lithium grease and JPW

[magnumuser]

My cast bullet usage has been speer swagged and lubed 148 hbwc and lasercast and gas checked in 30 caliber.


My question is that when i tried the rifle slugs, the leading was atrocious so somewhere i read about using regular lithium grease and johnson paste wax on their own as bullet lubes.. didnt actually help with accuracy or fouling, and i think increased fouling.


Anyways.. is there a means to make a simple product like these "ok" lubes on their own for short term use?

[Winger Ed.]

Welcome to the forum.


It'd be a big help to give some cartridge, load, and speed sort of data.
More info. on load data, alloys, etc. is most helpful.
There's a bit more to solutions with cast than universal, one size fits all type answers.

[Wayne Smith]

There is a sticky up above - Lube recipes - peruse this and then down to "Making Ben's Red" just below this.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

Lube can help, but a problem with many purchased cast bullets is BULLET FIT. Many vendors only provide .309 cast bullets for the 30 calibers, sometimes they work, but many times a .310 or .311 is needed. Shopping around to find different diameters can result in very good accuracy with purchased cast bullets. Some vendors will also provide cast diameters that you request.

[Uncle Grinch]

I typically resize and lube my Boolits with Ben’s Red and then coat them with Ben’s Liquid Lube and have not had any leading issues.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

magnumuser,
welcome to the forum.

Casting/reloading for Rifle is kind of "advanced", compared to low power pistol, like 38 Spl and 45acp. So maybe you want to start out casting for pistol.

With that said, Lead fouling is rarely related to lube. It's typically caused by undersized boolits ...and too hard of a alloy can make it even worse.

If I were to suggest a simple lube to a newbie, it would be the Old NRA formula.
1/3 Vaseline
1/3 beeswax
1/3 paraffin wax

An improvement to that would be to use less Paraffin and add a little bit of Ivory soap.
6 oz Vaseline
6 oz beeswax
1 oz paraffin
0.25 oz Ivory soap, shaved in thin slivers.
when you cook this, add beeswax last, after the soap has completely melted into the mix. Remove from heat at that moment, stir until beeswax is completely melted.

[Randy Bohannon]

JPW is expensive, I have no idea as to why.$160.00 I don’t think it would be my choice.
https://www.amazon.com/Johnson-Paste...3-0e5c1a776d5d

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

JPW has been discontinued, now making it "rare" hence the high prices on ebay and Amazon.
Minwax and Trewax both make a similar product that is close enough to use instead of JPW...in fact, it might be identical?
But, I strongly dislike the Minwax company, so I'd buy Trewax. My local Ace Hardware has Trewax for $13.

[magnumuser]

I got the JPW because i ran across a method to use it as a tumble lube,,, it didnt work very well for me and its been sitting around. Then i found a "recipe" that mixed it with a lithium grease.. that mixture turned to road tar in my .308

I assume that if i dig around in the closet, i can just use standard parafin tea light candles.. and do a simple double boiler operation with it?

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

The double boiler and tea candles will work fine for the first recipe. But the second recipe with soap needs more heat than a double boiler can deliver.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Mix that JPW with Lee's Liquid Alox, then thin that with a bit of mineral spirits, works good for a tumble lube with 38 spl type loads. I've heard of guys using JPW by itself for tumble lube, but I am skeptical of that. Alox based recipes work pretty good.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

Unless you just gots to make your own lube, White Label Lubes have ALL the lubes you would probably ever need, proven and usually cheaper than trying to make your own. LS Stuff, www.lsstuff.com,
tumble lubes, softer lubes, high speed lubes, take a look.

[725]

I'm with Uncle Grinch. never a problem.

[magnumuser]

Unless you just gots to make your own lube, White Label Lubes have ALL the lubes you would probably ever need, proven and usually cheaper than trying to make your own. LS Stuff, www.lsstuff.com,
tumble lubes, softer lubes, high speed lubes, take a look.

interesting company, decent prices. My main interest was to use up crap laying around the house.. as im somewhat tired of spending money right now. And i dont have a lubrisizer

[405grain]

magnimuser: Welcome to the site. Folks here are usually really helpful when someone has a problem. Unfortunately, so far all we know is that you're shooting a 308, and your lube doesn't work very well. It would be really helpful if you could tell us more information like; What velocity are you shooting? What diameter are you sizing your bullets to? What powder & charge are you using? All of these things can help people figure out what's probably going on with your loads, and how to help you make better ones. Johnson's paste wax is already soft, and adding lithium grease to it will only make it softer. A lube like that might be (just) OK on low velocity/low pressure pistol cartridges, but would probably not be a very good choice on rifle loads. Generally, for rifle loads you would need a stiffer lube. Try blending either carnuba or bee's wax to JPW instead of grease. If need be you could even melt down some crayons or candles and add some JPW to that and it would be better than grease.

To get a better understanding of how cast bullets work, and everything that's related to them like what causes barrel leading, what alloys to use, and how lubes work, download a free copy of this book: http://www.lasc.us/Fryxell_Book_textonly2.pdf

[justindad]

…problem with many purchased cast bullets is BULLET FIT. Many vendors only provide .309 cast bullets for the 30 calibers, sometimes they work, but many times a .310 or .311 is needed.

Magnumiser - Slug your barrel. If your purchased bullets are not sized properly for your barrel, then the only thing you can do to save these bullets is powder coat them.

[magnumuser]

Magnumiser - Slug your barrel. If your purchased bullets are not sized properly for your barrel, then the only thing you can do to save these bullets is powder coat them.

the lead mine is all focused n the 4-5 inches closest to the case mouth.. and 90% of the leading does dissapear whence I load the laser cast 170 gr GC to molded crimp groove. But that length cant function in the magazine and is still a pain for single loading.
ruger american magazine angle makes the tip and side of slug hit metal at the same time. But rifle feeds 180 gr Remington factory ammo like warm grease.

loading the slugs deep so they DO feed, the lead mine is horrid. And for some reason it blows the gas checks off of each one. Spent an afternoon wondering how the gas checks were laying on the shooting table under the muzzle.

[john.k]

The commonest cause of leading is gas melting of undersize bullets ......a very simple cure using you existing setup is enough filler between powder and bullet to make a gas sealing plug ...... a gas check made of whatever vegetable fibre suits you.....I use wheat bran ,but anything thats fibrous and non abrasive is just as good.........a filler will also remove existing leading ,eventually.

[John Guedry]

+1 on the White Label Lube. Reasonable prices,nice folks,GOOD STUFF.

[Dusty Bannister]

I know it has been asked previously, but exactly what cartridge are you working with. We know you talk about 30 caliber, but that does not really help much. Further, you say that when the bullet is seated and crimped in the crimp groove, you have an over all length that does not fit the magazine. Then when seated shorter, you get leading in the first 5-6 inches of the bore and the gas checks come off. You need a different bullet. And you need to provide more details to get good responses.