snip...
Is SL type lubes better than, let's say, Ben's Red or Simple Lube,etc?
I've never used Ben's Red or Simple Lube...But I will say this, I think SL-68.0 and SL68B are better than "etc"
1. It's soft, so whatever is left on the bullet, when it exits the barrel, flings off, so as to not make the bullet unbalanced.
2. It's flows through a lubesizer without heat.
3. It's soft, but not tacky like a Speed green type of lube. When handling lubed bullets, obviously I try to avoid touching the lubed areas, with lubes like speed green, I've found it to become a sticky mess, lube finger prints on everything. Now a bullet lubed with SL68B, when the lube area is touched, it feels like lotion and my fingers are is easily wiped on a rag or trousers to become clean...it doesn't become a mess. I'm kinda anal about hand/finger cleanliness, so this was important to me in a soft lube.
3. Accuracy-wise, It shoots clean, leaving the inside of the barrel in a state where it doesn't create cold barrel flyers.
4. Messiness-wise, It shoots clean, I've tested it with revolver ammo, and after shooting a box of 50 rds, the outside (as well as the inside) of the gun just had a light haze of soot and NOT greasey like many beeswax based lubed (where the lube is 50% or more beeswax and the other portion is mosty oil or grease.)
5. Smokiness-wise, it shoots pretty cleanly, mostly, humidity and the type of gunpowder kinda dictate part of smokiness.
6. It doesn't melt or weep oil out in the extreme heat of a parked car(windows up) in the summer sun.
7. It's been successfully shooting tested in extreme heat of Texas and extreme cold of the Rockies and hasn't had any serious issues.
One potential downside ...corrosion. Others have had evidence of verdigris and other corrosion, I have not (my stored bullets sized/lubed for as long as 6 months, including Minnesota humid summer as well as some loaded ammo, I pulled apart...no corrosion evidence), but I set up an long term experiment and will report on that, in my "SL-68 continued" thread.
Um ,,,Ian, have I forgot anything ?