What's the difference???

[GunnyJohn]

I've only been casting for about 3 years now, and I admit ignorant about many aspects of this craft. When I got started I bought alot of my tools second hand. My lyman 450 had some black lube in it, so I used it up. I bought a stick of lyman orange magic lube next and used it. Then a buddy gave me several sticks of Hodgdon ALOX (old stock, the price on the box .75 cents) they all seem to work. What are the advantages/disadvantages of different lubes?

[gunoil]

Iam a novice to, i would use lyman. I have star sizer i just bought and plenty of blue lube sticks from them. I also think newbies should start with lyman steel molds instead of say: Lee! Lyman's can take learning curve just like blue lube goes with my star from magma star.

[MattOrgan]

Most commercial lubes do work well for most cast bullet shooting. Some smoke less which is good for indoor shooting. Some sling less from bullets leaving less of a mess on your gun and keeping the indoor range cleaner. My experience is that the "hard" lubes work well under 1,000 fps, limit leading, good accuracy, low smoke, no greasy mess. I include liquid Alox and 45/45/10 in the " hard" category. I have gone to 45/45/10 for all standard velocity handgun bullets. Quick, cheap, and effective. In rifles to about 2,000 fps most of the softer lubes seem to work well. I have used most off the major types over the years and they all work. I want usable accuracy at 200 yards and less in my rifles. I used to want to see how fast I can propel a cast bullet accurately, but I'm over that now. I was happy with LBT Blue and Blue Soft because of very limited leading and dependable accuracy. The various big name brands worked almost as well. Since the panic occurred and supplies became tough to get I decided to make my own lube to be a little more self sufficient. I made a batch of Ben's Red because I had most of the ingredients on hand. It is better that anything I've used. Better accuracy and no leading at all. But same rifles and loads with the commercial lubes gave me accuracy I found acceptable and leading that could be removed with a tight patch and Ed's Red solvent. I guess that the bottom line is therec is no magic in the exotic lubes, you are not missing anything. This is not to say I don't follow developments in lube performance closely. If someone develops a lube that is cheaper, better, or allows 3,000 fps I'll jump on the band wagon. If standard lubes we're easily available and cheap like they used to be I'd still be happily using them.

[gunoil]

I been on hi tek supercoat month or so and love it. Designated one star to hi-tek and other star i have now I will go thru learning curve to set it up for star blue. Must say i only do pistol. I run 2 loadmasters. One day a 1050 but first, a collator from rick (nose down) at mrbulletfeeder.net.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

...they all seem to work. What are the advantages/disadvantages of different lubes?

The answer is a VERY complex !
some good reading
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?148746-quot-Extreme-quot-boolit-lube-The-Quest

The simple answer is, most all Lubes will work OK in most all applications. it's when you get to the extremes is when you'll get failure.

I've been told by a long time caster, that crayola crayons melted and applied to "plinker" pistol rounds work as good (or better) than most any boolit lube...and many times you can find them for free or very near free.

I really like the 50/50 Alox/beeswax for an all around pistol lube. For Rifle's, I like Bullshop's Lotak (over 2Kfps) or randyrat's Tak #1 (under 2Kfps).

If you want to know the "why", you got a lot of reading to do.

[357maximum]

If you never break 2200 fps or 40,000PSI damn near any decent lube will do. When you start pushing 24,25,26,27,2800 fps+ or 50-60,000PSI that is when the men are seperated from the boys in the lube department. Bore condition (rough v.s smooth) and barrel length also come into play in the upper ends of pressure/speed lubes.

When you push 2.8 to 3.6k+ with cast not only does lube choice become a serious decision, alloy and powder selection also becomes critical factors. It is not just about lube when you are pushing the outer/upper limits with cast.


Buy a rifle that can hold 55-90 grains of powder and figure out how to make that run accurately with cast at full advertised j-word velocity (on demand) and everything else becomes alot easier.

Working with lube in a 38 special or a 30/30 is not going to tell you anything beyond the technology that has existed for better than a century. You may use some chemical not available 100 years ago, but I guarantee there is a 100 year old substance that will work just as well.

If you wanna learn something new you have to occassionally swing for the fence.

[canyon-ghost]

Shorter answer:

Soft lubes can spin off the bullet once it leaves the muzzle (benchrest rifle shooters love it)

Hard lubes are easy to handle and clean up after (pistol shooters like them)

Alox lubes have longe been the best in either but, tend to be soft. They are very good.

[runfiverun]

and not be afraid to fail, and start over.

[btroj]

Learning by doing? What a concept!

Failure is a far better teacher than success.