Best lube for Minie Ball

[nuttbush]

I am a War Between The States reenactor. I use a British Enfield Repo. I have only live fired it once and they made us all use round balls with no patch which was not very accurate, but fun. I have two Lyman Minie Ball molds. One is the old style, with the three small bands, and the other the so called new style which has the large rear band. I am going to cast some up as I have been invited to a live fire shoot. My question is, what would be best to lube the grooves of the minie's with. Many thanks.
Gene

 

[Ivery Keys]

Quick and easy answer is either Crisco or Bore Butter. Better answer is SPG or moose snot, which you can find the recipe for by searching here. There are any number of other lubes, just depends on how deep you want to get into it...

 

[sledgemeister]

I make my own up and find works well, thats 50% beeswax and 50% lard on my minies.

 

[G. W. Gill]

Where does one put the lube? In the grooves or in the base? And how much? I am a PRB guy with a couple of molds I might try out. Thanks!

 

[sledgemeister]

I cant speak for others but depending how energetic I am I do it one of two ways.
While your lube mixture is melted I dip the bullets in up to the level of the top ring, dont dip them for too long or it heats up the projectile and the wax melts of it again, just in and out and place on a hard surface.
I have also made the lube up in to patty pans and rubbed on the grooves and smoothing it off with my fingies as well. I always place a small amount in the base of the bullet as I believe it helps in expansion. This mixture I have found works well and barrell is easy to clean after shooting all day.
BTW the lube makes your hand nice and smooth and can be used as a lip balm on them cold days. If mixture is a little stiff ie cold day or area try putting in a couple table spoons per pound of extra virgin olive oil in the lube you have mixed up.(adjust to your likening).*
Youll find lube recipees are like a$$holes every one has one. My advise limited to what it is, make some up and try it, if it doesnt work try another. A friend on mine uses lard and parraffin wax (oil), others use plain lard, some use beeswax and olive oil. As I said what ever works the best for you. In the states you have stuff called moose snot and other weird sounding stuff plus a variety of commercially available goodies, out here in the colonies its easier to make our own up.
cheers
Rob

* when melting beeswax and goodies up do so over a double boiler, never melt beeswax over a naked flame it is very flamable when heated!!
Remember if you muff it up just remelt and add more ore less of what you need, ie too stiff remelt and add oil or lard, too sloppy remelt and add more beeswax.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Plain old Crisco, better than some, good as most.

 

[musketman]

Where does one put the lube? In the grooves or in the base? And how much? I am a PRB guy with a couple of molds I might try out. Thanks!

If the lube is put in the base (in my opinion) it has nothing to do but to drip into your powder charge and get it wet...

Once fired, the lube in a minie's base would not make it to the grooves aside the bullet because the base expanded and sealed off the bore, so the lube would just impede the powder burning where it came in contact with the glob of lube...

Fill the side grooves with lube all the way around the bullets circumference...

 

[sledgemeister]

A question if I may Musketman, aside from filling the grooves of a minie, I also place a small amount in the base. I have done this since reading The Gun Digest Reloading Manual by Sam Fadala. When reading about the Parker-Hale Musketoon (page 202 4th edition) in the comments section it says " Adab of 103 lube was placed inside the bullet base cavity".
Now I assumed it had been done so to help in the expansion of the bullet base or provide a better seal. Can you please tell me if this is then a fallacy and a practice I should then stop.
Its worth noting that I have had no ill effects from doing this that I can see, infact it has some what as far as I can tell improved the accuracy of the Minie, it has seemes to stabalize its trajectory then again its probably me getting more use to the rifle.
Your help and wisdom would be appreciated. :bow:
Rob

 

[musketman]

I have had no ill effects from doing this that I can see, infact it has some what as far as I can tell improved the accuracy of the Minie,

That is why I said (in my opinion), it happens to work for my Zouave that way, and there are many different styles of minie balls out there, so if you are having fine results with your set up, by all means, use it...

Maybe you could try it both ways and judge for yourself which set-up your gun likes best, I have seen the same make of gun like completely different ways, nothing is written in stone...

May I suggest trying a few shots without the base lubed and compare them to the your other targets, you might be surprised...

Perhaps the lube in the base is needed to keep the fouling soft, but it still is exposed to the powder charge, a wad between them would prevent the base from expanding properly, so I wouldn't recommend that...

 

[sledgemeister]

Thanks for your reply Musketman, I had a fella suggest for me to use a wad and I thought ummm no I dont think so, thanked him for his suggestion and left it at that.
I will certainly try your method and see how it goes, I can only think because the lube I use is fairly stiff it doesnt wet or foul the powder that much, I assume I would loose a few grains sticking to it but when using 100gr 2f or pyrodex it doesnt seem to make much of a difference, it still goes Kathumpa pretty good.
When I make up a few more in a couple weeks I shall report back.
Rob