a nice white firm tallow. I will mix this with beeswax..3 tallow to 1 B.W. This was the std. lube for S&W revolver ctgs. in the 1800's. I might try adding some lanolin & castor oil & see what I come up with.
This lube making can become an addictive hobby in itself. Best of luck!

[.22-10-45]

Hello, bryonbush. Well...you did say .40..though this probably isn't the .40 you had in mind. I shoot cast in an Axtel Sharps .40-70 (2 1/2"), All my lubes are beeswax based. To this I add anhydrous lanolin, castor oil or pure neatsfoot oil (NOT neatsfoot compound) I haven't yet tried jo-joba oil,
I vary the hardness of lube depending if for black powder, and/or hot weather.
You have to watch the oil content, too much & in warm weather, it will leach out.
I weigh ingredients on reloading scale, 10-15% is usually tops for oil. The lanolin gives it tack..& helps to stick in lube grooves.
Some of my softer B.P. lubes would probably make a nice hand cream!
You might have noticed that all ingredients are organic..I am no chemist..but I know what works for me. Of late, I have gotten back into black powder shooting. recently obtained a large bag of lamb kidney fat.
Last weekend, I rendered some of this down to a nice white firm tallow. I will mix this with beeswax..3 tallow to 1 B.W. This was the std. lube for S&W revolver ctgs. in the 1800's. I might try adding some lanolin & castor oil & see what I come up with.
This lube making can become an addictive hobby in itself. Best of luck!

[bryonbush]

I'm not comparing 40 to 45, that's just what I load for. I'm using wheel weights, sizing them, and loading them with 4.5 gr of win231 in both the 45 and 40. Light loads but good for lead plinking rounds. Im in Texas so right now the lube is hard but give it a few months and it will be melting. I have a bunch of STP, LLA, and parafin wax and now bees wax so I should be able to find a good lube for the 40.

[cajun shooter]

Remember to look at the lube stickies before just mixing some things together. Your beeswax and paraffin are carriers and make the lube harder and more firm. They need a lube to mix them with. If doing your sizing and lubing with a Star, Lyman or RCBS then you need a lube that will flow with out heat unless you have the heater.
With the calibers posted and your stating that you were loading light loads then you need a softer rather than a hard lube that requires a heater.
When you weather becomes hot as it does in Dallas then you just add a small amount of your paraffin to stiffen it up.
Lanolin is a great product to use for keeping a barrel clean.

[MBTcustom]

I use FWFL in my rifles and that is an excellent use of beeswax.
I know it doesnt help you with your star sizer or your awsome haul of beeswax, but have you ever tried 45/45/10? If its going less than 1400fps thats what I use. Even your Star cant lube them that quick. Just wanted to throw it out there. If you've never tried 45/45/10, you might be amazed.

[bryonbush]

goodsteel, ive used that for a long time as well as straight LLA. the problem i was having was in my new beretta and my Springfield xd's, i was still getting ledding pretty bad. so then i got a sizer and continued tumble lubing. then got into the star doing it all at once. ive looked at the stickies and found them to be most helpfull. just wanted to see what people were using in their 40 and 45

[41 mag fan]

Bens Red. Works excellent thru my 45's. Am planning on getting busy on my 40's this week

[runfiverun]

the 45-45-10 can be used in the beeswax.
follow the directions for it and add it to the beeswax 50-50. i add some lanolin [under 5%] as it cools.
to modify the hardness of the lube i add either white lith grease [up to 15%] or some atf a tablespoon will soften a half pound nicely.
i have it so that i don't need heat in the star, but used both the white lith and atf.
i use @55 lbs of air pressure and keep the ambient temp about 65* in the shop.

i add beeswax to the 45-45 lube at a ratio of 3 [45-45] to 1 beeswax for my tumble lube before sizing.
this makes a nice coating like the 22's use.