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#! It has a nice pleasant aroma too, like sticking your nose in a skunks behind.

[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!

[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.

[44man]

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

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