Spent/retrieved Minié balls with lube

[kh54]

The other day I retrieved a couple of my Lyman 575213-OS Miniés from the range immediately after firing them. The one on the right (the "Shattered Minié") had a 45 grain charge behind it and was fired at a target taped to a piece of one-half inch wafer board. It was buried in the dirt berm a few yards behind the target. The one on the left (the "Intact Minié") was fired at point blank range into a piece of lumber with only a five grain charge. Here's why I'm sharing these pics:

1. I'm having difficulty picturing how the Shattered Minié came to be turned inside out. I know it's just a curiosity and I have my own theories, but does anyone care to speculate?
2. Even with only five grains of powder the Intact Minié penetrated about one inch of lumber and is fairly mangled. I have new respect for both the Minié ball and the power of black powder.
3. Here's the main reason for this post: It may be difficult to see, but note that even after firing there is still lubricant in the cannelures/lube rings of both bullets. I was very surprised to see this as I would have expected the heat of firing to completely melt the lubricant. As I recall, my lube is four parts beeswax to one part mutton tallow.

I welcome y'all's thoughts about the lube and what this could imply for fouling, accuracy, etc.

 

[hawkeye2]

Try cutting the beeswax back a little. How many rounds can you fire without cleaning? You should be able to fire 10 or more. (Wait till dave951 chimes in and tells you how many he fires without wiping) The lube keeps the fouling soft and if it gets hard or builds up accuracy will drop off fast.

To me it looks like your minie is split down one side and flattened rather than inside out. I've picked thousands of minies from the backstop, everywhere from pieces to almost reusable, unrecognizable to where you could tell from what mold it was cast in.

 

[necchi]

I would have expected the heat of firing to completely melt the lubricant.

Well just an olde timey mind working on this,, but It's kid of simple from my understanding though all these decades.
It's a skirted bullet.
The "skirt", obdurate s under pressure to form to the rifling and grooves. The only "heat" applied to the lube rings is from a nano second of metal transference from the charge and from frictional heat while being moved down the bore.
The bullet type was designed to maintain lubrication.
Your use of the bullet and it's ability to maintain "bore lubrication" as you want with it's use, as it applies to "accuracy" is the variable.
Get it?
Bore condition and fouling are important considerations when "accuracy" is the desired result.
You have demonstrated random extremes of powder charge, distance of the shot and backstop media.
There is no way to compare the two examples when accuracy is considered.

 

[dave951]

I'm not surprised to see some lube still clinging to the bullet. Those who fill the base are just kidding themselves if they think it melts during firing.

 

[hawkeye2]

I've found minies in the backstop with the base cavity still full of lube, in those cases, it didn't do much good and retained and partially retained base lube adds a variable to the bullet weight.