None of your beeswax
Correspondence from Glenn Latham
Gentlemen,
Remember using that saying as a kid? Just happened to think of it, and it fit. As you know I am sliding down the slippery-slope into black powder. I like the ideas espoused by some BP pundits about using "natural" lubes and products (non-petroleum) in the rifle bore exclusively, thereby (if I understand this all) eliminating the necessity of having to re-break-in your barrel every time you shoot. After all, in hunting, the first shot from a clean barrel has to go in the right place, and it wouldn't hurt if following shots went there too, if necessary.
Various slug and patch lubes such as Bore Butter and 1,000 Plus (I have both) are said to be all natural, and are supposedly made of nothing more than beeswax and Canola (or similar) cooking oil. Oh yeah, and perfume!!! Yech!! Somebody mentioned the perfume was good for spooking game --could be. They are also a little soft for lubing slugs, and expecting it to stay on them.
What to do? Make my own, of course. Pretty simple stuff. But before I got that far, I read on the Black Powder e-list (BP-L@egroups.com ) that some BPCR shooters are using Emmert's lube, with good luck. This makes perfect sense, as Emmert's is: 50% beeswax, 40% Crisco Shortening and 10% Canola oil. Crisco was of course> touted as a great Minnie ball lube in days gone by - maybe still is.
The beeswax and Canola oil make up Bore butter, etc. Emmert's was developed by Buck Emmert for Schuetzen shooting, and is used (or a minor variation thereof) by the vast majority of Schuetzen shooters, from what I hear. It should also be a good lube for my mild CBA Production class loads, now that M&N is long gone.
As luck would have it, someone asked recently on one of the lists where to get beeswax. A number of URLs were listed, and I found beeswax as cheap as $2.50 a pound, plus shipping. I drove over to the local bee keeper to inquire, and found he had some he'd let go for $3 a pound. Close enough. I toted home 5 lbs. of the stuff in 2 large blocks. It's not clean, but it won't be too tough to strain it.
That's as far as I've gotten. I'll keep ye all posted.
Glenn
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Gentlemen:
The lube is concocted. Boy does that beeswax melt slow in a double boiler! I got impatient and put the glass measuring cup in the microwave at 20% for a while, but then got scared I might overheat the stuff and ruin it, and went back to the double boiler.
Cold Crisco shortening doesn't dissolve very quickly in molten beeswax either! Lord, give me patience. NOW! But eventually, I managed to melt nearly two cups of beeswax, strain five ounces through four layers of cheese cloth, add four ounces of Crisco shortening and one ounce of Crisco Canola oil, all while slowly stirring with a handy piece of 1/4" diameter Delrin.
Once this was accomplished I poured the concoction around about four dozen Lee .50 caliber REAL bullets sitting in an old loaf pan, just deep enough to fill the lube grooves. The pan was then placed in the freezer, and in no time, the lube set-up, pulling away from the sides of the pan. (My 18 year-old daughter wandered through the kitchen while I was mixing and melting the lube, and inquired what I was up to. I told her I was making some home-made bullet lube, and it was even edible! A while later, my 14 year-old son wandered through, and in my absence, asked his sister what I was making. She responded, "It's edible!" He tasted it, and remarked it reminded him of the honeycomb Mom used to make him eat for his allergies!)
I then removed the pan from the freezer, and let it "warm up" to room temperature (it hadn't really gotten much colder than that anyway), and then had to decide how to remove the bullets from the lube cake. I had heard that they could just be pushed out with the thumb, so I tried this first.
Well, it works, after a fashion. The bullets come out alright, but the lube doesn't necessarily remain in all the grooves. The lube grooves on these bullets are quite wide and rounded, so they probably don't hold the lube quite as well as a conventional centerfire bullet design might. Anticipating potential problems removing the bullets from the lube cake, I had turned a "cookie-cutter" from a piece of scrap aluminum, and reamed the I.D. with a 33/64" reamer, which is only a few thousandths of an inch larger than the bullets. This nicely cut the bullets out of the lube, leaving the grooves uniformly full of lube
I have this obsession with "fully filled lube grooves." These pure lead bullets are going to bump up to barrel groove diameter when fired, and if the lube grooves are only partially filled, the bullets will not bump up symmetrically. At least that is my theory. I may be all wet here, but it makes sense. If testing proves lube distribution is not that critical, then I won't worry about it anymore. But until then, it's one more possible variable I don't need to worry about!
Now to a strange twist (pun, as you will see, intended). Sam Fadala reported in his writings in the Hodgdon reloading manuals that he liked to wrap his muzzleloading bullets in Saran wrap, and tie them off with a piece of thread. This keeps the lubricated bullets clean in the field. The Saran Wrap, he says, also helps protect the bullet from the destructive effects of the burning black powder, especially if a small wad of it is dropped down-bore before the slug is rammed home. Well I use wads in centerfire cast bullet loads from time to time, so this struck a chord with me. I cut squares of plastic wrap about three inches on a side, placed the nose of a lubed Lee REAL bullet in the center, folded the material down the length of the slug, twisted the tail, and had my wife tie it off with a piece of thread. That's all I've accomplished so far. Next - the shooting trials!
Glenn
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Shooting Tests
Despite a few nasty early-afternoon thunderstorms (around here, that's
morewind than rain), I took off work early (that's after only eight hours) and headed out to the range to test: a) my home-made Emmert's lube, b) the Lee
REAL 250 gr. bullet, and c) Pyrodex RS. All of my shooting up to this time
had been with the real stuff, from a Goex can marked fffg, but I wanted to
test Pyrodex to see if it had any advantages over black in hunting applications.
