Lube for mini-balls

I just finished lubing some .45 cast bullets, with Lee Liquid Alox, and I was wondering if it would work on mini-balls. Has anyone tried it?

I don't know of anyone who uses it though a lot of folks use it on a round ball in a smooothbore with success. Lubes similar in consistency to SPG work very well. A good mini lube needs to be stiff enough to stay in the grooves in warm weather, is slippery and contains enough moisture to keep the fouling soft. Some add a dab of lube in the base to help with the latter but I have found that to cause other problems.

Alox is better suited for modern smokeless powder guns. The black powder guns do better with a grease. It keeps the fouling from getting too hard. I will pre-grease my Maxi-balls with a grease mixture that I make and then wrap each bullet separately in a bit of paper to keep the grease on the bullet and off everything else. When I am ready to load, I simply unwrap the bullet and it is ready to go.

Can I ask what is the grease mixture that you use.I have a little carbine that has a real fast twist barrel ,had not shot it for a few yrs, tried it the other day and had real trouble loading the GP Bullets the lube on them had harded really hard, was just thinking what i could lube them with.

I use a mixture of lard and beeswax. But many prefer olive oil and bees wax 50/50. They must be worried about saturated fats! :hmm:

I used bear grease as a base and added enough bees wax to make it as stiff as I wanted it. While it was still melted but starting to show sigbns of solidifying, I added a tablespoonful of Murphy's Oil Soap and beat the mixture until it was well mixed and getting pretty thick. The Murphy's Oil Soap does two things, it acts as an emulisfier to make the beeswax and grease mix well and beating it makes it creamy. It also helps in keeping the bore clean. There are as many recipes for bullet lube as there are people to think them up. The basic idea is to use a natural grease or oil as the lubricant with beeswax added to thicken it to where it will stay on the bullet and not melt. Winter mixes will have less beeswax than summer mixtures. For a bullet lube, pick a grease such as lard, bear grease, lanolin, etc. melt it in a double boiler and melt beeswax in another boiler or you can do both in the microwave if you keep an eye on them and not let them get too hot. Just melt them until they are liquid. Mix them together thoroughly and let them cool to room temperature. If it is not stiff enough for you, re-melt it and add more beeswax. If it cools and is too stiff, remelt and add more grease or a natural oil such as castor oil, olive oil, bear oil, jojoba oil, neatsfoot oil, etc. Keep track of what you mix and in what proportions so you can do it again when you have used up your first batch. Murphy's Oil Soap is optional but I like to use it.