Maxi ball Lube methods??

[MaxJon]

Hi all just wondering what lube methods are good for my Lyman #504617 maxi ball mould! Pan lube, by hand, or What??? Also what lube mixtures work well??
Paraffin and Olive oil?? Why not Petro based greases??
BB03

[451 Pete]

Bullbarrel033,

In my opinion it kind of depends on what you are doing. At the range I hand lube at a bench but when going out hunting I pre-lube my bullets. You may want to check out the section here on bullet lubes... there are a lot of good ones listed. My personal preference is beeswax softened with pure neetsfoot oil but there are many others that also work very well.

The main reason to stay away from anything with a petrolium base is that petrolium does nothing to soften the black powder fouling left in your bore. It will in fact form a kind of gummy substance with black powder fouling that is hard to remove and makes reloading more difficult.

Hope this helps ... Pete

[stubshaft]

I had a plastic adapter that screwed onto the end of a tube of bore butter and lubed the maxi's. Haven't seen one in quite a while though.

Nowadays I use Olive oil and beeswax to lube maxi's and great plains boolits. I just slather it on with my fingers.

[LEADHOPPER]

I use 50/50 beeswax and borebutter to pan lube mine, and then use a cake cutter to cut cut them out of the lube before it gets to hard. Seems to work real good and isn't as messy as lubing them by hand. Wife doesn't even complain when I do when she is home. The beeswax and bore butter have a nice smell to them.

I do have one the little plastic adapters for the bore butter, but all I could manage to do with it was make a mess.

LH

[Ohio Rusty]

When I had my Hawken, I would lube my Maxi's by hand with T/C's or CVA's yellow non-petrol lube (they were both the same). I wrapped the maxi's in wax paper and crimped the ends tight. That helped keep the lube soft and on the bullet. When I wanted to load one, I would tear off the bottom of the wax paper and squeezed the bullet into the end of the barrel out of the wax paper. No mess, no fuss.

Petrolium based lube creates something called asphultum when mixed with black powder fouling. This builds up in the barrel making it hard to load and clean. I currently use bears oil for patch lube. For conicals where I need a thicker lube, I mix the bears oil with a little soy wax like what is used in candles.

Ohio Rusty ><>

[Good Cheer]

The best lube I've found so far is LOOB, lanolin-olive oil-beeswax. Other things will surely work just as well depending upon the application.
LOOB is just what I use and haven't found anything better.

[Rick Hodges]

I just dab it on by hand. I have the plastic adapter that is supposed to semi-auto lube the maxi's and hunters. I haven't had much luck with them. It seems the lube is either too stiff (I actually split a tube of lube squeezing it so hard) or I don't get enough coverage to suit me. The finger applicator is messy but it gets the job done.

[405]

Since shooting a ML is not a sterile business anyway, I just smear it on by finger.
Back when I hunted some with a Maxi I just got a tube about the diameter of the conical and pre-lubed 2 or 3 and carried them in the tube. For the range, just a small wide mouth jar with whatever lube- either crisco or veg oil/BW mix.

[mooman76]

I just wipe on with my fingers also. Messy, yes but I just carry rag to wipe my fingers off with. If I shot conicals more I would prelube them and devise a way to keep them clean but I mostly shoot RBs.

[Larry Gibson]

I had a plastic adapter that screwed onto the end of a tube of bore butter and lubed the maxi's. Haven't seen one in quite a while though.

Nowadays I use Olive oil and beeswax to lube maxi's and great plains boolits. I just slather it on with my fingers.

+1 on the beeswax/olive oil; I use 5 parts beeswax to 4 parts virgin olive oil. Mixes easily in a douple boiler using aPyrex cup in a sauce pan. You can easily finger lube a lot of bullets watching a good "Duke" movie......:D

However I do have the old TC caps for the Bore Butter tubes in .45 & .50 cals. I use the beeswax/olive oil lube in the tubes. I soak the tube in hot water for 10-15 minutes prior to use and the lube gets Squishy" and works very well in the "lubers" I see the TC lubers at guns shows and older BP gunshops now and then, pay to keep your eye out for one.

