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Smoke
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The effects of changing bullet lubes.?
Nov 24th, 2025 at 2:36am
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For years I've used Barry Darr's lube recipe: a pound of Vaseline, a pound of paraffin, some lanolin, maybe some Wonder Lube 1000.
                        
Recently I ran out of not only the Darr lube that I made up but also of the ingredients to make any more. And I needed to lube up some bullets for a match that was coming up. I had some of Doug Knoell's black powder cartridge lube (ingredients a closely guarded secret) on hand.  This was a bit softer than what I wanted so I put a couple pounds in a double boiler and added about a quarter pound of beeswax, melted it all togher, stirred it up and lubed up a couple hundred bullets.

After I pushed the bullets out of the the cake, the lube still seemed to be still a bit soft, but the bullets are lubed up so off to the range.  

The first thing I noticed when I started to use these bullets was that they slipped into the barrel so easily that it felt like the bullets were too small.  None of the usual resistence to the seater. Perhaps I should note here that I've been using this bullet for a long time and I know it's not too small, but after slipping a few with the new lube into the barrel, and having them go so go in so easily, I pointed at the barrel at the sunlight checked for light leakage.

No daylight coming past the bullet.

In these matches I didn't do as well as usual. The bullets seemed to be going to call (somewhere in the expected quadrant) but the scores were lower than what I usually shoot.

When I shot with the Darr Lube I always got a little bit of leading.  In a 20 shot match I'd get half a dozen or so tiny flakes.  In a 50 shot match I'll get a few more.   The thing about using this lube was that even after shooting a few matches with these bullets there's absolutely sign of lead on the cleaning patches. 

What I'm wondering is if the bullets slip in the barrel more easily but don't shoot as well perhaps I need to go back to the drawing board and work up a new load.  

Can a different lube make that much difference?
  

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1Hawkeye
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Re: The effects of changing bullet lubes.?
Reply #1 - Nov 24th, 2025 at 8:43am
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I think I'd try them with a lighter powder charge It sounds like the lube is slicker it could be now your pushing them to fast. You could also add a little more beeswax to thicken up the new lube.
  
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JHand
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Re: The effects of changing bullet lubes.?
Reply #2 - Nov 24th, 2025 at 10:19am
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Just a thought,  with a 22, if you switch brands of ammo, it will not shoot as well due to the lubes mixing. Would likely be the same in centerline, so the barrel may need to be cleaned really well? I was told to get javelina schutzen lube when I started and haze had good accuracy and zero leading in case you decide to make a change
  
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bpjack
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Re: The effects of changing bullet lubes.?
Reply #3 - Nov 24th, 2025 at 11:27am
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I used a home brew lube for several years and had good luck with it. It was based on a recipe found here using beeswax, anhydrous lanolin and mink oil. When accuracy with my main battle rifle dropped off I suspected old lube among other things so I eventually bought some Javelina lube and even though the accuracy issues did not completely clear up I decided to stick with a known proven lube so I wouldn’t be second guessing myself any longer. My home brew really wasn’t any cheaper.  Now I am concentrating on other issues like having cataract surgery on my shootin’ eye and bedding the forend on my other match 32-40 and recrowning the main rifle. 

Jack
  

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