Lee liquid alox vs bore butter for cap and ball bullet lube

[Springfield Slim SASS #24733]

I haven't tried them in 38-55 yet. Bet those have a flat trajectory. I have a bunch of them cast up, maybe I'll load some this weekend. Hopefully our club will be able to start shooting again as the Covid rules lighten up. Might even be able to sneak that 8th round in there as these bullets are shorter than my 245 grainer Big Lubes.

  El cup: Have anything you would be willing to trade for a 500 of them? I love trading

[El CupAJoe]

3 minutes ago, Springfield Slim SASS #24733 said:

I haven't tried them in 38-55 yet. Bet those have a flat trajectory. I have a bunch of them cast up, maybe I'll load some this weekend. Hopefully our club will be able to start shooting again as the Covid rules lighten up. Might even be able to sneak that 8th round in there as these bullets are shorter than my 245 grainer Big Lubes.

  El cup: Have anything you would be willing to trade for a 500 of them? I love trading

If you have a use for 500 Lee 358-125-RF's powdercoated or bare, I could probably make that happen without too much difficulty.  I also have lead in various alloys if needed, buckets and buckets of range scrap, some ingots made from battery cable terminals that make an excellent casting alloy.

[Waxahachie Kid #17017 L]

Mutton tallow can be had on amazon, or ebay. 

 

Dixie Gun Works has it listed under "Lamb Tallow", and they show it to be in stock right now. 

With Dixie, you have to be pretty specific, sometimes, to find a product they carry. Mutton tallow will not show up. Lamb tallow will. 

 

My Two Bits.

W.K. 

[El CupAJoe]

On 12/18/2020 at 10:30 AM, El CupAJoe said:

I would think it is probably an okay substitute, I think the thing with lamb's tallow goes back to the British Empire in India.  They had some revolts with the colonial troops because of the bullet lubes on their issued ammo, because you had to bite off the paper cartridge, you would get lube in your mouth, the hindu's had kosher objections to Beef Tallow and the Muslims had objections to the Pork Tallow, but both were used for one reason or another at other times/places.  Actually I think the thing in India may have been to intentionally use Beef and Pork Tallow to dissuade Religious opponents from using captured British stockpiles for kosher reasons...  I'm just talking off the top of my head from things I've read or watched, so you can probably do well to look into it further from a reliable source.  I do know that there are a few shepherds around here where I am, not sure if I can buy tallow directly from them, or if I would have to go to a butcher and render it myself.

Here's a cool article in the great and all knowing Wiki, 

Indian Rebellion of 1857 - Wikipedia

with the following excerpt on the main reason why I think someone back in the day would have wanted to standardize on lamb's tallow vs Beef, or Pork

 

[Palouse]

On 12/17/2020 at 2:14 PM, El CupAJoe said:

just wondering if anyone uses bore butter or liquid along applied to the ball before loading for cap and ball revolvers?  My beeswax ended up having petroleum products in it and didn't work well for my paper cartridges. 

Used Bore Butter as over-ball lube in a match last year.  It was handy.  'twas all I could find in my stash the night before.  Posse member complaints of "are you using BenGay?", "is your back sore, or something?", "that STINKS, what are you using1?" were frequent, with much (pointless) waving of hands trying to clear BP smoke.  Mint oil does not spoil; evidently useful in commercial BP lube.  Just saying.

[Griff]

On 12/17/2020 at 4:14 PM, El CupAJoe said:

just wondering if anyone uses bore butter or liquid along applied to the ball before loading for cap and ball revolvers?  My beeswax ended up having petroleum products in it and didn't work well for my paper cartridges. 

Simple loading for cap & ball... Powder of your choice, in the amount of your choosing, lubed felt wad, lastly a round ball large enough that it cuts a small circle of lead as it's rammed in the chamber.  Since late 1986, never a chain fire... I've had all sorts of other troubles.... no powder, no ball. 2 balls, etc., but nary a chain fire.

[Tequila Shooter]

I read an article or maybe it was a video that said using a felt wad between the powder and ball was better.  They reasoned it like this when you put lube over the ball the first round will blow the lube in the other chambers out, I don’t think that’s true.  The other thing was that it was messy and the lube was temperature sensitive, with bore butter I see how runny it is when it’s hot out and how stiff it is in the cold.  Now the thinking for using a lubed felt wad was that first if there was any powder sticking to the side of the chamber the wad would push it down so it didn’t get between the ball and the chamber wall.  And of course the wad is less messy on the hands and cylinder.  

I’m pretty sure everyone does what they feel works best for them and who’s to say what’s right and what’s wrong.

[Eyesa Horg]

19 hours ago, Tequila Shooter said:

I read an article or maybe it was a video that said using a felt wad between the powder and ball was better.  They reasoned it like this when you put lube over the ball the first round will blow the lube in the other chambers out, I don’t think that’s true.  The other thing was that it was messy and the lube was temperature sensitive, with bore butter I see how runny it is when it’s hot out and how stiff it is in the cold.  Now the thinking for using a lubed felt wad was that first if there was any powder sticking to the side of the chamber the wad would push it down so it didn’t get between the ball and the chamber wall.  And of course the wad is less messy on the hands and cylinder.  

I’m pretty sure everyone does what they feel works best for them and who’s to say what’s right and what’s wrong.

I use a lubed wad under the ball as others do. It eliminates cross fire and lubes without the mess. I do the same in my muzzle loader and can go over 30 shots without any issues or cleaning.