LEE 90255 lubes

[NSP64]

This is the bullet mold I picked up yesterday. LEE website says it's for 50-70 rifle. If I cast it in a cool mold it won't fill out completely giving a boolit that can easily be started down the pipe. Question is I live out in the boonies and want a home lube that could be used for this boolit. I shoot an inline and the boolit (cast of pure) is like a R.E.A.L. boolit. I plan on a trip to the range 11-25 to test and will start at 70 gr Pyro RS. Searched for mini lubes and didn't come up with much. Any thoughts appreciated.

[dubber123]

I don't know how it will fare in your muzzleloader, but that boolit is amazingly accurate out of my 50-70. My best was a .557" 3 shot group at 50 yards. I shot a .8" group immediately after. My 50-70 is a custom barreled Contender, with a 6-1/2" barrel. To say I was happy is a major understatement. I have bought 2 140$ a piece custom moulds for this pistol, and the 16$ Lee outshoots both of them. You just never know. Lee makes a 500 gr. version by the way. I also have a 390 gr. FULL wadcutter mould that averages 1" at 50 yards, an E-bay special that apparently was made for the 50-70 by Shiloh. (Inexpensive aluminum mould). One of these might me interesting in your ML. Good luck with your new mould.

[NSP64]

Whats the twist on your contender? I hope this works, they sure are pretty boolits:drinks:

[jonk]

A good minie ball lube, eh? I've been in that search myself. However, I've always done ok with Crisco. Good, cheap place to start. Thomson's bore butter is good. Any natural, non petroleum base is a good place to try too. (SPG, etc.)

[dubber123]

Whats the twist on your contender? I hope this works, they sure are pretty boolits:drinks:

It's 1-26" Slow by rifle/pistol standards, but pretty fast by muzzleloader standards. I would have went with a faster twist, but the barrel maker suggested this one, and I can't complain. My .54 carbine ML is 1-24", but thats the fastest I have ever seen in a front loader. What is the twist on your ML? 1-48"?

[Buckshot]

.................Rifles want different stuff sometimes. My P58 Enfield will shoot crisco for maybe 5 good shots but that 5th is the beginning off difficult loading and accuracy deteriorates. My buddy had a superb 1970's Lyman import of a P53 Enfield 3 bander. I have no idea who made it but it was the most accurate and easy to please rifled musket I've ever seen. And that was with Crisco. One afternoon he and I sat at opposite sides of the bench shooting at the 200 meter gong.

This plate was maybe 11"x14" or so. He'd fire a shot and hit the dinger then hand it over to me. I'd dump a charge and then scrape the Minie' boolit's HB through the Crisco and ram it. Put on a cap hold on the plate and shoot. Then I'd hand it back to him. we passed it back and forth like that until we either ran out of powder or caps, I forget which it was now. That musket got hot!

Below is a target I shot one afternoon at the range:

http://www.fototime.com/973499CEAD8C051/standard.jpg

Very quick and dirty test of lube. I just happened to have both on hand so fired 5 of each. The Bore BUtter one does have that one flyer up high. These were off the bench at 50 yards and the load was 70.0gr of Swiss 2Fg powder. The other finicky thing is that if I put lube in the lube groves the groups are still groups but they're half again as large. It like lube in the base cavity only. You just have to experiment.

.................Buckshot

[Rattus58]

Why do you suppose the bore butter did so much better in your gun? I have a 58 version similar to those bullets that is 315 grains and is by far my most accurate bullet with 60 grains of Pyrodex P or 3F.

Aloha... :cool:

[NSP64]

It's 1-26" What is the twist on your ML? 1-48"?
Mine is a newer model with 1-28" twist. Shoots PRB great with reduced charges(30-60 pyro rs) and sabots great up to 150gr. Found this mold and thought "why not it's only $13.00" really like the way they look. going to grab some crisco and head out.

[Maven]

nsp64, As Buckshot pointed out, although you can't beat the price of Crisco, it doesn't really attack BP/Pyro fouling. It just keeps it soft. If you'd like to try your hand at making a BP lube, here's a version of Emmert's Lube that's simple to "brew": 50% pure natural beeswax*; 40% white Crisco shortening; 10% canola oil. All measurements are melted by volume. (Don't heat the mixture to the point of smoking!) The finished product should flow through a lube sizer at temps. ~50 deg. F or higher.


*I substituted toilet seals (petroleum-based) for the beeswax as I had a few nearly new ones on hand. I can get 5 - 10 accurate shots with CB's lubed with this formulation [of Emmert's] from my Marlin .45-70 (Microgroove) with BP or Pyro loads if I use a blow tube. After that I have to swab the bbl. to restore accuracy.

[Junior1942]

Lots of people use this: http://www.castbullet.com/makeit/lube.htm You can make it in the microwave.

[Rattus58]

Junior..... dang.... it taked a half a case of red bull to read all that... :)

[NSP64]

Well I grabed some crisco and ran to the range. Raining. couldn't put out the chrono.Pushed some down the tube over 90gr pyro RS. Big thump. Only shot 25 yrds but all three shots in one big hole. an old time 50 cent piece would cover nicely. time to cast a few more and chrono next time, and back up to 100 yrds:Fire:

[Buckshot]

Why do you suppose the bore butter did so much better in your gun? I have a 58 version similar to those bullets that is 315 grains and is by far my most accurate bullet with 60 grains of Pyrodex P or 3F.

Aloha... :cool:

............Those Minie's are 58's. I bought the mould from Maven as a matter of fact :-) I don't know what's in Bore Butter vs Crisco other then some yellow coloring and some wintergreen smell. The price is also different. I've tried mixing the 2 and it did last longer but the groups weren't as good overall.

................Buckshot