Lube in the summer heat?

[Steel185]

I have some homemade lube 50/50 beeswax and Xlox 350 (white label) it works great, but now its getting hot here in Iowa once i put it on the bullet it sorta get sticky and rubs off a little on other boolits i put it in with. Should i add candle wax to it, to harden it up some?

Any tricks for getting lube out of a lyman #45 easily without loosing all of it?

[btroj]

Adding candle wax may be fine in the summer but will potentially cause issues come fall or winter.
I personally like a softer lube. As for lube getting on other bullets in storage, I just learned to not care too much.

And yeah, this heat needs to go back to Texas where it belongs. 103 plus today sucks.

[Hang Fire]

103 qualifies as a cold snap here, too often it gets up to 125+.

[geargnasher]

Adding candle wax may be fine in the summer but will potentially cause issues come fall or winter.
I personally like a softer lube. As for lube getting on other bullets in storage, I just learned to not care too much.

And yeah, this heat needs to go back to Texas where it belongs. 103 plus today sucks.

Oh, don't be a sissy! :bigsmyl2:

Gear

[btroj]

I am a sissy Gear. I don't like the few sub zero days we get in the winter either.

Anyone know an area where it is 50 to 70 degrees all year? Every day?

[popper]

Inside - go big Red.

[Tracy]

I live in north Alabama where it not only tops 100*, it is also humid enough to stay hot all night. I also have been making at least some of my own bullet lube for years, and I can tell you, you do not want to use candle wax (paraffin) in the summer. Yes, it is harder than beeswax when it is cool, but it melts and becomes liquid at a lower temperature than beeswax. I have had paraffin-based lubes kill the powder charge of ammo left in my truck for just a couple hours. I have never had that happen with beeswax/Alox blends. It gets sticky, but it doesn't run.

[mortre]

Anyone know an area where it is 50 to 70 degrees all year? Every day?

Western Washington is close. It might top 5 days a year, and probably drop down below 30 during the day about the same amount. But 50-70 probably 9 months a year. You just have to get used to all the hippies.

Oh, it rains a good bit too.

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk 2

[Dale53]

It is predicted that it will get to 102 degrees here (SW Ohio) today. I have had NRA 50/50 damage the powder charge and cause duds in temps not much higher than that.

I have gone to Lars White Label Carnauba Red. It has a melting point of 165 degrees (it does require a bit of heat to lube properly) and I feel safe in extreme weather with it. It also shoots well in the winter time. Truthfully, I no longer hunt in sub zero temperatures but feel confident it will do the job in the cold, also.

I sometimes shoot black powder in my Bisley Vaquero so have a Lyman luber set up for Emmert's lube (an excellent home made black powder lube that also works well in cooler weather for smokeless) so it would be easy to use that for cold weather if I considered that a problem. After all, how many loads do you need for sub zero hunting. I strive for a one shot kill so a box would be more than enough even with sighting in...

Just a thought or two...

Dale53

[geargnasher]

Dale, Carnauba Red has some issues in the cold with some guns, throwing pretty bad flyers the first few shots. Severity is subjective, but it's not widely regarded as a great cold-weather hunting lube.

Gear

[btroj]

Inside - go big Red.

Sorry, not a Husker fan. Actually, more of a hater.

Dale, I have used a fair bit of CR. I like it in the summer but it doesn't do well below 40 degrees. Too many cold barrel flyers for my liking.

[Dale53]

Geargnasher and btroj;
I haven't noticed that in my guns but as I stated, I am no longer hunting in sub zero weather. It sure would be in order to check a particular gun out before you committed to cold weather hunting.

My use of Carnauba Red is now limited to handgun only. We, in Ohio, are not allowed to hunt deer with rifles (just muzzle loaders). All of my deer have been taken with handguns. I would certainly check my loads in cold weather before I committed to ANY lube. In the past, I used NRA 50/50 for hunting. I can say with certainty that in my revolvers, that NRA 50/50 works fine in winter.

Lars also has NRA 50/50 for those that want/need that for cold weather.

Thanks for the comments, fellows. No one person is able to experience everything (good or bad) so our collective wisdom is very useful.

