Year round BPC lube?

[Dances With Coyotes]

How does the 50/50 mix of beeswax and Crisco do for summer? I want lube that I can use year round. I live in Texas and 100deg in summer is common here. Steer me in the right direction for one lube for all seasons.

[Dances With Coyotes]

Forgot to mention let's keep it to pistols.

[Howdy Doody]

I make my own. I start with 50/50 mutton tallow and beeswax, then I add crisco a bit more for winter and a bit less for summer. I also add a touch of Thompson lube in the mix too. Mostly because I like the smell of it.
It gets hot around my neck of the woods too and sometimes I have to run a rag in my holsters to clean off the lube, but it isn't too bad at all.

[fourfingersofdeath]

I'm new to this, but I store my ammo in trays/ammo boxes boolit down so that if any lube starts to run (mind you I am an ammo can sort of guy and these neato containers go against the grain), it won't contaminate the powder. Some guys here add a touch of wintergreen oil to stiffen it up some. If heat was a real problem I suppose you could take a few of those freezer bricks to the range, that way the ammo would only be exposed to the high temps for a short time.

[Dick Dastardly]

The melt temp of PL-II is 120°F.  If my ammo gets above that, I expect the lube to start to melt.  Since it's captive in the lube grove and the crimp is firm, even melted lube stays put.  Still, on hot days I shade my ready ammo supply.

DD-DLoS

[Paladin UK]

I Use the same all year round, just keep mine on the shade, learnt this Loooooong ago.......

`bout 20yrs ago I left some loose 9mm rds on a table, it was a real belter of a day and no breeze, the range where we shoot CAS is like a big pit  and the Sun wuz a blazin away, anyhowwwwwww, I went to pick up one of the rds and it damn near took the skin off my fingers where the Sun had heated up the brass so much,   since then I seem to keep ALL my ammo in the shade!!

Paladin (What wants  warmer weather NOWWWWWWWWW  ) UK

[Ranch 13]

 I use Sagebrush Alox, year round , black or smokeless , handgun or rifle. for the 9$ a half lb tub, it's pretty tough to come up with a homemade lube that'll cost you any less and work as well.
http://www.sageoutfitters.com/catalog/item/7209324/7456325.htm

[hellgate]

My range box is a cooler. That way it is always in the shade and the box does not heat up in the sun. You can put the ammo outside at night to cool down if you are camping at a big shoot.

[Cuts Crooked]

I'm like DD, the shell walls of a properly sized bullet/case combination contain the lube in the lube groove, no matter the weather.

Also, for the past few years I've been using a deer tallow/olive oil based 50/50 lube. It's much firmer than crisco based lubes but still does a fantastic job of providing the lube were needed!

[Delmonico]

Truth is you don't need a soft lube in winter, my 50/50 mix of beeswax and deer tallow melts at about 140F on my meat thermomoter.  Never had a problem down to 0F.

See when that bullet moves even a tiny fraction of a mm the friction makes it very hot and softens the lube.  If it didn't those high melt smokeless lubes would not work.

[hellgate]

Cuts & Delmonico,
Thanks for the tip. I shot a nice fat doe last year and rendered some tallow. I've been using 50/50 beeswax and LARD (much cheaper and available than the deer). I will melt together the tallow and beeswax which ought to be a fairly stiff lube. Before using the lard/BW I used BW &olive oil 50/50 which has been fine too but a little soft.
Cuts, I can't see 50/50 tallow and olive oil being hard enough if it warms. Are you sure on that mix?

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I pan lubed my bullets with a 50/50 mix of Crisco/beeswax for years. Never had any problem with the lube contaminating the powder. As was stated, a properly lubed bullet will keep the lube contained in the lube groove.

I always store my bullets in regular plastic ammo boxes, bullet end down. At the house, I store them in the relatively cool basement. At the range, I never had any problems, even on a blisteringly hot summer day. I do not store my ammo in any sort of cooler at the range, just in the wooden ammo box built into the top of my guncart. Never had a problem. I usually put my ammo for the stage into a wooden loading block and leave it sitting on top of the guncart until it is time to head to the loading table. The ammo may sit there for a half hour or so. Of course, I do not leave it sitting in direct sunlight, I have an umbrella mounted on my cart and try to keep the ammo in the shade. Never had a problem, even in 90+ degree summer days.

These days I lube all my Big Lube bullets with SPG. Procedure is the same. No problems on hot days.

[Montana Slim]

I use softer (less beeswax) than most here, I reckon...certainly less than 50/50. I use crisco for the other ingredient.
Never had a problem with it contaminatin' the powder....while the outdoor temps here get up to 100+, its usually a lot warmer inside my parked vehicle where my ammo has been sitting.

Could be something to this notion that a tight neck fit between the case & bullet helps keep lube in its place.

Regards,
Slim

[Cuts Crooked]

Cuts, I can't see 50/50 tallow and olive oil being hard enough if it warms. Are you sure on that mix?

Actually, no. I'm just doing doing a SWAG at the ratio. But it's roughly that.

[Wills Point Pete]

 The only reason most folks like mutton or deer tallow instead of lard as a lube ingredient is that lard goes rancid after a while. Not that it won't still work when rancid, it's just really odiferous.

I live in northeast Texas, it gets kind of warmish in summer and, during winter there ain't nothin' between us and the North Pole but a few bob wire fences. My year round lube is a mix of container blend soy wax, cheap veggie shortening and a cheap toilet bowl ring, Dick's origional Pearl Lube. It works just fine, winter and summer.

[Deadguy]

I too use Pearl Lube.  No problems with it yet!

[Dances With Coyotes]

On using the Pearl Lube , what if instead of the wax toilet bowl ring I just used real beeswax? There aren't any more real beeswax rings being made anymore are there? Don't they put mineral oil in them to make them squishey?

[Fairshake]

You can use a lot of different lubes and get away with it when shooting handguns. The problems arise when you start firing the rifle. I'm not talking heat but leading and gumming up. Sheep's Tallow is what I use as I was told years ago that it does not go rancid like other tallow. I use several different things in my lubes but here in Louisiana it is the testing grounds for survival in hell come AUGUST. That is when my lube gets an extra shot of paraffin. I will agree that a well fitting lubed bullet would be hard pressed to have the lube migrate. I have seen 44-40 ammo that was over 100 years old still have it's lube intact. The grooves of those bullets did however have a cross hatch design that appears to help with that.

[Deadguy]

On using the Pearl Lube , what if instead of the wax toilet bowl ring I just used real beeswax? There aren't any more real beeswax rings being made anymore are there? Don't they put mineral oil in them to make them squishey?

I don't see why using real beeswax wouldn't work.  However, the cheapest wax bowl rings still work just fine, whatever they are made of.

[Dick Dastardly]

PL-II will handle hot weather in properly sized and loaded brass.  The lube is contained in the lube grove and held in place by the brass.  If you have problems with powder being contaminated by lube, it's got to be getting down past the bullet base.  In that case the bullet didn't fit the case properly, or else the bullet base had flaws.  When casting bullets pay particular attention to the bases.  Flaws on the base will lead to more problems than a wrinkled nose. . .

DD-DLoS