I started my testing with 100 grs. (bulk) of Pyrodex and .490" round
balls with .015" ticking patches, lubed with T/C 1000+ (new, fresh pine scent -ugh!). The first two shots were almost touching, and the three-shot
50-yard group measured 1.79", with a velocity of 1718 f.p.s. This was of
course from a clean barrel. I have yet to experience the "first-shot-flyer'
syndrome with this rifle. I wish I could say as much about some of my
centerfires....
I seemed to be getting a slight hang-fire, and happened to notice that when I let the hammer down on the nipple, the edge of the hammer nose recess hit the nipple. I had installed an Uncle Mike's Hot Shot nipple, as recommended for Pyrodex, but the nipple was too long for this rifle! I later looked in a catalog and it specifically stated, "Not For Lyman Rifles!" I replaced the Hot Shot with the standard factory nipple, and was plagued with hangfires the rest of the day! Some were worse than others, but there were two noticeable reports; the cap and the muzzle blast. I did not wipe the bore between shots, and loading did not become very difficult, so I switched to .495 round balls (the proper size for this patching material) and fired a 5-shot group with 100 grs. of Pyrodex. This group was a 3.24" vertical string, only 3/4" wide. Velocities ranged from 1697 to 1752 f.p.s.
I then switched to the 250 gr. Lee REAL bullet lubed with Emmert's.
In anticipation of having difficulty starting these bullets straight down the bore, I had made a false muzzle to assist loading. It was turned from a
piece of Nylon, and bored to 1.01" on the bottom side, and .518"
through the top side, with a chamfer leading into the .518" bore. The 1.01"
diameter bore slipped over the corners of the nominally 15/16" octagon barrel with a
slight amount of resistance. The Lee REAL bullets mike .506" on the base band, .510" on the middle
band
and .515" on the front band. The bore diameter in this barrel is
.502",
with a .527" groove diameter. The bullets started easily using the
false muzzle, and it was found that the short starter was not necessary. I just
placed the ramrod against the nose of the bullet and, gripping the ramrod about four inches above the false muzzle, slowly pressed the bullet into the
bore. Each body band could be felt as it entered the rifling. The
bullet then seated easily onto the powder charge, with the bore feeling like it got
looser part way down. I don't know if this bore is tapered, or if the bullet eventually just seats easier on the way down, or if there is more
fouling deposited near the muzzle. Whatever the reason, all the bullets felt this way, although I don't recall noticing this phenomenon when loading
patched round balls.
The first group was fired with 80 grs. of Pyrodex, and three shots fell into a 1.06" group at a velocity of 1478 f.p.s. Once again, no first-shot flyer was experienced, even though I changed from 1000+ to Emmert's without cleaning. I then bumped the charge up to 90 grs. Pyrodex, and the resulting 4-shot group measured 1.71" at a velocity of 1539 f.p.s. A second group of five shots went into 1.78".
I then tried a group with bullets that had been wrapped in Saran Wrap, as mentioned earlier. This group spread out to 3" even, the worst group by far with the Lee bullet. Just in case, I wiped the bore after this group with a couple wet patches before proceeding.
Next I tried a group without using the false muzzle, since I decided its use in the field under stressful conditions might not be entirely practical. The powder charge was still 90 grs. of RS. A bullet was placed on the muzzle and pressed into the bore with the thumb. The rear band entered fairly easily, but the bullet could no of course be kept straight. However, when the middle band met the crown, the bullet straightened up. The rear band entered fairly easily, but the bullet could no of course be kept straight. However, when the middle band met the crown, the bullet straightened up perfectly! The bullet was seated the rest of the way with just the ramrod, as I had been doing all along. This group put five shots into 1.40" - the best group of more than three shots all day.
After this little test, I dispensed with the false muzzle! At this point I switched to good old black powder, to see how many shots I might be able to load before the fouling built up too much. The bore was swabbed with a wet and then a dry patch, and 80 grs. of Goex 3-f was loaded, followed by the Lee bullet. I had become rather used to the "pop-boom" of these Pyrodex loads, as the hang-fires persisted to one degree or another the whole afternoon. I was quite surprised - and relieved - when the first, and all subsequent black powder loads, ignited so quickly the sound of the cap firing could not be distinguished from the muzzle blast.
This 5- shot group fell into 1.50", at a velocity of 1578 f.p.s. Loading did not become difficult, which was a surprise, because patched round balls become impossible to load after just a couple shots with a charge like this. The Emmert's lube apparently does a good job of keeping the fouling soft.
Now for the test you have all been waiting for. Hey, wake up out there! I removed the lube from both lube grooves for 1/4 of the circumference of the bullet, and loaded each successive bullet with the "empty" area of the bullet at 12:00, 3:00, 6:00 and 9:00 (as observed when loading the bullet). The load was again 80 grs. of 3-f. After firing four shots, it was determined that the bullet loaded with the empty area oriented to 3:00 opened the group the most, so a fifth round was loaded at this orientation. The total group size was 2.78", the second largest of the day with the Lee bullets (exceeded only by the Saran Wrap test). No, it's not an abysmal group, but I'm convinced enough to ensure my pure lead muzzle loader slugs are completely and evenly lubed. About all that's left is to make a larger aperture for this peep sight for hunting, and plenty of practice!
Glenn