Lee Liquid Alox

[mthom1957]

I would like to hear some opinions on the use of Lee liquid alox bullet lube on some Lee real bullets and maybe some Lee Minies.Good idea or bad?

 

[curator]

LLA doesn't work all that well with Black powder and substitutes. Your best bet is something with either animal or vegetable oils such as lard, mutton tallow or olive/vegetable oil. My favorite is a 50/50 mix of bee's wax and either lard or crisco. some folks add 10% olive or canola oil but I keep it simple since the standard formula works so well. LLA works fine with smokeless powder which we do not use in the muzzle loading world.

 

[bpd303]

I've used liquid alox and was not impressed. I usually melt bees wax and dip minies in it using a pair of pointy tweezers then into cold water to set it, then drop on a towel. I also dip round balls used in my revolvers eliminates the use of under ball wads and grease over the balls.

 

[BrownBear]

I haven't tried it on others, but I've used it a lot with Lee's REAL conicals. In fact I prefer it. Just put some REALs in a ziploc, slosh in a little of the liquid Alox and squish them around for a full coating, then pour the excess Alox back into the bottle. Lay out the REALs to dry, then put them back in the bag for a second coat. After the second coat dries, they're easy to handle without getting lube all over tarnation because it sticks pretty good.

I keep hearing it isn't good with black powder, but can't figure out why not. Never an issue for me.

 

[mooman76]

Lee Alox is not made for BP. It does not do anything to keep the fouling soft. I have never tried it with BP and see no reason to try. I also read that it turns to a black tar like substance in the barrel when fired with BP.
I have heard of some people using it with no ill effects and others reporting they got the nasty tar substance hard to clean out of the barrel. Just and educated guess from the reports I heard. If you only shoot a little between cleaning, you probably will be fine but if you go out and shoot allot, it sounds like it builds up and you will have problems.
My opinion is why bother when there are all the other proven lubes out there that work.

 

[Zonie]

If you want to use the "cats meow" lube your bullets with "SPG Bullet Lubricant".

It's what many BPCR shooters use.

Of course it costs an arm and a leg for just a little bit of it and I don't think it really works any better than some of the bees wax and Vaseline mixes or similar lubes but according to many long range bullet shooters, it's Goooooooood stuff. :grin:

 

[BrownBear]

It does not do anything to keep the fouling soft.

Most folks use lubed felt wads under their REALs for accuracy. The olive oil in mine is just dandy for keeping the fouling soft too, as I meanwhile don't have to deal with gooey lube on the REALs.

Tempest in a tea pot, or mountains out of mole hills. It works, no matter what theorists say without trying it.

 

[aeatwood]

As a general rule, petroleum based lubes will produce tar, literal tar, when used with bp. The sole exception to that in my experience is Vaseline. Why it is different, I don't know.

 

[BrownBear]

Never experienced tar or anything like it with the Alox. Could be our wet climate, or could be guys just repeating the tar thing because they heard it somewhere but never tried it.

Don't use it or use it, but I wouldn't give up on it till you've tried it. You'll never know the truth for your guns till you try it yourself.

 

[Lorne Johnson]

Alox has worked well for me.

 

[Joel/Calgary]

Never experienced tar or anything like it with the Alox. Could be our wet climate, or could be guys just repeating the tar thing because they heard it somewhere but never tried it.

It's apparently true but not universal. I recall some of a discussion by the Mad Monk about this. It concerns the different classes of hydrocarbon molecules - only one major class reacts, but I cannot remember what kind (never studied organic chem - lousy at memorization). Whichever one it is polymerizes with sulfur in the presence of heat. The other classes of hydrocarbons don't react significantly differently from other organic lubricants and preservatives. So the question becomes, what classes of hydrocarbons are in any particular produce.

Regards,
Joel

 

[Joel/Calgary]

[strike]produce[/strike] product.