Anyone roll their balls in Lee Alox Lube?

M

maillemaker

New member
I'm wondering if there is any benefit in rolling balls in Lee Alox Lube?

It's what I use for bullet lube on my .45 ACP rounds made with the Lee Tumble Lube bullets. I know that the side of the ball gets shaved as it is pressed into the chamber, but the nose of the ball would still have the Lee Alox on it as it hit the rifling. I would still put crisco/beeswax lube over the balls to keep the fouling soft. I was thinking the Alox might help with leading.

Steve
 
NO !!!

There has never been a time I have not gotten in trouble, when I talk about Round-Balls and all that is associated with it. I often see a lot of smiles when I'm teaching to young folks. One of those things that the more you try to explain, the deeper you get, in over your head. ..... :eek:

No, I never use Lee Alox Lube, in this application ..... :)

Be Safe !!!
 
For RB rifle - it really would serve no purpose since your lubed patch does the job.

In revolver, when you seat the ball, you take off the ring of lead which in theory is going to be the bearing surface as it goes through the bore - so it really wouldn't serve much purpose.

I use alox/pastewax to tumble lube all of my cast RN, wC and SWC for smokeless cartridges and it works great - never had a problem with leading.

Try it for an experiment though and see how it works - that will tell you for sure if it has any potential. I really don't' see where it would do any harm in trying it. Good luck and let us know what you think. Just make sure you let it dry well as some folks use too much and complain about the stickiness they end up with. The trick is to use the alox "lightly". :)
 
Steve - "I was thinking the Alox might help with leading."

Are you having problems with leading? I ask this just because I'm curious and if you are, in what revolver, etc.?

I've owned many C & B revolves over the years - a couple of 44s but mainly '51 Navies and I honestly cannot remember ever having problems with leading. I can only speak from my experiences though - I've always used soft lead RB - .375. I have always used a lubed wad over powder. Many years ago, I was using the commercial felt wads - now, I punch leather wads out of scraps that I have left over from my leather work - usually I use about 8 ounce leather. After punching, I soak them in a bowl of melted crisco/toilet ring wax - pull 'em out and pat them down with paper towel. They end up with a nice "waxy" feel but not heavy coated. I always grease the chamber mouths with the crisco/toilet ring combo.

I've never had a problem with the cylinder binding on fouling, etc. nor with any leading and what I'm doing seems to keep all the fouling soft - sometimes a little messy but hey, it's a BP revolver. :D I've only shot BP - usually 3F unless I was short and then I've used 2F.

I've never used Pyrodex or similar so can't speak as to how they work as a combo either or if something like that might be more prone to having leading problems. Since you reload 45 ACP, you are well aware of bullet size / bore size / leading etc. Normally, when I shoot my BP revolver, I probably don't put more than 10 cylinders full through it at a time - as I said, I've never had a leading problem when I clean the bore but everyone shoots different loads, hardness of lead, etc. so I'd really be curious to hear if you are having leading problems of if others have experience it in theirs?

I can see a conversion BP possibly having it if there is a bore size difference which requires a HB slug or a heeled bullet possibly but I have had not experience with that either so really don't know. I know some like to shoot conical out of their BP revolvers - perhaps they can chime in as to whether they have had any leading problems?

Always nice to hear what other's experiences are. It certainly would be easy enough to tumble lube some balls in a lox or a combo of it and see what the results would be as far as leading (if you are having a problem) as well as fouling, accuracy, etc. I don't know if it would really make a difference on RB or not but on a conical, if it has a lube groove, it would be fun to try it and see what happens.

salvadore says he tumble lubes his conicals - maybe he can give us sone insight on it? :)
 
If you're getting leading with a bp revolver you're doing something wrong. Using balls that are too hard or something. The only thing bp I've ever had lead with soft lead is my Sharp's with that oversized final driving band. Once I moved up to something harder the leading went away.
 
I lube my balls on my light charge black powder cartridges ( that I load with Trailboss ) both 32 S&W & 38 S&W... I guess I've done them both dry & lubed... if I'm going to shoot quite a bit, I prefer them lubed ( however I'm not using a lubed patch like a lot of C&B shooters )...

... Alox works pretty good in my application
 
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I've not seen leading that looked like that. Run a tight fitting patch down the bore and if its leaded you will see little silvery flakes of it on the patch. If it is indeed lead a piece of Chore Boy copper pad wrapped around a bronze brush will make short work of cleaning it out. Just make sure its copper and not plated stainless.
 
Back when I was starting out in B/P someone suggested I lube the RB's fired in my 1858 revolver.
It was a complete horror story to the extent I wiped the lube off at the range. Now I used a B/P grease type lube, not Alox, but it was just a HUGE pain in the patotie trying to handle greased spheres.:eek:
 
I was thinking the Alox lube would make at least the cup of the loading leaver nasty and gooey and hard to clean.

I currently just cover the ball noses up with Crisco/beeswax lube.

Steve
 
I'm not sure you'd want Alox and bp fouling mixed either.
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Lots of N-SSA guys use it on their round balls for smoothbore muskets. I think it is more to take up windage than anything to do with leading or fouling though.

Steve
 
I use Alox on my round ball /trail boss cartridges and it seems to work well. I don't use it if I'm shooting cap & ball or black powder loaded cartridges.

I've been told Alox is compatible (meaning it won't cause grief like a petroleum lube will) with bp , but doesn't do anything to keep the fouling soft like a good bp lube should.
 
I've been told Alox is compatible (meaning it won't cause grief like a petroleum lube will) with bp , but doesn't do anything to keep the fouling soft like a good bp lube should.
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Yeah, I would not use it in place of my usual Crisco/beeswax lube, but in conjunction with it.


Steve
 
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