Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Lube

im a member there why dont you ask there if i know what im talking about. i tried simply saying how i did it and was attacked and told my opinions are wrong. no big deal isnt like theres anything to learn here. not when you have to reference the knowlege on another web site.

dont even know what this means

thats ok guys im way our of place here with ambiance and Beethoven and grammar police. i think this is casting for liberal school teachers. bye now

ya they must be the super cool bunch here. ive been shooting black powder cartridge guns when most of you were loading you diaper.

No, it's more of a pretty well rounded group. Flintlocke nailed it when he said approach/presentation is key for initiating a polite exchange of ideas.

Was going to give you the benefit of doubt and respond accordingly, but with that last comment you sound exactly like another PIA member here.

This is my thread and I was asking about home brew traditional lube. I was not asking what may be better than traditional lube. Was not asking a thing about powder coating, not interested, not gonna do it.

If you have something to add about traditional lube, I'll be glad to hear it....if not, well, bye.

And that has what to do with the price of eggs? (And for the record I'll guess that I have a couple years on you, and also started down the rabbit hole of feeding antique/vintage guns with cast bullets during the early years of LBJ's administration.)

Speaking of liberal school teachers....


Of course it really doesn't matter how long you've been doing something if it wasn't correctly done in the first place (that's what my comment means).

Let's begin with answering, with your decades of experience, did you EVER make a bullet lube that worked well you (aside from powder coating)?
That would help the OP.

yup felix lube. look it up and you might learn something

for my last post on this forum of yuppys and full of guys who think their something if they shoot 500 rounds a year ill answer your question with the lube most applicable to the types ive seen here. WAIT WAIT WAIT KY JELL with a little brow coloring added.

If you have something to add about traditional lube, I'll be glad to hear it....if not, well, bye.

now i think ill put some Bach on the stereo and make one of those cocktails with a straw and sit down for 2 hours and make me 6 good bullets. NAH il take a couple ballistic cast molds cast both at the same time and listen to some pink Floyd or skynard. sad thing is with the time ive wasted on this yuppy forum a could have casted a couple hundred more bullets. Im sure one of you cupcakes will have their feelings hurt and run cry to a moderator and try to get me banned. ill never know because im not wasting 5 more seconds here WELL, BYE

Lol, look who has yet anotheraccount.

Well, I guess he told us what's what and who's who.

On the subject of lubes, while I'm not inclined to mess with home made stuff when so much cheap, effective, reliable commercially available stuff abounds as I think I mentioned before (I'll not go back and check), I am intrigued by wax wads for use under plain base cast bullets. I've acquired a Tupperware crate full of components to start mixing/experimenting - beeswax, castor oil, colloidal graphite, Japan wax, paraffin wax, etc. Armed with recipes from Niedner, Pope, Sharpe, Donaldson, Leopold, et al I shall see if something can be formulated that'll aid me. Additionally I have a couple ideas of my own, mainly centered around unicorn spit.

Last season, on a whim, I tried dental wax in a .32-40 High Wall target rifle and it worked really well right up until it didn't. That wax is stiff, 1/16" thick, and comes in small sheets. After de-re priming the case and re-charging, before insertion into the chamber behind the pre-seated bullet I would press the case mouth through the wax sheet to form a wax wad in its mouth. An immediate betterment of accuracy was noticed that continued for several 10 shot strings. Thinking I hit pay dirt I went merrily along until all of a sudden accuracy fell off the cliff. Cleaning the bore and chamber I found out why: there was a hard compacted build up of that wax in the throat and bore. Had to scrub like hell to remove it, and I swore off of dental wax. But my initial pleasure with it wasn't forgotten and drives me to investigate if the protocol of wax wads can be successfully employed. (I think I'll need to strike a fine balance between hard enough for rough handling and soft enough to not build up hard deposits in the bore.)

It's not a new idea. The movers and shakers in this game at the turn of the last century were gung-ho about it, Admittedly though more recent movers and shakers have disparaged it. I don't know, but my initial experience with the damned dental wax really got me thinking that there's something to it. (I swear accuracy went from 2" at 200yds immediately down to 1 1/2" - same bullets, same conditions, same everything - the only difference was the inclusion of the wax wad. And then of course when the wax build up got impacted the wheels fell off and 3-4" was the result.) It could be also that soft wax wads really shine in the world of black powder cartridge shooting (a known fact), mainly to keep powder fouling soft to allow continuous shooting without cleaning, and not really shine so much for smokeless shooting. We shall see.

I think I look at this like I look at a lot of other stuff. Sure, I can buy a good commercial lube, but if I don't know how to replicate it, or make a feasible substitute on my own, them I'm up the creek if the commercial stuff decides to ever not be readily available. Recent shortages in many other reloading components should teach a lot of lessons in that respect. Either stock up an insane amount of something to last a really long time, or be able to make your own. I lean towards both. Having a good stock pile (especially stuff I CAN'T make myself), and having the ability to make some stuff myself. Besides, the info I'm after here first and foremost is what gives me that shiney bore and good accuracy. Figured maybe some homebrew out there might work best.
I now have lots of resources to try different things both commercial, and the LONG list of home recipes over on castboolits. I would like to narrow it down to the best of the best though. I like to shoot and experiment, but I don't want to make it more than it needs to be.

less fuss/mess sizing/lubing than powder coating. Although buying a cast at a certain harness coated is cheaper and no press, lube, mold, furnace, etc.. is needed. I like casting.. so I'll go with press/size/lube coz, ya ready Ferret ?.... "I don't shoot much" doesn't mean I don't know how to load much.

I powdercoat all my bullets. 😝

Here's some good info from an avid BPCR Shooter:

You can purchase lube at Buffalo Arms.com

SPG is the most widely used and if you are in hot dry, SPG Tropical: Buffalo Arms & MVA
DGL is a very good lube: Buffalo Arms and Midway
SAGE Alox is a very good lube: Sage Outfitters.com

If you want to make your own, I suggest: Emmerts Improved It's easy, all ingredients you can get at the grocery store and it's the "go to" home made lube.

If you want the best book of recipes with comments on effectiveness plus, details about individual ingredients; Google Search for cblubes2016 by Ralph Schneider & Steve Hurst. It really is well worth finding and costs nothing to download.