Trying my hand at making boolit lube...

[Bad Karma]

OK, here's what I put together for experimental lube.

1lb Beeswax
12oz lithium grease
2 tablespoons carnuba wax
2 tablespoons moly

So far it's not what I'd call a hard lube. It flows through my Lyman 450 fine. It fills the grease grooves very nicely. It has a dard gray green appearance to it and doesn't want to goo off the boolits like 50/50 beeswax/alox does. Doesn't smell nearly as nice as the 50/50 but I think it'll be fine. Now it's time to try it at the range.

[runfiverun]

i have been making a bit of different lubes lately it seems that bout anything that will stick to the boolit and provide some lubrication will do the job.
at least in pistols.
it is just a question of what you are willing to put up with as far as stickiness,or what will work in your sizer.

[Bad Karma]

What I'm after is a universal lube for rifle and pistol. I'm trying it out in my 30-06. The load I'm trying is a lower velocity load using 13.0gr Green Dot, 1.5gr Poly Fill, 200gr Lee and Wolf primer.

[runfiverun]

what you are using should do just fine for those applications.
you may not need the moly.

[Bad Karma]

what you are using should do just fine for those applications.
you may not need the moly.
I wanted to use white lithium grease but dang it's hard to find in quantity. My goal is to get a good lube so when I start ordering custom moulds I can sell them knowing the lube I put on them will be of the highest quality. I added the moly to the lube as a just in case measure. I want those boolits to be slick.

[leftiye]

BC, What type (I assume it was powdered) Moly did you use? Where did you get it?

I am working under the guess that a lube that puts the right coating on the bore might be the answer. In another thread someone said that their experience was that very little Moly should be used or else it affects accuracy. This jibes with what Harrison found out 50 years ago. Also, the carnauba coats the bore with a light coat that breaks off when it becomes too thick. If moly were to coat the barrel in suspension with the Carnauba a small amount of moly might be better in terms of not messing up the Carnauba coating. Smaller might be better, and might also be all that is needed. You might try moly grease instead of part of the lithium grease.

[runfiverun]

i think: moly does weird stuff and migrates. but not uniformly.
and if you run a brush down the bbl it gets worse.

[Bad Karma]

BC, What type (I assume it was powdered) Moly did you use? Where did you get it?

I am working under the guess that a lube that puts the right coating on the bore might be the answer. In another thread someone said that their experience was that very little Moly should be used or else it affects accuracy. This jibes with what Harrison found out 50 years ago. Also, the carnauba coats the bore with a light coat that breaks off when it becomes too thick. If moly were to coat the barrel in suspension with the Carnauba a small amount of moly might be better in terms of not messing up the Carnauba coating. Smaller might be better, and might also be all that is needed. You might try moly grease instead of part of the lithium grease.
I used mechanical grade moly from Midway USA. I have 2 pounds of it. I use it for coating jacketed bullets. This is the first time I used it on real boolits. I used Lyman Moly Lube in the past with good results and thought that moly would do well under higher pressure and velocities.

[Bass Ackward]

What I'm after is a universal lube for rifle and pistol.


Good luck. And your goal amounts to your expectation.

I'll bet that lube works for rifles at slightly higher pressure / velocity . Doesn't make me a happy camper for handguns minus the moly at all. Always larger groups, especially with PB designs.

The only way I found to settle on just one lube is to accept the loss of options and flexibility. Narrow my bullet design choices, my mixes, shooting goals, and accept rational or practical accuracy over desired accuracy.

That is OK if you can live with it or get it without changing. Many do, I wish that I could. "My" problem is that I can't. :grin: It's just easier and cheaper to flop lubes than molds.