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Cast bullets
k_townman
Member Posts: 3,588
I know this will be an opinion question, but here goes. What is the best hard stick bullet lube on the market right now? I'm looking to upgrade my cast bullet operation. I want to get a Lyman 4500 Sizer/Lubricator with a heater. I've been using a Lyman 450 (old orange) for many years now. I want to be able to ship cast bullets without all the mess.
Comments
gun control is not about guns, it is about CONTROL!
The hard lube May lead in some guns . Soft lube works much better In MY opinion.
Soft lube makes an awful sticky mess when you ship bullets across the country. How could hard lube cause leading, when it's not made of lead?
quote:Originally posted by perry shooter
The hard lube May lead in some guns . Soft lube works much better In MY opinion.
Soft lube makes an awful sticky mess when you ship bullets across the country. How could hard lube cause leading, when it's not made of lead?
Because it does not protect the bore from the bullet metal. It is the bullet causing the leading, not the lube. The job of the lube is to coat the bore giving a thin surface of lube on the steel barrel for the lead bullet to ride on. Much as motor oil does in your car engine, bullet lube protects metal.
If you are shipping small quantities stacking them in a cigar box, on end, separated by stiff paper works well.
Splitting hairs mind you, but what I think DOES happen is the lead bullet, even if well fit and sealed to the bore, can't take the pressure that a jacketed bullet does at the rear edge. This leads to both blow by (as Perry shooter mentioned) and to some erosion of the base itself but merely from pressure, not from melting.
I saw a post where a guy stuffed flash paper into the case and fired it off to see if it would ignite. This stuff burns quite easily and one would think that not only would it go off, but combust completely.
Zero, nada. Couldn't get it to go off.
A bullet gets hot in the barrel but from friction, not from heat transfer from the burning powder.
Now that's neither here nor there regarding lube. I quit buying commercial cast bullets as the hard lube leaded, especially in pistols. In higher velocity/pressure rifle applications, it worked a bit better. To understand why, you must consider how lube is applied to the bore. As I understand it, it is via 3 processes.
1. Lube right at the surface of the lube groove is mechanically smeared against the barrel by simply passing through. This happens with hard or soft lube.
2. Centrifugal force of the rotating bullet lifts lube off the base of the groove and helps to further pack it against the barrel. This is less likely to happen with low velocity rounds using stiff hard lube than with soft. Proof? Dig a bullet out of the backstop fired with hard vs. soft lube. The hard lube is generally intact and on the bullet, even after flying down range. The soft lubed bullet is usually bare; all the lube that wasn't slung off in the bore flies off shortly after exiting the muzzle due to centrifugal force.
3. The follow up shot can ride down the remnants of the lube left by the previous bullet if any. The more deposited by steps 1 and 2 above, generally the better.
All in all, soft lube just works better.
Now there are applications- particularly for shooting in the hot summer- when I use lube A vs. lube B in the winter (and really either in the spring/fall). My winter lube is regular 50/50 alox/beeswax. In the summer though- particularly in temperatures over 100 degrees- I find this melts right off while the bullets are sitting in the box. So I switch to Felix lube- a homemade concoction that still has a beeswax base, but since I make this one myself, I can add a bit of paraffin to it to stiffin it.
Really it would work great in winter too, I just got a bunch of 50/50 for free and have been slowly using it up. When gone I'll probably just use Felix.