[MattC]

Well, I don't have any, but I intend to try a semi-famous version going around the web.  It consists of about a tblspn of mineral oil, a tblspn of castor oil, a tblspn of ivory soap shavings, a tblspoon of anyhydrous lanolin, and about six ounces of beeswax.  If too soft add sugar cube size piece of parrafin.  This has been tested by a group of guys (shooterstalk.com) with apparently good success.  These guys tried to replical Veral's LBT blue performance since no longer available.  

Supposedly, the castor oil is lube, the lanolin makes it sticky, the stearate in the soap holds it together, prevents layering, and the wax is the carrier.  
I intend to try it on full snort loads of 296 with the Lee 310 in my SRH.  On the outer crimp I hope to work up to 21-22 grains of 296.  I also intend to try it with 22 grains and the 280 WFN.      

 

[Marshall Stanton]

Matt,

Been there, tried that!  It is an OK lube, but lacks much in the way of leading control, pressure control and cohesiveness in cold weather.  That lube recipe you listed here was given to me by a chemical engineer in Waco, TX about four years ago to try.

I've really been through the mill with this lube issue, and have wrung out nearly thirty lubes, commercial and in-house formulations.   You gents here hang on, and in a little while I'll do a lengthy tech-note on the subject for you, complete with multitudes of lube formulas and the detailed results of each.  Many are excellent lubes, but just not suited to commercial use due to their texture or cold weather vibration toleration.  

I'll include ballistic results on those that made it that far in my testing, as well as an evaluation of commercial lubes we tested.

Blessings to you my friend!

Marshall

 

[MattC]

Look forward to it!  

 

[Ken Rice]

Matt, if you want to play around with lube recipes -- and that can be a lot of fun, though it does not necessarily lead to harmony in the kitchen -- the best &#365 you can spend is to go to www.hanned.com and get a copy of "cast bullet lubricants" by Ralph Schneider.  I think you can just give 'em your credit card number and download it.

I can't recommed this strongly enough if you want to make up your own lube.

While you're at Hanned, you could save yourself some trouble and buy a can of Paco Kelly's Apache Blue lube, which is a great though not a perfect lubricant -- a little too sticky, but no more so than Alox -- I have been using it in recent months with good results, even at high velocities.

Apache Blue's formula is proprietary, but Schneider makes some intelligent guesses as to what's in it.

 

[cookmaster12]

Hi everybody, I'm a new boy here

 

[Chief RID]

Welcome cookmaster12. You may want to post a thread here in General to get more replies. I have an idea this thread will be moved to the cast bullet topic soon. It is kind of specific to be general.

 

[sundog]

Matt, I'm interested in your results. I have been using Felix lube for quite awhile and find it more than acceptable. I am working my way through several tubs of a big batch that Felix and I made a few years ago that included jajoba oil and microparrafin. We made about twenty gallons (in a single batch) and it was shipped all over the country - not a business, and not for profit - just something that Felix wanted to do. I use it in almost everything from .22 to .45, long guns and handguns. I've gone for K's of rounds in my 03s without cleaning. If there's a downside, I haven't found it yet. sundog

edit - hokey smokes, I just saw that your post is over 5 years old! Certainly by now you have some results????

 

[steveb3006]

Matt, I'm interested in your results. I have been using Felix lube for quite awhile and find it more than acceptable. I am working my way through several tubs of a big batch that Felix and I made a few years ago that included jajoba oil and microparrafin. We made about twenty gallons (in a single batch) and it was shipped all over the country - not a business, and not for profit - just something that Felix wanted to do. I use it in almost everything from .22 to .45, long guns and handguns. I've gone for K's of rounds in my 03s without cleaning. If there's a downside, I haven't found it yet. sundog

edit - hokey smokes, I just saw that your post is over 5 years old! Certainly by now you have some results????

Like Sundog, I,ve not had any problems out of the Felix lube. It does a GREAT job.

 

[TOG]

Matt,

Been there, tried that!  It is an OK lube, but lacks much in the way of leading control, pressure control and cohesiveness in cold weather.  That lube recipe you listed here was given to me by a chemical engineer in Waco, TX about four years ago to try.

I've really been through the mill with this lube issue, and have wrung out nearly thirty lubes, commercial and in-house formulations.   You gents here hang on, and in a little while I'll do a lengthy tech-note on the subject for you, complete with multitudes of lube formulas and the detailed results of each.  Many are excellent lubes, but just not suited to commercial use due to their texture or cold weather vibration toleration.  

