Not exactly BP but related somewhat...

[Afy]

For those of you who also shoot rim fire....

Ever try coating your el-cheapo .22 LR ammo with the BP lube? (Beeswax+Tallow?)

I was just curious if you had tried it, and if so what effect did it have on accuracy?

Just a thought that crossed my mind as I was mixing up some for a trip to the range... today is BP day...

 

[Im283]

my guess it would just attract dirt in the action and barrel of the rifle. Lube in BP ( i believe) is to stop chainfires and to keep fouling soft. Smokeless does not need lube like that.

final synopsis-will cause more harm than good.

 

[scrat]

ya im sure in autoloaders or semi automatic rifles you are going to have a heck of time. cleaning that is. im sure after a few shots it may start jamming. then just seem like absolute junk.

 

[Serial Fan]

Don't most .22LR bullets already have some sort of waxy lube on them?

 

[scrat]

They do but thats more like the liquid lee alox. That kind of lube is different than BP lube. you cant mix the two. That waxy lube is designed to aide in preventing leading of the barrel when you shoot. Same way all cast bullets need some kind of lube in smokeless guns. With BP the powder alone is different velocities are also different. the lube has to be different. switching lube for either will gumm up chambers and barrels. Black powder works well with bore butter, crisco and other similar types of lube. However with alox or petroleum types of lube. BP will gum up. not compatable. same as the reverse. If the idea is to lube a tip of a 22 to prevent leading of the barrel i would recomend changing ammo. If your doing it to lesson the amount you have to clean then id recomend liquid alox or johnson paste wax if anything. however its still best to change the ammo if in doubt.

 

[Afy]

The thought came up because Eley lists a combination of beeswax and tallow as the lube on their tenex ammo... which sells for only 14.98 Euro's per box of 50...

 

[arcticap]

I bought multiple bricks of old production Tenex for bullseye pistol shooting that were packed in red boxes that I figured to be about 30 years old or more, and I also came across a brick of similar old production Eley Club in an orange box.
The lube on many of the bullets was old, hard, dry and had turned white. So I removed the old lube by rubbing each bullet with a solvent and then relubed each one by hand with a fresh beeswax type of lube mixture.
I was thoroughly happy with the performance of the old Tenex which I shot exclusively over about a 2 year period, and I thought that the new lube definitely helped the bullets to shoot with more accuracy and consistency.
The orange boxed Club had a lot of bad primers, and the Tenex of that era had a higher percentage of misfires than normal too.
I've heard that beeswax lube is popular among some precision rimfire competitiors.

 

[Afy]

So I take it... should be OK... to dip the bullet parts in the black pwder mix when liquid...

Next... what is the danger of a cook off... I do not want loose a fore finger and thumb...

 

[arcticap]

I applied the lube with my fingers as it became more workable due to the body temperature of my hand.
It was just a very thin coating applied by spinning the bullet.
So no dipping or cooking was involved.
I know some guys who actually take the lube off of their .22 bullets so they won't cause sticking & feeding problems in their chambers. But that's usually only with bullets with excess factory lube like some CCI's.
And some Eley precision shooters actually keep their ammo in a cooler during the summer months at the range because the bullet lube gets a little messy to handle during loading into their single shot target rifles. The lube melts and gets tacky very easily, unlike more hard, waxy lubes which melts and accumulates in the chamber once fired.