Forrest,

  I have shot down to as low as 30 degrees using SPG and the results... no test..... seemed to be about as good as any higher temp.

  But in our testing with smokeless and the NRA lube things seem to go down hill when the temp. gets under 60 degrees.

  The late Claude Roderick believed that you have to "temper" your lube for the temperature. I corresponded with hm for about two years before he died and he sent me a copy on what he felt was the proper temper for his particular lube at the different temperatures.

  I haven't tried his lube out, or the different tempers, since to me, when it gets below about 50 degrees I'm thinking more on keeping my fingers warm than concentrating on my shooting.

PETE

Barry,

  Interesting! I was always under the impression that lube had to be soft enuf to flow under the pressures exerted on it from firing. If the lube was to stiff because of the temp. this wouldn't occur well enuf to keep the bore from Leading. Plus if the lube wasn't soft enuf it would tend to impede the bullets movement down the barrel; and as the barrel warmed under subsequent shots this would alter the flow characteristics of the lube and thus the bullets movement down the bore. Between groups the barrel would cool and you'd have to start all over again.

  Granted this might not be noticeable on the target and would depend on the temper of the lube in relation to the air temp.

PETE

  I have shot down to as low as 30 degrees using SPG and the results... no test..... seemed to be about as good as any higher temp.

PETE,

I have to go to Salt Lake City right now but for the moment I'd like to say that I have found that my Javelina smokeless lube does not deliver its best perfromance at lower temperatures.

More later.
Forrest

Pete etal,

BRRRRR, anthing below 50 degrees is not fit for humans to be subjected to. In my younger days I didn't know that  .

Ed

  Have a safe trip..... I'll agree about the Javelina as I use the same lube for my smokeless loads. What we've found is that at about 60 degrees, and below, there is a slight decrease in accuracy.

PETE,

I no sooner filed the Flight Plan, went out to preflight, fueled the airplane and got in for departure when the trip canceled.

So.

My story about the Javelina is that I cut the NEI 458-555-PB "Gunn" bullet to suit my fancy one day, turning the first two grease grooves into a nose-riding 0.451 diameter ahead of the driving bands.

I did the initial testing in temperatures cooler than really comfortable but nothing really tough. My loading notes are home you see, but to our point the load provided reasonable accuracy at short range but left the skuffing of light leading toward the muzzle of my rifle.

Ah! I said: Lube failure! 

Not enough to do the job was my conclusion and I didn't load any more of those bullets again until just before the Montana 1000 yard championship. It was hot by then of course and I only loaded these bullets because they were the heaviest I had at the time.

They did quite well! Accuracy was pretty good and there was never a bit of "wash" or leading whatever.

I concluded as this thread has: The stuff needs to be fairly warm in order to function as intended.

P:  The SPG, on the other hand, works well down to at least 30 degrees, which is as far as I've gone.

F: That is nice to know.

I have some SPG look-alike in my #2 sizer; next time out this winter I'll grease some of them up with it and try the loads side-by-side with others greased with Javelina.

P: Your starting out at -10 deg.'s is way beyond what I care to do. Used to walk up Fox in colder temp.'s than that but I think I'd freeze to death sitting at a bench.

F: Certainly! The morning began at -10 but soon warmed up to reasonable shooting temperatures: Something like 35 or so as I recall. Warm sunshine and no wind to speak of.

Good afternoon,
Forrest

Forrest,

  Interesting test, and glad you took the time to post it.

Quote:


  35 is still plenty cold for me. Guess they just make them tougher out WY. 

  I would have thought even after turning the bullet down to suit there would still have been very shallow grease grooves left. Were the grease grooves shallow enuf that they disappeared?

  Not sure if SPG "look a like" will do the trick as well but if it's softer than Javelina it might be worth a try to see what happens. Let us know how it works out!

PETE

Barry,

Quote:


  The sarcasm is noted! Sorry.

  In todays world of BP shooting either wiping or blow tubing is considered the norm. As I read the above you feel that it isn't?

PETE