bullet lube

S

Shadow9mm

New member
I am venturing into lubing my cast bullet and am doing some reading and learning. Figured I would share what I have learned and what I am trying so far. loading for 38spl and 357mag smokeless powder.

From what I read during the American civil war a 50/50 mix of bees wax and tallow was used.

I found a LOT of mixtures and concoctions using everything including, bees wax, motor oil, petroleum jelly, paraffin, olive oil, crisco, and ATF.

I'm trying to keep it simple. I am using bees wax and TC bore butter.

So far I have mixed up 2 small test batches using bees wax ratios of 1:1, 2:1 and 4:1 mixed by weight.

So far I have gotten some rough data on the wax using my infared thermometer. the mixes seem to fully melt around 165F in the microwave. They seem to solidify around 135F. they tear rather than snap, so they are not brittle. under 115F tap water they do not melt.

I am also looking to try this experiment with frog lube paste in the near future. but that is for another day.

so far the 1:1 feels pretty slick and soft. the 2:1 is a bit stiffer and less slippery, very mildly tacky. the 4:1 is much stiffer but still soft not brittle and is mostly tacky feeling.
 
I have looked there, more than a little. Read all the recipes. however I dont want to use ATF, motor oil, automotive grease, olive oil, or crisco..... so most of those wont work for my needs.

My understanding of bullet lubes is as follows. They all use a wax. The wax itself however though is just there to hold the lubricant. and other additives to harden or soften the wax itself.

so bore butter and frog lube are both softer and thinner than the bees wax and both are lubricants.

so far the frog lube goes a LOT further than the bore butter in terms of lubrication. in a 2:1 ratio of bees wax to bore butter the frog lube mix is significantly more slippery. so that is what I am leaning towards at the moment. so far I have the bees wax to frog lube mix down to a 5:1 mix and it still seems nice and slick. Going to add more wax slowly until I get a good ratio since frog lube is the expensive part of the mix.
 
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USSR said:
My take on this. You save a lot of money by casting your own bullets; you save little to nothing making your own lube. For great and affordable lubes, go here: https://lsstuff.com/.

Don
Click to expand...

That’s the route I go. I’ve gone through dozens of tubes of their lube without having to clean bores. The stuff works great and they’ve done all the testing.

I’m all for saving some coin reloading and casting but saving fractions of pennies on lube per round isn’t for me.
 
Might look at Coconut Oil ... Frog Lube has a Coconut oil base with a bunch of highly refined addives to it . I don't know your objections to automotive lubricants but Frog Lube is pricey and the Coconut Oil might work .

After 50+ years of fooling around with lube ...the one I keep coming back to is 1 part Lithium Grease (Lucas Red-N-Tacky) and 3 parts Beeswax ...
...Good old fashioned Lithi-Bee Lube !
Haven't found anything better for cast bullet lube in handguns .
Gary
 
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