12ga BP Round Ball in Brass Shells - Lube?

[djryan13]

I have the basics of this process already but I wanted thoughts on whether it’s worth putting some lube in the case somewhere.

What about a spoonful of melted lube on top of ball? Or just a lube cookie in the cushion wad?

[Pontiacthrasher]

I would like to hear about this too from some people, in the meantime: what mold and lead are you using? I picked up some 12ga brass shells and the Lyman .735 mold, but have not had the chance to work with them yet.

[rancher1913]

if it was me and I was shooting real black powder, I would use a lube cookie under the ball just like I do with my black powder shotguns.

[djryan13]

I have the full bore mold from Mihec. For lead, soft range scrap.

Do you put a card between lube and ball, Rancher?

[rancher1913]

I do powder, lube cookie, ball or shot. but I dont leave it loaded very long so if your not using the shells fairly quick you may want something between the powder and lube cookie to protect the powder.

[KCSO]

I use a lubed cushion wad under the ball. Powder hard card cushion wad and ball. To lube the cushion wad I just hold them in a pair of needle nose and give them a light dip and not soak them up with lube just a nice film on the outside of the wad.

[djryan13]

Great advice, guys. Thanks!

Would there be any issue putting some on the ball itself to hold in place?

[rancher1913]

you would be better off with a light crimp, just barely roll the lip against the ball.

[djryan13]

I guess I could put another cushion wad in to get ball up to case mouth. As of now, it would still roll around even with crimp

[rancher1913]

yes, you want to use spacers to keep everything snug, movement of the payload is a very big no no

[djryan13]

Thanks!!!

[toot]

weather i am loading shot or a round ball in brass hulls, paper or cut down, crimp remover plastic, I use no lube. when you cut oped old paper hulls that don't fire to retrieve the shot, you will not find any lube at all . i have been loading and shooting brass, paper and plastic hulls for 60 years with BP, both 10 and 12 gauge,and not had a hiccup one! I use a over powder card over the powder, then felt wad, witch by the way has an amount of wax on one side, then a load of shot or a .720 DIA. RB, then over shot card, followed by DUCO CEMENT, HOT GLUE, or CANDLE WAX to seal it. then go and make smoke that smells like rotten egg's, that is how I do it.

[djryan13]

weather i am loading shot or a round ball in brass hulls, paper or cut down, crimp remover plastic, I use no lube. when you cut oped old paper hulls that don't fire to retrieve the shot, you will not find any lube at all . i have been loading and shooting brass, paper and plastic hulls for 60 years with BP, both 10 and 12 gauge,and not had a hiccup one! I use a over powder card over the powder, then felt wad, witch by the way has an amount of wax on one side, then a load of shot or a .720 DIA. RB, then over shot card, followed by DUCO CEMENT, HOT GLUE, or CANDLE WAX to seal it. then go and make smoke that smells like rotten egg's, that is how I do it.

Reviewed the YouTube videos including Midway’s dude loading up BP shot and no lube in those.

I wanted to seal in ball well so I bought some cement that he recommended. I also saw folks using candle wax which gave me the idea to use a wax based lube. Kill 2 birds as they say.

[curdog007]

Over the years, I have found properly utilized lube to be one of the most important components in black powder loads.
I use lube in shot loads to keep the fouling in the barrel to the equivalent of one shot. Allowing fouling build up by not using lube does lead to rapid pattern deterioration over a string of shots.
I am not a target or silhouette shooter, but I hunt with black powder and paper wrapped boolits, none of these other things people sling around will ever catch on, that I am sure. A load built with proper lubrication allows me to fire 20 shots without cleaning, the last three shots of which will go into as tight a group and in the same spot as the first three. Although this is getting harder for me now, as I am getting old!

To do this, the lube must be over the powder so the hot gases can melt the lube and coat the bore. All the fouling from the previous shot is pushed out by the bullet, and the new coating of lube on the bore has the fouling from only one shot, ready to be pushed out with the next shot.
The lube does not keep the fouling "soft", rather it is between the fouling and the bore surface. The barrel will come clean with two or three patches, whether a rifle or shotgun.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
And if you get up to 135 grains 2F Goex please do write your thoughts about the moment.
Mike in LLama Land

[djryan13]

Good morning
And if you get up to 135 grains 2F Goex please do write your thoughts about the moment.
Mike in LLama Land

Double I am man enough. ;)

[Markopolo]

Toot tooooot... toot does what I do to... but I do add a bit of a crimp on my brass shells with my rcbs cowboy die for 12g..

[curdog007]

Good morning
And if you get up to 135 grains 2F Goex please do write your thoughts about the moment.
Mike in LLama Land

I have shot 5 drams (136 grains) of Goex OE in a .500 x 3" single which weighed 7 3/4 lbs.
It goes like this:
First shot - gets your attention.
Second shot - just hurts.
Third shot - downright painful.

And I have shot a real 8 bore double barrelled elephant rifle, 328 grains of OE with a ball approaching 900 grains.
If anyone tells you the recoil is just a big push, they have never shot one. The rifle comes back fast, and it comes back hard.

[Mr. Crumbly]

I second that about the 8-bore, and the one I fired was a single. I've never fired a 4-bore and don't want to, since I value my retinas. I do have a 12-bore made for ball and 7 drams, and she is just about right. A 10 would be nice, but once you go bigger than that, it gets to be more torture than anything else. The heavier loaded 12's were the workhorses of the day anyway. And we're not talking 3 1/2 dram dove loads here, we're talking up to 9 drams with conical.

[missionary5155]

All our 12 gauge shooting was done with a Savage Fox B with 30 inch barrels. Probably a bit light for the loads but we were looking for a RB load that would be well usable for a close encounter with any large nasty bitty critter. We did back off to 125 grains 3F Goex as there was minimal velocity lose and both barrels tended to print much closer at 50 yards. At 35 yards both barrels with RB are near crossing. Both barrels have been reamed to .003 muzzle constriction. We added a simple rear sight to the rib top at the receiver area.
We are still well satisfied that whatever that range scrap ball encounters at roughly 1450 fps is going to have a very disrupted day.

[17nut]

Being doing this for years and here's how i do it:

Dump powder
Seat 11 gauge over powder wad + filler wads if any
Dump a molten measure of lube from a .38SPL case onto the wad and then dump/stamp in the round ball.
If you really need grease then reverse this and dump a full measure of lube onto the round ball and finish with a shim.