Do you have to lube conicals?

My understanding of lube on conicals is that it is to soften fouling of a series of shots after the first. I have heard that it helps create a gas seal but this seems somewhat far-fetched. I have 100 conicals that have two grooves without lube in them. Can they be used "as-is"? If they must be lubed is there some recipe I can make at home and apply manually? Last question - I know some people use button wads over powder with conicals but I have heard a 100% cotton ball can work. Any thoughts on that? Thank you in advance.....

Lube reduces/eliminates the leading of your barrel. Without it you will have issues. Also helps with powder fowling and ease of loading.
I have no insight to share on your cotton ball question.
Walk

Pan lube them. Lee makes a good bullet lube and is inexpensive.

Softens fouling, lubricates the metal on metal connection, assists in finding shot-to-shot consistent performance.

Burning black powder can melt lead. How much that interferes with what's being done depends on what's being done. It can produce base melt off, gas cutting on the side. Then you can get deposited lead in the barrel. Then it can get smeared, melted, yuck.

These maybe needed a wad instead of a hollow base.

I used to shoot TC maxi balls. I lubed them but never used any kind of wadding. They have a solid flat base so never saw a need for an over powder wad.

I lubed with bore butter. Bought the screw on device that screws onto the tube that you slide the maxi through then squeeze the lube into. Works pretty well.

nkbj said:

Burning black powder can melt lead

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Not to mention the friction of the soft lead against your barrel walls.
LD

Most "leading" seems to come from particles of lead stripped from the base of the bullet on the initial ignition pulse before the bullet seats in the rifling. The lead particles get sprayed up the barrel and then ironed in to the bore by the passage of the projectile. The lead does not "melt" in the ordinary sense.. it gets washed off the corner of the bullet by the hot gas flow.

This is why a gas check is fitted to the base of the bullet and how paper patches work..

That said, Minie bullets should not normally have a base wad as this can lodge in the hollow base and affect the ballistics. Base wads are used with flat based bullets. If you do want to add anything behind the bullet, then a conical base plug made of Bondo etc would be better as it would stick in the base of the bullet symetrically. The grooves in a Minie bullet are designed to be grease packed and act as scrapers.

I stopped pan lubing an fouling difrent rifles no noticible extra fouling. accuracy remained the same. a little goes along ways. put how many boxes of unlubed bullets in a gallon zipluck bag put a few tablespoons of xlox shake it for several minutes making sure all are coated. I pour the bullets onto wax paper, stand them up and let them dry until the tackiness is gone

Howie1968 said:

I stopped pan lubing an fouling difrent rifles no noticible extra fouling. accuracy remained the same. a little goes along ways. put how many boxes of unlubed bullets in a gallon zipluck bag put a few tablespoons of xlox shake it for several minutes making sure all are coated. I pour the bullets onto wax paper, stand them up and let them dry until the tackiness is gone

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When I tried Allox in the past basically followed your procedure, but I repeated the process for a second coat after the first had dried. Real upside of the Allox as a lube was that it didn’t get real messy in the heat (90°F plus). Don’t know how it performs below 32°, just never tried it at lower temperatures.

So what is Allox and why don’t you have to fill the bullet grooves with it?

Sparkitoff said:

So what is Allox and why don’t you have to fill the bullet grooves with it?

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Its my understanding that Alox does not react well with Holy black. I have heard it works great with black powder substitutes.

But I don’t have anything to prove that statement.

Thank you. I'm looking for the instructions. You just put it in a bag with bullets and shake it?

So with something like a Maxi-Ball you don't have to fill the grooves with Allox?

Sparkitoff said:

Thank you. I'm looking for the instructions. You just put it in a bag with bullets and shake it?

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Yes sir I put it in the bag and shake. Remember a little goes along ways. I forgot to mention I used xlox instead of alox. Its the same thing I bought xlox as it's around 18.00 for 32 ounces of it

I shoot maxiballs never had a problem. I bought some .58 unlubed max is from TOW and used the xlox I still used a wonder wad over powder. I used 80 Olde Eynesford 3F no misfired. I should have noted I swab between shots.

I've been using wax and veggie oil melted together for years. Easy and not expensive. Works for me.

From Lee.

LUBRICATING BULLETS Traditional bullet lubricating methods of placing lube only in the grooves are inferior to the modern method of coating the entire bullet with Lee Liquid Alox. This places the lube where needed, on the surfaces that rub against the bore. Lead bullets must be lubricated or your gun will be fouled with lead and accuracy will be poor.

1 Place bullets in plastic container and dribble some Lee Liquid Alox onto the bullets.

2 Gently shake the bullets in an orbital motion to coat the bullets. If they do not coat completely, add a little more lube.

3 Spread bullets onto waxed paper; allow to dry overnight.

4 Load at least one bullet into a case checking to be sure it easily chambers in your gun. If it fits tightly, you must resize the bullets before sizing. Bullets can be sized after they have been lubed. However, for best results, we recommend bullets be relubed after sizing to be sure the sized portion is coated with Lee Liquid Alox.

Carbon 6 said:

From Lee.

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That part right there screams sales pitch. I have never had good results using Alox and the holy black in any of my guns, and it wasn't like I didn't try.

In the NSSA, we shoot minies, and Alox and a minie are a short trip to big problems and poor accuracy. I found the best lube for a minie is very close to the original using beeswax and rendered animal fat (lard). I was able to run 40+ shots straight without wiping on multiple occasions so I'm sold.

Some folks use Alox to lube round ball for smoothbore matches, but it didn't work in my 42 Macon. The fouling was hard and crusty meaning follow up shots very quickly became problematic. I switched to just dipping the 69cal ball in musket lube composed of beeswax/oliveoil/lard and presto, fouling problems gone.

I won't use Alox again, but it might work for you.

dave951 said:

That part right there screams sales pitch. .

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No! I'm not advocating nor selling Lee liquid Alox for use in a muzzleloader.

Simply answering questions about the product.

Sparkitoff said:

Thank you. I'm looking for the instructions. You just put it in a bag with bullets and shake it?

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I have used it with modern firearms with good results. But, for muzzleloaders I use a more traditional type lube.