that darn puff of smoke?

[x101airborne]

OK, besides mainly an irritation, what the heck causes that puff of smoke when you fire a cast loaded cartridge? i loaded some 175gr lee TC 40 cal loads with unique and the boolits were lubed with LLA. i have no leading whatsoever after 50 rounds, but it looks like im shooting BP. Any ideas?

[Doby45]

LLA smokes like a train all by itself.. One of the reasons I don't use it. I lube with Carnuba Red and use Clays and 231 for my 40cal and get little to no smoke. No smoke (noticeable) outside and very little indoors.

[NSP64]

LLA on the base of the boolit.

[x101airborne]

ok, anyone have any suggestions as how to keep it off the base? wipe em with alcohol?

[NSP64]

I hold them sideways and apply a drop to the side. let the drop run around boolit then set them on thier bases to dry. works on non tumble lube designs also.

[Doby45]

Kinda negates the allure of tumble lubing boolits when you have to hand paint each one, doesn't it?

[fryboy]

a slightly damp rag/towel with mineral spirits , wipe across and set to dry then load , but ...depending upon ur load u may still get a lil smoke

[44man]

The stuff also burns in the bore and leaves ash in the barrel. It has a low flash point.
If the little left on the base of a boolit makes that much smoke it must be 1/2#! :mrgreen: It has a nice pleasant aroma too, like sticking your nose in a skunks behind. [smilie=1:

[x101airborne]

Thank yall. most helpful. in truth, it is probably on the heavy side. i dont mind the smell, this is only for banging on steel this fall and maybe a little varmint (2 and 4 legged) control. i usually keep a couple thousand practice rounds on hand and realized that im down to my last 50 cal can of loaded rounds. Worked out maybe 900 boolits this morning out of linotype for the glock. Good accuracy, 3"-4" @ 25 yards. plenty good for its purpose. im gonna be ready to take some of my buddies to the po po range and hang em to dry on the dualing trees.

[AZ-Stew]

Alox-based lubes aren't the only ones guilty of smoking. I've had commercial-cast (Meister) bullets with the crayon-blue hard wax lube smoke heavily, also. That might have been due to gas blow-by.

Regards,

Stew

[Rocky Raab]

I always thought it was the residue of all the bull that gets thrown around here. That explains the smell, too! Ha!

[smilie=1:

[Shiloh]

Unique and LLA causes smoke. Bullseye and LLA causes stinky, acrid smoke.

Shiloh

[runfiverun]

unique and lla do team up for extra blue clouds.
iv'e had 231 and hard lube [magma's] make smoke also.
and humidity makes it worse.

[fredj338]

Kinda negates the allure of tumble lubing boolits when you have to hand paint each one, doesn't it?
Funny! I agree though. I have little smoke issues using CarnRed.:castmine:

[44man]

Funny! I agree though. I have little smoke issues using CarnRed.:castmine:

True, it is a great lube. Seems as if any Alox based lube smokes the worst no matter the brand. I used a lot of it over the years and never seen the allure. There are too many other oils that work better. I have not tried Speed Green yet because I hoard my Bullplate but I do not see it burning. Safflower oil has a very high flash point too. Even peanut oil will work.

[chris in va]

Using JPW and mineral spirits seems to cut down on the cloud a bit, but not much. I might load a few with the bases cleaned to see what happens.

[x101airborne]

Good. I loaded several more test groups today and shot them. some had bases cleaned, others lubed. I tried several powders including red dot, blue dot, unique, and no.7. Everything smoked. So, i washed the boolits in a 5 gal bucket with acetone and am going to lubrisize with lyman super moly. (its all i got). I just cant figure this one out.... maybe it was just pre-ordained to smoke, but I dont care for it.

[EMC45]

LLA and Bullseye. Lots of smoke!

[starreloader]

Humidity level/dampness is one of the more common causes of smoke.... Next time you get a good dry day with low humidity go and shoot, you will have low to almost no smoke.... then shoot on a day with 50% or better humidity and see the much larger amount of smoke you get... Any of the guys that shot the BIG GUNS ( 105's - 155's or bigger ) will tell you about real smoke on those high humidity/damp days and nights.. If you shoot at an indoor range that has poor ventilation you will 99% of the time have a cloud of smoke hanging around you... Indoor ranges are just naturally damp.

Don't always blame the lube, it could be the atmospheric conditions... But of course there are some lubes that will smoke regardless of what the conditions are like.

[prs]

Well, I use a variant of Emmert's lube and ffg Shuetzen and I also have a good bit of smoke. Then again, I wouldn't have it any other way. lol

I thought Unique as just a little smokey all by itself.

prs

[Shiloh]

Kinda negates the allure of tumble lubing boolits when you have to hand paint each one, doesn't it?

You're darn right it does.

If I was going to do that, and you can bet I won't, I would lube them in the Lyman 450. The beauty of tumble lube is you can lube a mountain of boolits in a few minutes. The next day one can load and shoot them.

Shiloh

[HangFireW8]

LLA and Bullseye. Lots of smoke!

