Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting What lube now?

I use 2500+ for every thing now days because it was easier than cleaning out the luber.

I've ran about 10 different types of lube and sometimes I've had two kinds coming out of the sizer at the same time. Rifle or pistol, they all seem to work well for me.

my highest vel cartridge I use speed green in and that was just per chance. (2500 fps) works fine.

I'd not sweat it too much.

Consider these as words of wisdom. I've seen the subject of lube taken to the great heights of the universe. I've read the various threads of men who are really deep thinkers on the subject. I stand in awe of their conversations & wish not to speak against any of it. They have discovered things about accuracy, leading, etc.

But like blammer, I've used several lubes that worked just fine for my purpose. Can my purpose & the purpose of others be different? Sure can but for the most part I'm happy with what I use.

Thank you for the voices of reason and assurance.

While it's fun and educational to delve into the finer points of our hobby, I am one of those who simply don't care to compete in the "How Fine Can You Split This Hair" Olympics.


Fwiw, I've been using LBT Blue exclusively since the 90's. It's been used on mild .38 Spl loads through magnum handguns through 2000+ fps loads in the .30-30, .308 and .30-06. It never let me down so as long as it wasn't broke there was no reason to fix it.

Of course, I now powder coat all my handgun bullets but that's a heretical topic for another thread...

I was hoping to put in an order with LBT for a couple molds soon. Looks like I waited too long. Per their web site, they had a bad fire Christmas Eve, all their equipment was destroyed, and they probably won't return to making molds. Sounds like they will make lube again in the future, an even better formula (whatever that means) but won't be replacing / repairing the mold making equipment .. they're done. That is, if I read it right. Crap ... hate that.

Truer words were never spoken.

Powder coat lube.

Same here but again, there are those who have tested their theories over & over. They have put the time in so to speak & I wish not to take from that. But I'm pretty happy using what I have.

Not sure I can eat my breakfast having read this.

Great lubes from great people.

If you get cracked dry feet in the winter you can beat their skin care products.

I make my own 450 stick lubes with 60% beeswax, 20% hoglard, and 20% avocado oil

I've also mixed 50% beeswax, 40% olive oil, and 10% hoglard. Some of this is I dump and mix until it feels and looks right. I should get this down to an exact recipe. I've run Lee 309-170 molded bullets at full throttle 308 win loads at 2700fps with excellent accuracy. 1" groups at 100 yds from a target barrel. Interestingly they also shoot good semiautomatic

Hmmm. Interesting. Hog lard? The recipe probably won't gain much traction in the Middle East.

Can't think of better eyeliner for that third eye..

I use LBT blue soft. Great stuff!

I'm sitting down right now to mix up some wax wad material: an old recipe formulated by A.O.Niedner over 100 years ago. 4 parts beeswax/4 parts Japan Wax/2 parts colloidal graphite. Melt in a small double boiler and pour onto the surface of a pan of cold water - the wax solidifies on the surface in relatively thin sheets which are then removed and stored in a box with wax paper separating them.

The stuff is used at the shooting range when breech seating ammunition in single shot target rifles. After breech seating the soft plain base bullet firmly/completely into the rifling, the cartridge case is de- and re-capped and charged with powder. Before the case is inserted into the chamber behind the bullet its mouth is pressed into the wax sheet like a cookie cutter leaving a wax wad in the mouth thereof. It serves three purposes: A) it keeps powder from spilling out in the journey from the bench to the rifle chamber, B) protects the base of the bullet from the sandblasting effect of as yet unburned powder granules, and C) provides a modicum of additional lube to the bore. Another benefit which doesn't apply to me is if you're doing this with black powder propellant it goes a long way toward eliminating and/or softening fouling buildup in the bore, thus allowing the shooter to fire longer strings of shots without having to swab the bore between shots (what the old timers called "shooting dirty").

Probably of little interest here, just wanted to show a little of how the other half lives. "Tools of the trade":

de- re-capper, Pope-style


Bullet breech seating tools


Bullet lube pump (lubes one bullet at a time, at the shooting bench)