BP bullet lube question- no-no or O.K.?

M

Model-P

New member
I have always heard not to use any petroleum based products in BP lubes because it will combine with the BP fouling and form a tar-like substance which is difficult to remove.

Here are my bullet lube recipes that I pretty much lifted from internet articles:

Smokeless:
1 part Beeswax
.75 parts petroleum jelly
.25 parts parafin

BP:
1 pound Bees Wax
1 pound Citronella Candle
2 Tablespoons shortening

My question is this:
The smokeless recipe is supposedly no good for BP because it contains petroleum based products- i.e. petroleum jelly and parafin wax.

However, the BP recipe has Citronella candle wax in it, which I'd also bet is a parafin-based wax. If it is, and since the BP recipe seems to be working fine, then why couldn't I just adjust the smokeless recipe to make it softer for BP? Is it the petroleum jelly that is no good, but the parafin wax is O.K.? Is citronella wax (parafin?) not such a good thing to use for BP afterall? What is it in smokeless powder lubes that is so nasty for BP shooting?
I'm confused!
 
I don't know about all but I know some citronella candles are made from beeswax. Paraffin is one of those petro products that doesn't seem to have adverse effects on bp fouling. I use about a 60/40 mix of beeswax and Crisco for my cartridge guns both bp and smokeless.
 
Depends on the source of the paraffin. Some, in fact most, paraffins available today are actually synthetic, in that they contain synthetic compounds. Pure paraffin would be fine for bp shooting. If you can get it. Unfortunately there's no FTC standard for how pure paraffin has to be in order to be called paraffin, and they don't have to list the ingredients unless they're toxic.

The same goes for petroleum jelly. The brand Vaseline seems to be inert with respect to bp combustion byproducts, but other brands have been reported as causing problems. However, the word 'vaseline' is so often used in place of petroleum jelly (like Kleenex in place of tissue) that I'm not sure you can trust the reports.

I don't know what the ingredients in citronella wax are; I'd guess more beeswax than paraffin, but that's just a guess.

If it were me I'd stick with the current mixtures. Why fix what isn't broken?
 
I use a paraffin wax called Gulf Wax and it is used for canning and candle making,etc. Paraffin can be a synthetic or made from vegetable oils, so it is not petroleum based and won't aggravate fouling.
 
From what I can gather from the 1st hand experiences of many shooters, the consensus is that there is nothing incompatible about using petroleum jelly while shooting with black powder. So the smokeless lube above should work with black powder loads.

1. http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=4486905&postcount=6

2. http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=4631336&postcount=2

3. http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=4125.30

4. http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=4873437&postcount=37

5. http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=3385195&postcount=5
 
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I use a paraffin wax called Gulf Wax and it is used for canning and candle making,etc. Paraffin can be a synthetic or made from vegetable oils, so it is not petroleum based and won't aggravate fouling.
Click to expand...

That's what I use from Stator Bros. Grocery....
 
Aside from my confusion, and wondering why "X" petroleum product is taboo, while "Y" petroleum product is the cat's meow, the reason for my asking is because I currently run my smokeless lube through my one and only lube-sizer, while I have been dry sizing and pan lubing by BP bullets. If I can run one lube through the lube-sizer for both, then that would be GREAT!

If the smokeless lube I mentioned would be O.K. for BP, then maybe all I could use it as-is for BP. Or maybe all I need to do is soften it up with a little more petroleum jelly, or mix in some shortening. Is there a reason why smokeless lube can't be as soft as BP lube? Would powder contamination from seepage become more of an issue with smokeless powder and soft lube? Or, does BP lube necessarily have to be so soft? I guess I could just try using my smokeless lube for BP as-is and see what happens, but I'm curious what you all think.
 
I use my bp lube for smokeless but I don't reload for anything super fast.
By all means try it. If it doesn't work out all it will take is some extra elbow grease to remove it. I wouldn't load up a bunch before I tried it out tho.
 
I tried to share a rifle with my Grandson at a cowboy shoot. He was shooting my home cast bullets with a lithium based grease recipe lube. I was using a commercial black powder lube. After about 4 stages neither of us were hitting anything with the rifle. It took about an hour and a half with water, Hoppes, brass brushes and elbow grease to get the fouling out of it.
It had fired many rounds with both lubes, just never together.

A lot of the candles being made now are made with soy wax, organic, and makes a good part of a lube recipe as a beeswax replacement. Could be the citronella candle base.
 
Thankyou for all the help. I'll try my smokeless lube for BP and see how it goes. I guess all the ingredients are good to go.
Arcticap, those links were very helpful. Thankyou for compiling them.
 
Test in small batches.

Getting petroleum lube "tar" out of a barrel is no fun at all.

I learned that the hard way with my 32" Sharps, and bullets that were sized with smokeless lube.

My wife could hear me cussing from the garage. :(
 
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