That's right, if you have no cover, make some! :Fire:

-HF

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
It is not much compared to Black powder. Quit yer sniveling.:bigsmyl2:

[home in oz]

Why is it a problem if you are mostly shooting targets?

[x101airborne]

one, i dont care for it. two, other people around me dont care for it. I know there is not much of anything wrong with it, but you have got to realize how many ignorant people there are out there that will make a fuss / assenine comments about it. Since I also use my 40 ammo to qualify every six months at the SWAT qualifications, I need to minimize the smoke.

[shagg]

I load 45acp LLA / bullseye and had considerable smoke. I now wipe off the bases with solvent and it diminished the smoke considerably but not completely.


Ron

[geargnasher]

101, take Doby's advice if you want to cut the smoke. Keeping the LLA off the bases isn't going to solve your problem. Also, if you choose to use a faster powder in the .40, I would certainly use softer boolits than straight linotype, try something like air-cooled wheel weights with a little tin added and keep the velocity around 800 fps to keep pressures under control. BD, HS6, and Longshot all smoke just a little bit more than the faster powders with either Felix lube or Carnauba Red, that is to say with the slower powders and the sun coming from the right direction you might notice it.

Gear

[onesonek]

one, i dont care for it. two, other people around me dont care for it. I know there is not much of anything wrong with it, but you have got to realize how many ignorant people there are out there that will make a fuss / assenine comments about it. Since I also use my 40 ammo to qualify every six months at the SWAT qualifications, I need to minimize the smoke.

Before I had given smoke a thought, I didn't care for lube contacting the powder,,,probably not an issue, but.
I just took a scrap piece of my liner material and rubbed it off after dry, while the liner material was laying flat on a table. I still had a touch of smoke but not every round. When a buddy noticed it I just smiled and said, "kinda adds to the nostalgia of shooting a round that's older than you and me combined"

Now if you don't like it, that's one thing. If shooting in a match and the director complains, that's another. But for those that like to complain or be asses about most anything they disagree with,,,,well they can take it or leave it I figure.
Kinda like those few that are making some fuss, or just generally being a pita at the range I go to,,,,,When I had enough, I break out the 6mm with the JP brake, put in the ear plugs besides the Pro Ears, and send a few down range. By the 3rd round, I have a all the room I want and no pestering,,,just the way I like it so I can concentrate on my shooting:D

[canyon-ghost]

[smilie=s: I've used the Lyman Super Moly, not bad if you soak the excess up by rolling them thru mica. I didn't care for the black color or the way it sticks to the bore, but have absolutely no complaints about it's performance at higher velocities.
But, like the others, I've become a fan of Carnuba Red- Dang good lube.

[chasw]

I use dacron filler on most cast boolit rifle loads. Recently, a nearby shooter at the local rifle range asked me, "what kind of powder are you using?" He said each shot was followed by a pronounced "fizzing or crackling" sound.

I believe it may be caused by the rapid heating of the dacron followed by cooling as it hits the air. Although I don't hear the sound itself, I can see a small "cloud" of dacron falling to the ground in front of the bench after each shot. - CW

[geargnasher]

That's strange, I've been using Dacron for years and never have seen the cloud or dust from shooting it, but I use it in mostly fairly high-pressure applications. I suppose it is either consumed in the barrel or gets blown far enough downrange I don't see it.

Gear

[gwilliams2]

Love the smell of burning Alox at the range...

[unique]

Love the smell of burning Alox at the range...

...in the morning?

[45-70 Chevroner]

To take the lube off the base of the boolit, I use a peice of carpet 3" X 5" stapled to the bench right next to the loading press. Being right handed I put it on the left side. I use my left hand holding the boolit uprignt and wipe the base of the boolit over the carpet no mineral sprits or any kind of liquid the base of the boolit will come up very clean. I get the carpet at a carpet store for free. They always have some commercial carpet remnents laying around. I have used this method for at least 25 years, and have wiped the bases of boolits that were lubed with LLA and have been stored for longer than six months. Be sure to get carpet with a very low knap ie "commercial" carpet, like the kind used in offices. A piece of carpet 18" wide by 4 or 5 feet long goes a long ways. I change the piece of carpet after about 4 or 5 hundred boolits.

[hillbill]

i kind of like the smoke from my blackhawk!lla and reddot makes sum.that reminds me i got to get to casting sum bullets for my ruger old army and get it ready for muzzy deer season in dec.

[Bass Ackward]

Many people have shot alox based lubes for decades. So .... it's workin for somebody.

I got an early lesson decades ago when I shot bullets that had air holes in the bases of my bullets. These naturally filled with lube in a conventional lubricisor. It remained even though I wiped the base. I didn't care then, it was load and go. When the slugs were recovered, it was still there. Over time, I learned that if I had smoke, it was gone all the time. If it was gone off the base, was it gone off the slug?

Smoke was an indication that something was not right. Seal is on the verge / will be / has been lost somewhere for some reason. I do shoot BE and LLA with minimal smoke that only smells like powder in the air. Not very fast, but it still works. It works right up until the bullet begins to obturate and use it up / require more. Then I smoke. And lead.

So is the lube really the problem? Will it be the cure?