cast bullet lubes...

[magnumwheelman]

curious if there is any correlation to the effectiveness of a bullet lube, & it's melting point???

in this case talking about commercial cast bullets... a lot of the stuff I'm buying has a blue lube that is as hard as a crayon... I've never had an issue with the blue lube, & have used it shooting CAS with no leading issues...

yesterday I got the 65 grain 257 bullets from Western Bullets, & they had some red lube... which must be softer, or at least have a lower melting point??? as the lube was also on the inside of the bags... of coarse if they were in a brown truck coming across the desert in this record heat, perhaps the blue lube would have gotten a little messy as well???

anyway... my retired machinist buddy makes his own lube, & I've been using that as well on anything I've run through my lubrisizer... which is a blend of bees wax, & some commercial machining grease... this lube is softer than either the red or the blue commercial lube... I've also used Lee's liquid Alox & not had any leading issues...

I'm just wondering if you think the stiffness ( or melting point ) has anything to do with the effectiveness of the lube... or is smokeless lube one of those things that has almost as much lore as black powder lubes like moose milk???

... & I didn't even get into the powdercoating yet

[ericp]

I think the stiffness of a lube has much more to with the effectiveness of it than any inherent lubricity. Light plinking loads are served adequately by the simple smearing of the hard lube and it also works fine with heavy loads that are enough to make it "run". Where I've had failures with the very hard lubes is in mid range loads, say 900-1100 fps at moderate pressures. I think the simple smearing action is not sufficient and there is not enough pressure/rpms/heat/whathaveyou to make the lube run at middle velocities and pressures. I noticed this with loads for my 45 Flattop and service style loads in my 41 Mag which tended to lead badly with the hard lubes, both are in the 1000 fps range with pressures around 20000 cup (very rough estimate). With softer lubes I can shoot hundreds of rounds without a hint of leading.
Glen Fryxell has an excellent article about this and the properties he likes in bullet lube which I came across after having these issues myself. I'm inclined to agree with everything he wrote. I now make my own lube that is much softer, about like the old NRA 50/50 lube.


Eric

Edit:
Here is the article I referred to.
www.lasc.us/FryxellLubeCastBullets.htm

[magnumwheelman]

thanks for the link...

[Paden]

You should visit this place: www.artfulbullet.com/index.php