I'll include ballistic results on those that made it that far in my testing, as well as an evaluation of commercial lubes we tested.

Blessings to you my friend!

Marshall

Marshall,

Did you ever complete your work on this tech-note and post it on your website? If you did, could you give us a link to it, please? I cannot find it on the Tech Notes page.

Thanks for a great product, and a super forum,

The Old Guy

 

[DEVERS]

i still have a couple of pounds of blue (blue crayons added) Felix lube and it works just fine.

I do tend to take my sized and lubed bullets and roll them in Lee liquid alox for a nice light "glazing" afterwards, also so that the lead doesn't oxidize while waiting to be loaded and shot from a barrel.

I have tried some of the moly lube that a guy sells on ebay for $1.50 a stick... actually works quite well!!!

About as perfect for me as felix, but, I have not pushed it all that fast yet. (under 1400fps so far)

 

[steveb3006]

i still have a couple of pounds of blue (blue crayons added) Felix lube and it works just fine.

Hey I got me some of that blue felix lube, of course mine came out a nice green color after adding a small amount of blue crayon. Just enough to give it some color. Again I find this homemade felix lube to be an EXCELLENT lube and have gotten fantastic results from it. My next batch I will be adding some jajoba oil to the mix

 

[MattC]

I shot up quite a bit of Felix lube back in 2001 or so. I had leading issue with it using that Lee 310 FP in a 44 (it was a slip fit in the cylinder) I also had leading back near the forcing cone in a 45-colt. I think it worked about as good as alox and was not as messy as I recall. This was about the time Marshall ran out of LBT Blue and spent several weeks looking for a replacement. He came out with his own lubricant and declared it as good as LBT. So I ordered a bunch. It was a hard lube needs heat. I mounted my star luber on a aluminum plate and used an iron for a heater. I had a hard time getting it to flow right, ribbons of lube squirted out whenever I got it hot enough to flow. When veral Smith of LBT got out and running I ordered a big box of Blue from him. Its softer and easier for home use than what a commercial caster would want. I still get leading but not that wont bush out fairly easily and it doesn't smear into the lands like homemade. I decieded that its easier just to buy up some blue and buy a bunch LBT is on again off again--might not get another chance.

 

[will52100]

Gatofeo over on Graybeards gave me the recipie for this one, I primarily use it for black powder, but it works good for low velocity smokless too. May work at higher speeds, but I don't shoot much above 1200fps.

I add about one tube of bore butter to 5 pounds, and melt in an aluminum pitcher in a larger brass tube for the double boiler effect.

You can play with the bee's wax and parifine content to make it a bit stiffer. Find it is slick enough that I get lube starts on my 34" barreled 45-70.

old-time recipe for black powder bullet lubricant
This was taken from a 1943 American Rifleman magazine, and the recipe was old then.
It was used by factories for lubricating heeled bullets, such as the .22 rimfires and the .32, .38 and .41 Long Colt.
I use it to lubricate felt wads for my cap and ball revolvers, patches for my .50-caliber muzzleloader and lead bullets for my .44-40 and .45-70 with smokeless or black powder.
The recipe is:
1 part paraffin (I use the canning paraffin sold in grocery stores)
1 part mutton tallow (sold by Dixie Gun Works)
1/2 part beeswax.
All measurements are by weight, NOT volume.
I use a kitchen scale to measure 200/200/100 grams of the ingredients, which nearly fills a quart Mason jar.
Melt the ingredients together in the jar, by placing the jar into three or four inches of boiling water for a double-boiler effect.
When all ingredients are thoroughly melted, stir together with a clean stick or disposable chopstick. Allow the mixture to cool at room temperature. Hastening the cooling by placing in the refrigerator may cause the ingredients to separate.
I store the jar, tightly capped, in a cool, ry place. It's soft enough to use a sturdy spoon to take out what you need.
It's good stuff.

for most of my smokless plinking loads I use liquid alox.

 

[swampdoc]

I don't remember where I got this recipe from but have been using it since 1978 for all my high velocity 45/70 and 458 loads with zero leading: one stick of Lyman Alox, one ounce of beeswax and one ounce of parafin. My muzzle loading lube is rendered beef tallow, olive oil ( 1 tbsp. each) and one ounce of beeswax.... One lesson I learned long ago is that some homemade lube concoctions wind up being almost the same thing as soldering paste, and lead the barrel on the very first shot. THink about that one.

