Mirror Lube Testing

[leadman]

There was another thread on mirror lube that brought up some questions. Randyrat made some of this and shipped it to me as I had volunteered to test it. For the firearms I again used my Ruger SBH Hunter in 41 mag with 2X scope, range 25 yards, 17.8grs LilGun, Saeco 220gr TC, 10 shots. Also used my 60s' era Savage 110DL in 30-06 with a 3X9 Leupold, range 100 yards, 19grs SR4759, 311041 @ 177grs,10 shots.

Ruger
Velocity 1,307 fps, about average for this load
Group 2.512", about 1 inch larger than normal
No leading, shiny clean bore with a nice lube star on the muzzle

Savage
Velocity 1,584 fps, about average for this load
Group, two 5 shot groups, 2.154" and 2.69". No leading.
These were the largest groups fired this day with this rifle and load. Normal average is about 1.5" or less. Normally I have a light but hard fouling a couple of inches in front of the chamber with Carnuba Red, this lube left none. Did have excess lube at the muzzle also. This might be too slick so maybe a little tweeking would help.
The mirror lube is soft enough that a heater shouldn't be needed and seemed to stay in the lube grooves well. Is a good lube if the condition of the bore is primary and not the finest accuracy. I would think one could plink a long time and not have to worry about the bore leading. Also should be fairly easy to make.

[geargnasher]

It is easy to make a boolit lube that does as much as a lube can do with regard to "preventing" lead fouling, it is far more difficult to develop a formula that is ACCURATE. One thing you might do is adjust the load in the rifle slightly up or down to see if the lube changed the pressure curve of the system enough to throw an otherwise accurate load into another barrel node. One thing I've learned is not to draw a false conclusion about a particular concoction being "inaccurate" simply because it didn't perform as well as the lube with which the baseline test load was initially developed.

Gear

[leadman]

You are correct that the load may have to be changed to regain the normal accuracy with the guns. Still the group sizes are not what I would call inaccurate at all. I have seen many worse groups from people firing jacketed bullets at the range.
I normally don't have excess lube on the muzzle of the Savage, just a star. Your mirror lube is a good lube that would be easy for people to make and it might work entirely different in their guns.
I also tested some of the Carnuba Red with a small amount of carnuba wax added. It was less sticky and group and velocity were not changed. I also did a larger test on Carnuba Red with about 25% of the Magma lube added. This is a pretty stiff mixture but again velocity and group sizes are not changed. This is the lube I think I am going to go to if additional testing on a couple of other guns work ok. I also need to heat test it.
I ran out of the LilGun and had to wait until the shop got some in, then it was 30% higher than normal priced. Now my supply of SR4759 is getting low! This is also out of stock and the price has gone up the same %. I did test some loads in the Savage with 2400 and I think this will work out fine. I have about #4 of it.
I did talk with a couple people at the range that said they were not shooting as much due to the lack of ammo and components.

[geargnasher]

I've had 3/4" loads open to 4 or 5 inches simply with a major lube change, and have had 3/4" groups double on either end of a certain ambient temperature window and fix them with a slight lubricity tweak at one end or the other (but not both ends). The lubes that fling one out of five or ten to make that 3/4 or 1" group a 2" group are the most frustrating, particularly if the flyer can be specifically traced to lube and not other "variables" like a slightly tight or loose case neck, casting void, flinch, fly on the nose, etc. Then there are the lubes that simple make the groups larger while keeping the same round, evenly-dispersed pattern. That's where you might look at reducing the number of grooves you lube to maybe just one plus the space in front of the gas check, or maybe not even that much, or add about 20-30% beeswax and give it another go.

Gear