[butlerford45]

Any suggestions on how to get enough lube to keep a 30" barrel running?

 

[Cuts Crooked]

Although I have no experiance with the big bore guns, I've read that a pure bees wax cookie can be used without card wads in them. Pure bees wax won't contaminate the powder charge. But I think I'd still use a wad between the cookie and the bullet base to prevent it from sticking to the bullet and acting like a vane.

 

[butlerford45]

I guess thiat brings up another question, I've heard the term before, but what is "Japan Wax"?

 

[Cuts Crooked]

You got me with that one! I've always understood it to be a mixture of Bees wax and vegetable oils, but truth is I don't why I thought that! :?

 

[Major Kendo]

Japan wax is made from the berries of the japanesse sumac plant. Very hards to fine.

 

[Mason Stillwell]

I sometimes use bees wax cookies for my 45/70n long range stuff. Really if you use the right bullet with enough of a GOOD lube you really dont need the cookie.
Sometimes I will add them for that Xtra help on the long barrel.
THis is what I do.
Load in the powder thru a drop tube and settle it down good. Then I get my beeswax in sheets so I just press however many I want to use over the case and press with my thumb it will cut the wax out of the sheet. Then seat the bullet as normal.
Beeswax provides very little lube. It is usally used to carry the lube or as a base to mix in the lube.
Anyways this works for me your milage might vary.
Hope it helps.

Pete :wink:

 

[Lead pot]

I tried a lot of different ways for grease cookies.I tried bullet lube wool felt from a old hat boiled in crisco, elk hide, deer hide soaked in crisco which all work good when it gets hot and dry in the long 34" barrel,but cut wads from cold bacon I like the best.Lp.

 

[Old Cane]

So if straight beeswax works for a cookie will it work for lube? Is Crisco used for any reason other than to soften the lube?

 

[Cuts Crooked]

Pure bees wax has very poor lubricating properties! In big bore guns It seems to simply "wipe" the bore a bit better than just a lubed bullet does. When used in bullet lubes it is mixed with other stuff like crisco or olive oil as a carrier to retain the slicker stuff and make it stiff enough to stay on the slug. In this capacity it is more of a carrying agent for the real lube.

Does that make any sense? :?

 

[Old Cane]

Ah, now it all starts to make sense.

 

[Brasskisser]

Ok, Im going to cut to the chase here ( I have been doing this stuff a long time). If in any 30" rifle barrel you are fouling out, You need either another bullet design or a different lube. It is tough to get enough lube in many of the "off the shelf" bullet molds from lyman, Lee, RCBS, and others. Rapine does better than most with correct lube capacity from their molds. However, All is not lost. Believe me there is a tremendous difference in Bullet Lubes. SPG is not the holy grail. Buy and use Lee Shaver's Black Powder Moly Lube. This stuff is great. and works well in many of the Lyman molds. YOU DO NOT WANT TO USE GREASE COOKIES!!!! They do nothing but retard accuaracy. Yes, the old buffalo hunters and original sharps cartridges did use cookies, but this was in 45-90's to 120's and these hunters often shot until you could not touch the barrels. I have shot 45-70 using Elephant or Swiss, or Goex powder and a Lyman Postell bullet a hundred times without wiping or cleaning in any way. Just "blow tubing", using Lee Shaver's Lube, and weighting for the gun to cool. Let me repeat "YOU DO NOT WANT TO USE GREASE COOKIES!!!! I tried to make these things work for years always with poor results in accuracy. I know of no serious BPRC competitor who uses grease cookies in load development.

 

[HWooldridge]

I use grease cookies under paper patch bullets in 45-70 and they don't seem to retard accuracy. I put a thin card wad cut from a Kleenex box over the powder and compress about .10 inch, then put a 3/16 cookie on top followed by a wax paper wafer and then finger seat the bullet. The paper patch bullet only seats 1/8 inch in the case.

A wad cannot scrub the barrel since it is under the bullet and the slug would do a much better job anyway. The powder burns behind everything and leaves fouling on every shot. The grease cookie serves to soften the fouling so the next shot pushes it out of the barrel. My lube is 50% Crisco, 25% beeswax and 25% Murphy's Oil Soap by weight, melted together in the oven under low heat.

 

[Pigeonroost Slim]

My support goes to the camp telling you to avoid "cookies" and soaked wads. There is no substitute for proper bullet design and quality lube for BP shooting. The word "lube" is misleading in our application. Lubrication of the bullet and bore is pretty far down on teh list of importance of the lube's function. Softening of the fouling is, by far, #1 and depends mostly on how much water vapor is created as the lube is compressed and exposed to heat of combustion.