Grease cookie

[Kurt]

2 parts B wax and 1 part oil will make a pretty hard lube wad. But I have used just B wax with no other wads. One of my "secret" lubes for PP shooting dirty is 50/50 Soy or Ozokerite wax and Vaseline with some lanolin or pure Cocoa butter. Yes OZ and Vaseline is 100% petroleum and it's soft like warm butter
Kurt

[bobw]

I went back and looked at Kirks email and he defiantly said 2lbs bees wax to 1lb jojoba oil by weight. Not saying that I know anything cause I'm just learning myself . I made some and I thought it was awful soft. By doubling the oil to wax ratio I'm not so sure it would set up well without leaking all over your powder. I used SPG on a few just to try before I got this recipe from Kirk. I'll make a tiny batch and experiment Bob.

No problem for me Call, it says in the Sharps catalog I have, lube wads to made of 2 parts sperm whale oil to 1 part yellow beeswax. Unless you are Alaskan Native American I don't think you can legally possess sperm whale oil anymore. So one needs a sperm whale oil substitute and Orville Loomer told me that jojoba oil was the closest he has ever found. Meadowfoam oil is also good but very expensive. Melt the beeswax at very low temp with the jojoba oil and pour into a sheet mold or cookie mold which ever you are using. I refrigerate them until they are stiff in the cookie mold and push out or just cool solid in the sheet mold to cut them with a case mouth as needed. Yes they are soft, no they are not durable. Store in a box or tin in a cool place out of the sun. What you need to remember here is that mixed, the wax is the carrier for the oil which keeps your powder fouling soft so it doesn't destroy the accuracy of your next shot. When you shoot your powder explosion and heat with attending pressure changes the semi solid state of this mix back to liquid to coat your bore mixing with your bp fouling. This is the whole PURPOSE of the lube wad and some folks still haven't figured that out. In the last years of Creedmoor shooting most went to an all wiping method of fouling control after every shot bobw

[bruce moulds]

bob,
in no way being critical,
I am going through this process at the moment myself.
I can see the benefit of soft lube wads, and strongly suspect benefit from plenty of oil.
have you found a cutoff point or a need to adjust the ratios as temperature increases.
with these softer oilier lubes it seems critical to have tight fitting wads.
these lubes seem to bleed oil in the heat, potentially contaminating powder.
they also seem to be able to get in front of the under bullet wad, causing it to stick to the bullet base.
it also seems a good idea for a type of overpowder wad that leaves as much lube in the barrel as possible without sweeping it back out again.
another aspect of the lube wad is to make a perfect gas seal behind the bullet, thus avoiding any gas cutting etc.
keep safe,
bruce.

[mherth]

I'm not sure what value a grease wad has in softening fouling when you're wiping between each shot. I do wonder if a grease cookie between two thin card wads does more effectively seal the bore behind the bullet, however. I use a harder lube cookie and it seems to work better than an LDPE wad.

[bruce moulds]

mherth,
I too think what you say.
am currently persueing minimization of vert if possible by gas sealing.
as yet the criterion for this is still just a 0.060 ldpe wad however.
of course as bob says, thorough wiping is absolutely required when doing this.
when wiping while using a grease wad pushing the rod seems easier than when shooting dry.
keep safe,
bruce.

[bobw]

mherth,
I too think what you say.
am currently persueing minimization of vert if possible by gas sealing.
as yet the criterion for this is still just a 0.060 ldpe wad however.
of course as bob says, thorough wiping is absolutely required when doing this.
when wiping while using a grease wad pushing the rod seems easier than when shooting dry.
keep safe,
bruce.

Forsyth ,Mt is 102 degrees today and dry my loads with grease cookies will take less wiping between the shots than dry and no lube wad at all. You guys do it anyway you like. bobw

[Stephen Borud]

I make my own lube 2/3 jojoba oil to 1/3 beeswax by weight. When I first made lube I had some tin trays that I poored the mix into. To get my lube thickness at 3/16th of an inch I placed a piece of 3/16 key stock in the pan and poored to the key stock height making sure my pan was on a level surface. Latter I happened across some 5/8" thick lexan. I stuck it in my mill and cut the lexan at 3/16 of an inch deep to build my lube molds. That worked great as well but I found that after the lube set up it actually shrunk a little bit. So I machined my lube molds a touch deeper to compensate for the lube shrinkage after it set up. I leave my lube in the freezer. I pull it out the day before I need it so it's nice and soft. I also use a .023 thick card below and above the lube wad when I reload my PP ammunition. I am basically duplicating the original Sharps reloading instructions from 1874.

Stephen

[bobw]

Well, match day at the Mt 1000. 102-103 on the flats of the Quigley range, AL Lee ranch. Major barrel heat, single digit humidity, all contributed to dry hard fouling for most of the competitors. Those who had good fouling control did better than those who did not. All ways varying wind conditions added to that. Top place to Wes Gamble, 2nd to Dave Gamble both shooting greasers and smokeless. 3rd to Mike Bucholz using bp and greasers. 4th to Wes Daims who ran out of ppb loads and had to finish with greasers (probably cost him the match top finish) but Wes had his fouling control down to the max. I didn't watch everyone and their method. A lot of the upper end shot prone and it does make a difference. I finished 18th out of 56 sitting position over x sticks using a KAL mold .442" with BACO 9# over the same lube wad and cards as mentioned above, wiping 2 damp to wet cotton patches with barrel heat taking care of drying and NEVER fouled out. Wish I could have shot the match twice under the same conditions and done it the 2 nd time shooting prone. It didn't help some who normally finish higher than I do. Fouling control played a major factor in how well you did this last weekend at Forsyth.I saw 3 different people pounding cleaning rods thru their barrels at the end of the match and I'll give you a clue they weren't shooting ppb's. bobw