How hard should bullet lube be?

MDF

MDF

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I'm pan lubing cast bullets for the first time. I'm using a home brew of 1:1 beeswax and Vaseline with 1 tablespoon of STP based on the simplest recipes I could find on the web.

I'm separating the bullets from the lube cake using a slightly oversize cartridge as a cookie cutter. The lube grooves are filling in nicely.

Nothing revolutionary here -- just traditional pan lubing and it all seems to be working well.

But I am wondering about how hard the lube should be.

The lube is soft and readily melts in my fingers. I'd compare its hardness before it melts to, say, refrigerated butter.

How hard should lube be? Should it be like a candle or crayon? Or is what I am describing normal?

I'll be using these bullets in Swiss 7.5 Revolverpatrone 82 rounds made from 32-20 brass using 3 gr of Trail Boss.
 
MDF said:
I'm pan lubing cast bullets for the first time. I'm using a home brew of 1:1 beeswax and Vaseline with 1 tablespoon of STP based on the simplest recipes I could find on the web.

I'm separating the bullets from the lube cake using a slightly oversize cartridge as a cookie cutter. The lube grooves are filling in nicely.

Nothing revolutionary here -- just traditional pan lubing and it all seems to be working well.

But I am wondering about how hard the lube should be.

The lube is soft and readily melts in my fingers. I'd compare its hardness before it melts to, say, refrigerated butter.

How hard should lube be? Should it be like a candle or crayon? Or is what I am describing normal?

I'll be using these bullets in Swiss 7.5 Revolverpatrone 82 rounds made from 32-20 brass using 3 gr of Trail Boss.
Click to expand...

You can add some paraffin to harden it up
 
I use to use lubes that were fairly hard, (LBT BLUE) and had to be applied with a heated lubricator. This lube worked very well at velocities above 2200 fps. I also have used lubes that were, as you described, like butter from the fridge or slightly softer. This was made using ATF (tranny fluid) mixed with beeswax has worked very well for me in slugs shot at about 1700 FPS. You can make it harder or softer by varying the amount of wax in the mix, as per Yomamma. I prefer to hand lube most of my stuff now so I keep is just a bit soft.
 
That's a very soft lube, probably too soft for summer shooting. I would add the same amount of paraffin as the beeswax and Vaseline. Thus it would be 1:1:1 + STP. It's very similar to what I use most of the time when I don't powder coat or tumble lube. Only I don't use STP I use ivory soap.
 
I make my lube stiff enough that I can pop the bullets out after the lube cools, no need for a cookie cutter.
 
Thanks, everyone, for the comments. This has been helpful.

ryan said:
I make my lube stiff enough that I can pop the bullets out after the lube cools, no need for a cookie cutter.
Click to expand...

The lube is hard enough to poke the bullets out by hand but about half of them seem to lose the lube from their grooves that way. With the cookie cutter cartridge they all come out fully lubed.

I'm going to shoot this batch as they are but will get some parafin and stiffen up the lube for the next round of casting.

I am thinking that a hardness tester for lube would be a handy thing to have, just for comparison. I'm thinking of something simple, like dropping a 1/2" ball bearing from a set height and measuring the indent. That's not going to give me a Brinell or Rockwell value, but it might be a handy reference for comparing different lube recipes.
 
That is a good basic lube mixture but it is sloppy and it doesn't transport well. Of course it melts in your fingers, it's made of beeswax and Vaseline. Store them somewhere cool. Lubes made with paraffin and carnauba wax tend to be stiffer. Vaseline (petroleum jelly) and STP are good lubes but they are sloppy.
 
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