T/C Bore Butter

[Dusty Walker]

Could you use T/C Bore Butter for a bullet lube? Or what is a good home remedy for black powder bullet lube. Sorry Im too lazy do do a search.

[hellgate]

You could use BB but it is pretty soft. I'd be worried that it would run/melt in hot weather and contaminate the load. I use 50/50 lard and beeswax as my bullet lube in my Lyman Lubrisizer.  It is not a smooth as SPG but works well enough for me. Others use 50/50 or 1 part lard or crisco or olive oil and 2 parts beeswax for a harder lube.

[Delmonico]

http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,4151.0.html

If you can't find one you like, just invent one, I think everyone else has. 

[Cuts Crooked]

At one time T/C made a special Bore Butter just for cartridge gunz. It was GOOD stuff. Saddly they discontinued it. (It came in small plastic jar and would probably need to be heated to use in a luber/sizer)

I 'spose one could mix the current crop of B/B with bees wax and achieve a pretty good lube, but I figger why bother. If yer goin' to go to that much trouble ya might jist as well make up a batch of yer own 50/50 lube and be done wif it!

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

I have both types.  I use the hard stuff in low stress loads, like odd BP pistol loads.  I rub it on when I just do a few rounds at a crack.  Not much left, 'tho.

[Possum Toed Rick]

     I was wondering also about BB. I usually pan lube my GG bullets with SPG for my 45-110. I don't load my bullets into the case untill I'm ready to shoot. I could in theory smear some BB on the bullet as I seat it, so there is no danger of contaminating the Powder in hot weather. Is BB a "strong" enough lube to be used in the long barreled Sharps? I've used it for years on my muzzle loader patches, but never thought about it for GG bullets. Anyone done this before?

Rick

[Dick Dastardly]

My take is like this.

If the lube is held captive, as in lube groves, and it can't migrate to the powder, it could just as well be a liquid.  When the round is fired the lube should/must/will liquefy and even gasify.  It needs to be WET in order to WET the bore and keep the fouling soft.  So, it's not so much the actual lube that's used as it is the way it works within the firing cycle all the way to muzzle exit.

Lube does nothing good beyond the muzzle.  The air does not benefit from lube.  Bullets need to shed their lube either entirely, or not at all in order to remain in ballistic balance for the entire flight.

When I  do bullet recovery, we had lots of opportunities this winte, from snow banks, there's no lube left in my bullets.  Yes they are rapidly chilled by the snow and no, I don't think any lube was wiped off on the snow.  The lube was GONE.  I consider this to be a favorable outcome.  When I do bullet recovery with heathen fad smokeyless bullets that have hard crayon lube in them, the lube is most often still present.  That's as it was intended for those dang heathen bullets.  In both cases the lube did what was intended.

DD-DLoS

[hellgate]

DD,
My pure guess is that your lube is either fluid once the bullets start moving or is as the least, soft enough that the centripetal force of the spinning bullet flings it out of the lube grooves one they exit the muzzle. I doubt that all the lube is awash in the bore (just enough, though).

[Steel Horse Bailey]

DD,
My pure guess is that your lube is either fluid once the bullets start moving or is as the least, soft enough that the centripetal force of the spinning bullet flings it out of the lube grooves one they exit the muzzle. I doubt that all the lube is awash in the bore (just enough, though).

Yep!

DD has mentioned before that his PL brand lubes liquefy when moved/handled/heated, so yes, I think as the bullet travels down the bore, the lube sorta "washes" over the metal and keeps the fouling soft.

Actually, my secret lube does about the same.  (My secret is Beeswax and lots of Olive oil with a small amount of canning paraffein [sp?] to help stiffen it.)  Some secret, eh?    Most would consider my lube TOO soft, but it has worked well over the last few years, with no problem in the hot summer.