Dale53

[1Shirt]

I like Lar's Red canuba, for most of the shooting I do with rifle. However I would not use it for hunting here in the winter. I use 50-50 for most all handgun blts, and if I were going to hunt w/cast (rifle or handgun) in the winter here (say at temps of much below 50 degrees. I also have had cold weather fliers with CanRed, until about 5-6 go down the tube on the range. However, it is the first and maybe the second shot that counts when hunting.
1Shirt!

[mktacop]

I am a sissy Gear. I don't like the few sub zero days we get in the winter either.

Anyone know an area where it is 50 to 70 degrees all year? Every day?

Monterrey CA......gorgeous area. Spent almost a year there back in '90

[btroj]

I will take the heat and cold before I will accept living in California.

I said I was a sissy, not an idiot.

[mktacop]

You asked....I never said you would WANT to be there....just that it met your requirements on temp. :)

I also spent 15 years living in Omaha......I'll take the Texas heat over Nebraska cold any day. :)

[btroj]

We do have our cold. I tolerate it because on the whole NE is a good place to love. Friendly people, lots of open space, and not too many idiots.

[paul h]

Summer heat, what's that? The trucks thermometer read 46 this morning, and it looks like we're getting snow at about 5000' on the mountains. Would love to have an issue with lube being too soft.

All joking asside, I've never liked the results of adding parafin to bullet lube. If you want a stiffer lube, just add more beeswax.

[geargnasher]

One thing about living here, you never have to shovel snow. If there's enough to shovel, the whole place shuts down and people stay home for a day until it melts.

We get cold here, but 40 degrees at 80% humidity, 25 MPH wind and only 1600 feet of elevation makes for a MISERABLE cold. I'd much rather be in the rockies at 8K feet where you can walk around all day in a tee shirt, jeans, and good hat at 15 degrees in comfort as long as the sun is up.

Gear

[btroj]

Great Gear, now I find that even the effects of cold are bigger in Texas. You guys just have to win, don't you?

As for lube in heat. That can be beaten. So can lube issues in the cold. Now a lube that dos both, that is another can of worms. And a big can of worms it is.

[geargnasher]

That's right, we always win! We have our own power grid, seaports, industry, petroleum, agriculture, lots of cheap labor (that just got legalized by Bummer so we won't go to jail now for having them on the payroll), and retain the right to secede from the rest of Amerika, just in case the rest of the country ticks us off too much. I think we need to get together with Nv, Az, NM, and La and knock four stars off of Old Glory. You're ok though, we'll let you come visit any time. Just come down this way toward the end of November and see what 40 degrees feels like to US, it's kinda like the lowlands of Missouri.

BTW I don't like paraffin in boolit lube either, except an occasional hint of Vaseline in some formulas. To make a lube firmer, add Ivory soap or more beeswax.

Gear

[guidogoose]

I use a little bit of Carnauba wax in my "witch's brew" lube formula. It doesn't melt on me in the summer. As for winter, I dont do much shooting then, at least outdoors anyways.

[fryboy]

i'm out here in the great wide open .. in what used to be termed " the great american desert " , we even made the news about our recent death valley july temps in june , i also do most my shooting in the summer so i prefer a hard lube , either add some more beeswax or some hi temp melt micro wax and a wee spot of carnuba or ivory
yeah out here the crayon lubes dont act like crayons for several months of the year lolz

[Steel185]

If its not recomended to add paraffin, the items i have on hand. half pound beeswax (getting more next weekend), xlox, and everything needed to make Ben's Red. I made some "Ben's red" a while back and never used it cause it smelled so bad and i was happy with my 50/50. I looked at it today and did 100 heat tests. Its not as soft as the 50/50, but i'm not sure how if it runs like paraffin? What do you think? Do i just need to break down and order some rooster red for the winter use?

This is being shot mostly on 45acp and ruger 480, maybe 45-70. Nothing high velocity.

I'm working my way reading through the Extreme Lube sticky, its read source of knowledge...man is it long.

[runfiverun]

bens red is a good lube.
once it's made you can modify it to suit your temperature situation.
just plain out adding more b-wax works well when the temps go up.
carnuba also has some hot weather benefits ,not so much goodness in the cold though.