Lubing Maxiballs and the like

[soldierbilly1]

How do you lube your cast maxi's and mini's? do you pan lube using a small warming tin followed by refrigeration? Do you push the round out or use some 0.5" tube to free the lubed round? hhmmm.

Obviously, I cant run them through my Lubrasizer:-P

thanks, there is a lot of information on this forum. still learning.
bill boy

[GabbyM]

Always just lubed them up by hand. More ways to carry them than Carter has pills.
For hunting it's hard to beat a few of those plastic capped tubes. Carry powder cap and a ball or bullet. Wood loading blocks. With caliber sized holes drilled into it. Just stuff bullets in holes. this even works for patched RB with patch and ball. Just hold over bore and punch in ball with short starter. When I was a teenager with lots of time. I'd lube up about a half of a one pound coffee can full of 45 caliber Maxi Balls then spend a hole afternoon shooting them all. Basic kit would be a few loaders for hunting so you have something fairly neat to carry in a pocket. Then just a can full of greasy bullets to set out on the range bench. Always carried a plastic or tin container of greasy lube in my bag plus a pouch full of round balls. Then a good supply of caps, patches and a full flask of powder. Was never at risk of running out of ammo. Easy carry with a 45 cap lock. About a dozen Maxis in plastic plumbing pipes pre lubed. Push one out with short starter. I've also a 45 caliber 265 grain RCBS Minie Ball that is small enough to paper cartridge and push down bore after ripping one end off and pouring powder down tube. Like I said. More ways than Carter has pills.

[smoked turkey]

I pan lube using one of the homemade lubes I read about here. I use a cake cutter I had Buckshot make me for cutting them out. Works very well for me.

[mooman76]

I just smear a semi soft lube on with my fingers. It doesn't take allot. A little messy but I have a rag handy and I don't shoot allot of conicals anyway. And by the way, some people do use their lube press.

[CastingFool]

I pan lube using Emmert's lube. Line them up in a tin pie pan, pour melted Emmerts until the lube grooves are covered, then wait until the lube hardens, then push out. Sometimes I push until the minie breaks loose, then push it back and forth in the hole a couple of times, before pushing them out all the way.

[mooman76]

T/C used to make a cheap luber. The conicals went through a tube and the lube was squeezed into the tube around the conical and you kept pushing them through and lubing. Some can still be found or you can make one if you are inventive.

[1980Harley]

After many different trial and errors, I now use my lubrasizer to lube both the Maxi Balls and the Lee REAL bullets that I use in my Hawken. I purchased a 509 sizer and use one of the black powder homemade lubes. Neither bullet gets resized much at all (about .001" max) but they do get lubed and since the lube is fairly stiff, it does stay on the bullet with all the handling I do at the range. My open sight Hawken shoots almost exactly the same groups at 75 yards with my current setup, so I have no reason to go back to either manually lubing the bullet or using the Maxi Lube with the TC lube device. Just my $0.02 worth.

[Motor]

I've had good luck just hand lubing with bore butter.

Motor

[carbine]

I size the Minie, put powder in a red tube, invert minie into tube and dip the minie in melted lead.

BTW
You can lubrisize. S7S and others make dies for minies in .001 increments. Used widely in the N-SSA

[725]

I hand lube 'em and pack 'em in loading boards. Slight messy operation stuffing the lube grooves and then pushing them into the board. Wipe the hands clean and the board stays functional all season. At loading, there is no mess, and they load fully into the muzzle with completely filled lube grooves. Make various boards with different number "chambers" and you can go to the range with large ones or hunting with small ones.

[Good Cheer]

Anybody note whether or not how well the lube comes back off seems to effect accuracy?

[soldierbilly1]

Anybody note whether or not how well the lube comes back off seems to effect accuracy?

Great question. I often wondered how hardened lube may effect flight on say a Maxi ball vs an on the spot greased Maxi?
does it pay to remove the hardened grease on a store bought Maxi, re-grease with your own at the range, and then fire. Any difference?
Bill boy

[carbine]

With a properly sized and lubed minie there will be an accumulation of lube scraped off the buttet at the muzzle. This doe NOT affect accuracy. We remove it between events.

[fouronesix]

Yes, the lube left at the muzzle affects nothing.

At the range, I just apply some lube for conicals, usually Crisco, with the fingers. If an old style Maxiball, the top band will engrave the lands and carry most of the lube down with it and leave very little in the bore above it. If a Minié near bore diameter, it too will scrape most fouling and lube down with it and leave very little in the bore or above it.

When shooting Maxiballs for best accuracy, I swab between shots- little or no fouling is in the bore from the previous shot. When shooting Miniés, I don't swab between shots up to the point that fouling is noticeable when seating- usually 10-15 shots. Then swab and start over.

I usually swab between shots for best accuracy when shooting PRB. I use moose milk for patch lube so very little lube is left in the bore above the PRB after seating.

[triggerhappy243]

I put lube in the bottom lube groove only. My rifles group better this way.

[swheeler]

I size the Minie, put powder in a red tube, invert minie into tube and dip the minie in melted lead.

BTW
You can lubrisize. S7S and others make dies for minies in .001 increments. Used widely in the N-SSA

I don't understand?

[Geezer in NH]

T/C used to make a cheap luber. The conicals went through a tube and the lube was squeezed into the tube around the conical and you kept pushing them through and lubing. Some can still be found or you can make one if you are inventive. I had that and the tube of TC lube screwed into it. It worked as advertised.