 

[Lloyd Smale]

I too see nothing wrong with felix lube. the only problem ive had with it is the same problem i have with 5050 lubes like javalina. I store a ton of bullets allready lubed and it tends to run off the bullets when the temps get warm. Ive fooled with variations of it and now use a modified version that uses felix magma blue to harden it as i cant see just adding paraphin. If im going to add a hardener i like the idea that its at least somewhat of a lube and i replace about 1/4 of the beeswax with alox. Ive also experimented with adding jojoba oil, cordoba wax and a few other things. Bottom line i just plain felix will work fine for 90 percent of all the cast bulet lubing chores out there as is. If your gun is leading badly with any soft commercial lube it tells me that your gun needs work alot more then your lube needs work. No lube will totally cover up a poor barrel or mismatched gun specs. Rule of thumb is that if a lube is so hard that it needs a heater to run its not all going to come off the bullet in the barrel either and do the job it was intended to do. It will also still be in the lube grove in varying ammounts and effect accuracy. It may not show up at 25 yards but when you get out to 200 it sure will. To many people dream up a lube or are told to try a lube and it works in the one or two guns they have and so then they claim its the best thing on earth. Ive shot my lube in over a 100 guns and ive shot felix in at least that many and it works. Felix lube has been used by some of the most knowlegable cast bullet shooters in the country and about 99 percent of them think its one of the best lubes going and the other one percent just think they know more then everyone else. Ive tried some of there recipes and they run from dismal to just about as good as felix but not a pinch better. Ive used a bunch of lubes and will also add this. Id like to know verals recipe as his soft blue works just as well as the best of the home brewed lubes. If it werent so expensive id use it exclusively.

 

[Otisco Kid]

I got a kick out of "harmony in the kitchen comment". I pan lube my BP bullets. My home made lube (which I no longer have the recipe for...but I remember non-silicone mink oil and bee wax being major components) used to get the wife complaining about the smell. IMO SPG worked just as good and never did get the same response from my wife.
So....for harmony I recomend SPG for BP. It's OK for cowboy loads as well.

 

[trapper9260]

I use the old NRA bullet rec. and works good for me and do not have any problems yet.how many of you use it and also can make it as hard as you like or soft. that is what I like also about it .

 

[gwpercle]

LUBE RECIPES- Easy Lube and Ben's Red

EASY LUBE- 50% beeswax and 50% Sta-Lube Extreme Pressure Moly-graph Multi-Purpose Lithum Grease ( auto stores sell it and Harbor Freight sells it )

BEN'S RED-

50% beeswax ( 5 cups)
30% Red-N-Tacky #2 , Lucas Multi Purpose grease ( 3 cups ) auto store and Harbor Freight
10% Johnson's Paste Wax ( 1 cup )
5% Dextron II or III automatic transmission fluid ( 1/2 cup )
5% STP Oil Treatment ( 1/2 cup )

The directions for mixing both :
Heat gently and mix everything up untill you have all blended well. Don't use too high a heat it can be burned. If some impurities/ ingredients do not all liquify ( some beeswax has a little trash in it) filter the hot liquid lube through an old T-shirt or similar type material.
If you do this in the kitchen, even with a hood and exaust fan, you will only do it once!
Mix this outside, it smells and is hard to clean from the floor.

Gary

 

[trapper9260]

I use the old NRA lube and I have no problem with it , also like stated you can make as hard as you like .That is all i use now .I did use the lyman old lube and when I was to run out i made up the NRA lube and stuck with it .

 

[BearBear]

gwpercle's easy lube is the one I use for everything smokeless now. It produces a smooth flow from solid to liquid and is a good lubricant in all intermediary stages. It's plasticity creates a decent seal from the get go. And, because the melting temperatures of the Bees Wax is around 144 degrees F and the grease is far higher, there is little chance of separation even in high heat situations. Other products, such as Vaseline and most tallows are liquid at about body temperature and tend to foul powder in hot weather. As a bonus, the moly and graphite will ensure some lubrication even when mostly dry and it's supposed to fill in a bit in micro pores of the barrel steel.

BearBear