Bullet Lube - Alox vs Rooster Jacket

[Jesse Heywood]

Thanks to some here for suggesting the Lee Alox bullet lube applied on top of the factory lube, I went shopping for some bullet lube. All I found locally was moly, so I looked up Midway. They had the Lee Alox listed, along with Rooster Jacket, which was praised by the posters on their site. Supposed to be the cat's meow for speeds under 1,000 fps. So I bought both.

So I decided to compare the two. The same gun and load was used for both lubes. gun is a Colt Diamondback, 38 Special, 4" barrel. No pitting or discoloring in the bore.

Loads were 38 special mixed cases, all case lengths were between 1.140-1.145 in length. Bullet was Magnus 148 gr. BBWC, not swaged and lubed with an unknown blue-green colored mixture.

Powder was W231, 3.1 grains.

Primers were where I goofed. I used CCI small pistol #500 with the Rooster Jacket. When I went to load the bullets coated with Alox I learned that I has usedd all of the CCI's, so I used Federal Premium Match small pistol, #GM100M. This was a variable that I should not have introduced.

I fired 48 rounds of each load, and thee gun was thoroughly cleaned between the different loads.

Both lubes are somewhat messy when wet, but dried to an almost-solid coating.

RESULTS:

The Rooster Jacket loads left leading in the forcing cone No lead extending into the lands.

The Alox loads also leaded the forcing cone and left a thin coating in the rifling grooves. The only other difference was the loads with Alox smoked, which I assume was a result of the primers. Other loads that I show with the Alox with CCI primers did not smoke.

 

[jmortimer]

Rooster looks good and your tests support customer reviews/comments on Midway USA
Rooster Jacket 5 reviews perfect 5 out of 5 stars $ 13.99 for 16 ounces
Lee Alox 31 reviews 4.9 out of 5 $ 4.49 for 4 ounces
I'm sticking with Lee Alox but it appears that Rooster would be a good choice.

 

[Jumping Frog]

I'm sticking with Lee Alox but it appears that Rooster would be a good choice.

I have 4 bottles of Lee Liquid Alox that came with 4 size & lube kits. Once they are used up, I'll try the Roosters.

But I think I'll be an old man first. One bottle of LLA coats a heck of a lot of bullets. I've already lubed, I don't know, about 4,000-5,000 cast bullets and I am still working on the first bottle.

 

[lgbloader]

I sometimes also use LLA in conjunction with JPW. Rooster is also a very good product and worth trying.

LGB

 

[ants]

There's a trick with Rooster Jacket that makes it even easier.

Hold the bullets by the nose (tweezers or forceps or needlenose pliers) and dip the base into the liquid lube, up to the shoulder. Wipe the bottom, and set on hardware cloth to drip dry. Blow a fan on them overnight (you'll want to skip the fan, but that's essential to the drying process). The lube hardens without leaving excess lube on the bottom, so you get no smoke from burning the lube off the base. The nose is left clean and dry. This method also uses less lube, since you don't coat the nose.

 

[Jesse Heywood]

For application I tried a different approach. I drilled some wood blocks that allowed the bullets to set in nose first right up to the crimp groove. Applied with a small chip brush. Takes a little longer than tumbling, but didn't have to handle the bullets wet. Left them set in the trays until dry.