car baked boolit lube

[Indiana shooter]

Okay so I have been playing with different "traditional" style lubes over the winter (as in the lube that goes in the grease grove, not a tumble lube). As many of you have already found the Felix lube has proven to be the best for me. I don't have a lubesizer and have found Felix lube to be very difficult to use as a pan lube, so I hand lube each of my boolits before sizing and storing.

This past weekend we went camping and I thought I'd use this opportunity to catch up on lubing some of my boolits. After lubing up 1500 boolits and packaging them up in 3 separate containers I placed them in the truck. After returning home on Monday I found that the lube had melted. And that got me thinking.

What happens to loaded boolits if they set in the vehicle for a day or so?

Does the melting lube separate?

Does the lube migrate to and contaminate the powder charge?

Is the neck tension enough to hold the melting lube in place?

[silverpigeon]

If I had to guess I would say for the most part it would stay in place. I can't see much of it seeping into the charge.

[JWT]

Try loading a dummy round with cotton instead of powder and a spent primer. Leave in a hot place for a few days and cut it open. This should answer the question.

I would try one standing up and one laying down.

[Grump]

IMO, but only if you are ready to pound out squib boolits, a better test is a day, a week, and a month in the car's heat, 5 stored boolit up, 5 stored boolit down, and 5 more stored on their sides.

Shoot 'em over a chrono at a target.

Note velocity effects and group sizes, in addition to the pass/fail of whether they even go off.

As I learned regarding light primer strikes, 100% "boom" isn't the ONLY test criterion.

Recommended for only those who do not frustrate easily.

Having fired a LOT of light and medium .38 Special reloads with merely the presence of thin lube remnants on the bases, I can tell you that minor quantities of 50/50 Alox, RCBS lube, and RandyRat's Tac#1 on the bases of boolits makes no difference at all when the lube has NOT reached melt point. At least I think the rounds never got that hot...

Maybe someday I'll run some heated/melted and unheated cartridge experiments with a full lube groove's worth of goop in with the powder chamber.

[bangerjim]

Exactly one of the reasons I now use powder coated boolits for everything. We have HEAT (a lot) here in the SW desert!

banger

[runfiverun]

adding carnuba wax [3%] and bumping up the bees-wax by another 5%, should raise the melt level of the lube quite a bit.
it won't affect your groups any either.
you just have to find the temp cut-off between the winter and summer lubes and switch back and forth.
I'd bet it's somewhere around 30-f

[leadman]

Before I started coating my boolits with Hi-Tek I used either LBT Blue Soft or a modified Carnuba Red. LBT Blue Soft was developed here in Az by Veral Smith when he lived here.
The modified Carnuba Red is 2/3 CR mixed with 1/3 Magma Lube by weight. Does not melt in the heat here and stays in the grooves. Straight Magma Lube melts around 220 degrees but does not prevent leading. The modified CR is still good for over 2,000 fps in the rifles with no leading.

[Grump]

Hey, leadman, have you determined the performance limits of the LBT Blue Soft?

I don't remember it being mentioned anywhere in the now-dissipating Extreme Lube thread, and I'm wondering how close it comes (at various temperatures) to meeting the no first-shot flyer and other performance criteria. It looks like over there, one type fulfills the "Extreme" requirements up to about 2,200 fps IF I read and remember correctly.

Depending on where its limits lie, I wonder if the massive experimental results over there could point to a simple "tweak" of LBT Blue Soft so we have at least one other Extreme option. NOW I gotta go see if LBT Blue Soft is a) still made, and b) reproduceable by the home-brew lube nuts...

[cajun shooter]

I shoot nothing but Black Powder and only use NASA Lube on all my bullets. I'm posting this to attest to the use of the Carnauba Flakes added to my NASA Lube. It works much better in the high temps and humidity of South Louisiana.
It makes the lube easier to handle and use and my clean up is fast and easy with bright shiny bores. Just remember that a little goes a long way. Later David

[Bigslug]

Depending on where its limits lie, I wonder if the massive experimental results over there could point to a simple "tweak" of LBT Blue Soft so we have at least one other Extreme option. NOW I gotta go see if LBT Blue Soft is a) still made, and b) reproduceable by the home-brew lube nuts...

No dice Grump. Veral doesn't share the recipe. We know it has a beeswax component. Beyond that, if he told you, he'd probably have to kill you.