Red is the .50 and green is the .45.

Larry Gibson

[MaxJon]

+1 on the beeswax/olive oil; I use 5 parts beeswax to 4 parts virgin olive oil. Mixes easily in a douple boiler using aPyrex cup in a sauce pan. You can easily finger lube a lot of bullets watching a good "Duke" movie......:D

However I do have the old TC caps for the Bore Butter tubes in .45 & .50 cals. I use the beeswax/olive oil lube in the tubes. I soak the tube in hot water for 10-15 minutes prior to use and the lube gets Squishy" and works very well in the "lubers" I see the TC lubers at guns shows and older BP gunshops now and then, pay to keep your eye out for one.

Red is the .50 and green is the .45.

Larry Gibson

Hi Larry. Do you lube only the bottom groove in the Maxi bullet? Is this enough lube?? Is there a need to lube the larger groove?? Also do you run a lubricated wad under your conicals/Maxi bullets?? Is there a need for a wad??
Thanks in advance, Larry!! I have the Lyman #504617 nice mould!!
BB03/adam.

[x101airborne]

I did not know Larry was doing it also, but I got better accuracy lubing only the bottom groove. I am using Pinko Commie Lube and that stuff liquifies at body temp for me. I pan lube then use a bore brush tube to cut them out of the lube. I am casting for a 54 cal using maxi's, mini's, round ball, and saboted 44 and 45 cal GG booits.

[Larry Gibson]

Hi Larry. Do you lube only the bottom groove in the Maxi bullet? Is this enough lube?? Is there a need to lube the larger groove?? Also do you run a lubricated wad under your conicals/Maxi bullets?? Is there a need for a wad??
Thanks in advance, Larry!! I have the Lyman #504617 nice mould!!
BB03/adam.

Yes, as with x101airborne, I also found accuracy to be better with just the bottom groove lubed. Also with my own lube or Bore Butter 1000+ there is no leading and very little fouling with FFFG 777 or FFg 777. I push them at 1570 fps or so out of my TC Blk Mtn Magnum so they are cast 16-1 to hold up to that and expansion in game is still awesome. I do use a wonder wad or my own cut felt wad (soaked in my own lube under the bullet. It makes no difference accuracy wise but is a moisture sealent in the cold rainy or snowy weather I usually hunt with the rifle in. Does it really make a difference? I don't know but it makes me feel good and gives confidence in the load......hard to really measure what that's worth.

Target is 6 shots (one up the sput and the 5 from the speed loaders) w/o cleaning or wiping at 100 yards.

Larry Gibson

[x101airborne]

Phenominal shooting Larry. Cant argue with a muzzle loader shooting like that!

[winelover]

I just wipe on with my fingers also. Messy, yes but I just carry rag to wipe my fingers off with. If I shot conicals more I would prelube them and devise a way to keep them clean but I mostly shoot RBs.

I made loading blocks, similar to those used for round balls, for carrying prelubed maxi's out in the field. I also use the TC tube luber caps without any issues. One could use those to carry two prelubed maxi's in a ziplock bag while hunting. Rarely will you get more than 2 shots, anyways.

If your splitting tubes, your bore butter is more than likely old. I have some ancient tubes that are rock hard.

Winelover

[Larry Gibson]

Rarely will you get more than 2 shots, anyways.

Isn't that the truth. When hunting I load one down the spout, put the 5 speedloaders in my pocket and carry a "capper" with extra caps. I did use 2 of the speedloaders on a day hunt once though, shot a coyote + the deer:bigsmyl2:

Larry Gibson

[AR-15 Cowboy]

I usually don't get more than two shots off during my hunts. I use beeswax and borebutter in a 60/40 mix. The hot Texas sun will keep even that soft. Lately I have been using a felt wad on top of the powder covered in the same mix. I think it has improved my accuracy.