Lube eating bullets....

waco

Springfield, Oregon
I just sized and lubed a bunch of Lyman 429421 bullets. Man!!! I forgot how much lube each of those bullets eat up!

What other bullet mold designs out there eat up a ton of lube????
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
My Lee group buy 460420 FP sure eats a bunch too. It is only one groove buy a 45-70 collar button has a deeeeeeeppppppp groove and takes a bunch of lube.
 
9

9.3X62AL

Guest
Yessir, that Ly #429421 is a greedy critter. So is its 45 caliber counterpart (#454424). Some years back I had the use of a SAECO #021 mould, their .459" 405 grain spitzer. If not the biggest lube consumer in my career per bullet, it would be a close 2nd place. It shot well in my Ruger #1 x 45/70.
 

JonB

Halcyon member
NOE 460-405 RF
N.O.E._Bullet_Moulds_460_405Gr._RF_PB.Jpg


30 cal 45 cal and pulled 38 WC.jpg
 
9

9.3X62AL

Guest
Some of the black powder bullet designs have generous lube capacities, and that can assist greatly in keeping fouling soft.

I haven't done a whole lot of BPCR shooting, but enough to learn that proper lube and its amount can be critical to extending performance length. Example (you KNEW I would do this)......Win 73 in 44/40 WCF, vintage 1897. W-W cases, CCI 350 primers, 36 grains of Goex 3F Flaming Dirt compressed about 1/16".

Bullet #1--Lee 200 grain round flat nose, sized .429", 30/1 Pb/Sn. 2 shallow, skinny lube grooves filled with SPG. This bullet has no shoulder, much like Lyman #427098. Accuracy went south at Round #4, Round #7 tumbled. Game over. The combined influences of GFD, very low humidity (10%-12% that day) and minimal lube capacity messed things up in short order.

I cleaned out the coal mine, and went to Bullet #2--SAECO #446, with far more generous lube capacity, same primer/case/load/lube/alloy. #446 also has something of a "scraper" shoulder on its leading edge. Accuracy stayed constant for 15 rounds, equivalent to that given in this same carbine with smokeless loads (1.25"-1.50" @ 50 yards). At Round #16, accuracy started to fall off just a bit, but i surely could have stayed in battle for a time with such loads. I finished with Round #20 well within the radius of the first 5-shot dispersions. My conclusions--with The Holy Black, lube quantity matters--and bullet design might play a role as well. I knew going in that SPG was good stuff for the purpose--Mr. Garbe knows a whole lot more about BP shooting and its nuances by accident than I'll ever know on purpose.

A round-about way of suggesting that if someone was inclined to try The Holy Black in their 44 Special or 44 Magnum rollerpistole, that a Lyman #429421 with its grease gallery filled up with SPG might not be a bad place to start. Those decadent lube capacities can have their uses, IOW--and a snowplow in a coal mine might not hurt, either.
 
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358156 hp

At large, whereabouts unknown.
The large grease grooves got their start in the olden days when the most effective bullet lube was beeswax mixed with either tallow, or pump grease. I think tallow was probably used primarily with black powder, and good ole pump grease made its mark in the early days of smokeless. Its hard to tell exactly, there's very little mention of bullet lubes in the early books, except for rifles, and everybody seemed to use their own brew back then. Kind of like being here, right now :).
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
I was going to comment on his collection of Smurf figurines then realized they are actually bullets. My bad.
 
F

freebullet

Guest
That's pretty close to my favorite shade so I guess, I kinda like the smurf bullets. Of course, fouling & accuracy could change things though.