Do you keep your balls lubed?

[troy_mclure]

I keep my .454 lubed with t/c bore butter. It keeps them from corroding and eases loading in my c&b revolver. Does anybody lube balls that are to be patched?
I'm wondering if it will affect my accuracy or anything. I live in a high heat high humidity region and my rifle balls get corroded pretty quick so I was thinking of lubing them too.

[Omnivore]

Some of the commercially available ball are coated. They say they can be handled without you being exposed to as much lead, and it's for corrosion protection also. Don't know if it could effect accuracy in any way, especially if you're using lubed patches. A ball can't hold enoughh lube to do much lubing on the bore, and if it's patched it doesn't touch the bore anyway. I've heard of people tumble lubing them for the above reasons using Lee liquid alox (which dries to a hard waxy coating) but I've never bothered. I don't live in a high humidity area. Things can get pretty moist in certain weather conditions. I've never had much corrosion of the lead, and I cast a lot of my own. They'll stay shiny for months indoors.

I'd say if it works for you, then keep using the Bore Butter. It certainly can't hurt (unless you drop one, in wich case the grease will make dirt and junk stick to it).

[Lead Fred]

Ive got balls that I made 10 years ago, they are in a plastic bottle, they all look just like they came out of the mold.

I prefer to have a positive contact bewteen the ball and the patch

[waksupi]

If you want to keep them shiny, put them in some soapy water, dump them out, and let them dry.

[gnoahhh]

Half of my balls already have a thin layer of oxide on them, they're that old. Doesn't seem to make any difference on the target that I can tell. Just shoot 'em up and don't sweat it.

[Skipper]

Yep, when I turned 60, I noticed that mine started to get a thin layer of oxide on 'em, too! :-P:-P

[Larry Gibson]

I am not touching this thread title line..........:happy dance:

Larry Gibson

[Beagle333]

My .457s turn white after a while if I stock em. The cylinder shaves a nice clean ring off when I load them, so it doesn't bother me if they are white. The rifling touches clean lead.

[Hellgate]

When I keep mine in a ziplock plastic bag they stay shiny. If you keep air/oxygen from them they don't tarnish.

[Alan]

Lubed? No, but I find a little Gold Bond Powder works wonders. [smilie=l:

[Boerrancher]

I have noticed that game doesn't seem to mind if the lead I load in my ML's have a slight layer of oxidation on them or not so I don't mind either.

Best wishes,

Joe

[troy_mclure]

i noticed some of my balls with corrosion are kinda coarse feeling, iwas just wondering if it could end up causing the patch to get caught on the ball instead of falling away cleanly.

[waksupi]

i noticed some of my balls with corrosion are kinda coarse feeling, iwas just wondering if it could end up causing the patch to get caught on the ball instead of falling away cleanly.

No....

[Fly]

Well if your using them in a cap & ball revolver, you most likly peel lead
any way when loading them in the cylinder.Don't know what you gain
other than shine on your balls.
Fly