Lube vs smoke ?

[Obsolete]

Around my area the majority of my pistol / revolver shooting is done in small indoor ranges. Despite having good ventilation , smoke seems to be an issue with many people..... Most of my shooting is with lower pressure rounds , 38 Spec , 44 Spec , 45 ACP type loads. Soft alloys 8 to 9 BHN in the 38 Spcl and 44 Spcl and harder Alloys on the 357 and 45ACP stuff.

My question is with the various lubes available and assuming proper bullet fit , what effective lubes have you guys found that also produce lower / lowest smoke levels with these typical uses ?

[edctexas]

I stopped using lubes and started using Powder Coated boolits. The smoke basically ended. There are some lube that emit less smoke. The Alox based lubes do smoke. I have tried TAC-1, TAC-X, and Ben's Red. Those have less smoke that the Lee lube of the old NRA Alox formula. Some other probably have opinions on which formula does the least smoke.

Ed C

[bruce381]

powder coating will give about like jacket smoke just the powder burning.

The less Alox the less smoke that said i Powder coat for indoor and use LARS Carnuba red for rest.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

If you are up to making your own lube, one of the attributes to SL68B is minimal smokiness.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?288713-SL68B-the-quot-all-around-quot-boolit-lube-and-how-to-make-it

[Obsolete]

Thank you Gentlemen , I'm still abit of a newby to casting and want to get some more experience with the basics before learning to Powder Coat. I'll look into the suggestions you guys have provided ... Thanks again.

[runfiverun]

stay away from the alox bearing lubes for sure.
quite often the powder smoke is just as bad as the lube smoke and some combinations are worse than others.
50-50 with unique or 231 and high humidity is pretty much a guarantee of a smoke screen.

a quicker powder like clay's or titegroup and a good lube like Tac-X, a micro-wax with mineral/animal oil as the lube, or a decent play-dough like consistency home made lube will really help things along.

[Obsolete]

Thank you runfiverun , I'll check those ideas out....I appreciate the help !

[geargnasher]

SL-68 or SL-68B. A little tough to make, but generate less smoke than any of the several hundred lubes I've tried to date. If you want to keep it simple and just buy it, LBT Blue is pretty low-smoke.

Gear

[Obsolete]

Thank you Gear !...... looks like I'm going to have to learn more chemistry after reading several topics on this.....