Lubing conicals

[jtmattison]

How do you lube your conicals?
Last night I tried a new technique. Instead of pan lubing where I stand the bullets upright in a shallow pan and pour melted lube in there until the lube grooves are full then cut them out of the hardened lube with a speedloader I did something different.
I put a bunch of bullets in the freezer for a few minutes while my lube was melting on the stove. I then dipped the bullets in the melted lube which gave them an instant thick coating of lube.
I then pushed the lubed bullets through a speedloader tube which cut off all of the excess lube.
It worked great.
These were Lee REAL conicals which have wery shallow lube grooves.
For deep grooved bullets like Maxi-balls I still pan lube them because the deep grooves hold onto the lube much better.
Any other good ideas on lubing conicals out there?

Huntin

 

Nope. I think your method is the one I'll use. I think you hit on a dandy idea.
Here is some food for thought. Too much lube can affect accuracy. I've read that the lube grooves in the minie bullet ( first successful widly adopted conical) weren't really intended to be filled with lube. They were scraping grooves intended to take the previous shots fouling out with the bullet.
Too much goo on the shank of the bullet could prevent the bullit from obturating in the bore and not engage the rifling properly.

Thoughts fellas?

 

[Stumpkiller]

I just finger-paint it on. And yes, I agree with Maxiball on too much lube being a problem for minies. Lube does not compress, so it could dent the skirt in the forces of firing, especially if it is uneven. I've watched some shooters fill the base with Crisco. Probably does make the gun easier to clean but must play hell on the skirt at the instant it clears the muzzle.

I haven't fired a minie in years. We used pool our resources (one guy had a large casting set-up & swage/lube press and the rest of us brought lead and beer) to run them through a sizing die to get them exactly .577" so they were a smooth, tight fit. And then carry them like eggs so the skirts didn't bang together and deform.

 

[roundball]

I recently bought several boxes of unlubricated .45cal 255grn Maxi-Hunters, then used a TC Maxi-Lube attachment that screws onto the top of a tube of Natural Lube 1000...lubed a couple boxes of 20 in about 5 minutes, set them back in their boxes, loading / shooting / accuracy was perfect...the Maxi-Lubers should work with any same-caliber conical

 

[jtmattison]

I picked up a .50 and a .54 T/C luber at a gun show for $1 each.
I tried lubing my Lee REALS with them and they didn't work. The shallow lube grooves on the REAL did not allow the Bore Butter to flow around the bullet.
My new dipping technique works far better.
I have 500 Maxi-balls in .50 caliber and I will try the T/C luber on them with BB to see how they work.

Huntin

 

[shooter575]

Now I shoot all minnes or conicals in my battery of C/W rifles and carbines.So I use a lyman lubersizer.Dies can be had up to .584 or so. I cast sticks of homemade lube for them. Here is my lube casting set up.I color the lube for IDing.
Jim

 

[Deadeye]

I like your setup for the lube sticks, good idea. I use an old Lyman 45 lube sizer for my 500 gr. .50 cal. bullets, used to pan lube but this is so much better.

 

[jtmattison]

Shooter,
What do you make your lube out of?

Huntin

 

Shooter,
What do you make your lube out of?

:: Inquiring minds want to know :: and What temperature does it set up ? ::

 

[shooter575]

A little background first.I have tried just about all the mixes and store bought ones around.All had some drawbacks.Some had faults,others cost. I needed a lube that would allow me 12-15 shots between wiping.Work from 40-100 deg.Keep the fouling gooey.Cheep would be nice also.
Anyway about that time I found the WWW.I started doing Lube searches.Found the[url] Shooters.com[/url] site.[since defunk] They had lots of guys doing a lot of research on smokeless lubes. I took off with their hard efforts and came up with my own mixture.Since then I have used it in rifled muskets,smoothbore,44-40,45-70.It is my only BP lube now.
Webers Red
50% beeswax. The amber stuff. Look online of get from bee keeper.
25% Anhydrous Lanolin. Pharmacy can order it.
25% Neetsfoot oil Fron shoe or leather shop. get the real oil.Do not use "compound"

Melt wax in double boiler.I use coffee can set in old pot w/ water.Measure amout of melted wax.ie 3".Spoon the lanolin till 4.5" Then add in 1.5" of oil. Cook for 10 minutes or so after everything is melted. Pour into whatever. This mix comes out a bit harder than SPG.If you need it softer add more oil,harder more beeswax.You can remelt this all you want. I add a piece of crayon [red] for me to make it pinkish.I never measured temp.probley somthing between 130-160

Jim
Works for me.