JAVELINA ALOX 2138F - any good in 2025 ?

Smells like burning tires.

Alox 2138F is Alox 350 and either 8 or 11% microcrystalline wax per Col. Harrison, I forget exactly. Then THAT is mixed half and half with beeswax to make NRA 50/50. The old NRA formula was equal parts beeswax, Vaseline, and canning paraffin. The Vaseline and paraffin of today are so different from 1950 stuff as to be practically useless in bullet lube. All that stuff has gone the way of the dodo bird on account of overrefinement and product discontinuation. Hell, we can't even make proper Ben's Red or Saeco Green anymore without formulating certain ingredients from scratch or using substitutions.
 
Great lube. The Army used it to load practice ammo. Used a bunch. The Alox 3138 got scarce and Bill Gargfola out out a big bunch under the Gar label. Still have a bunch.
Using some of Ben’s now and still have some Felix.
All good but scraping the bottom on Felix.
The Javon is still good./beagle
 
I just use Carnuba red in a star, I can and have powder coated but with a star its much less hassle cause I cannot seem to get the bullets to stay base down on cookie sheet and then bonk it and they all fall down. Someday may do the CW way and just dump them out on tray and cook them Just seems like they would become a solid glop tho
 
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if you leave a space between them it works pretty good.
you really don't want two bases touching on short bullets or you end up with one long one half the time.
 
I am not a powder coater but have read that after the coating has flowed and just before removing from the oven, shake the tray to separate any that are stuck together. Since the coating is still fluid, some of the coating will flow over the bare bullet and leave only a small spot uncoated. I have not done this, only repeat what another person stated. Perhaps it is one of those ideas that sounds logical, but may not be practical. This would only apply to the dump and bake method.
 
Ah, good old Javelina 50/50. Made in my home town (San Bernardino, CA) and available at local shops like Berman's and Halbrook's. I converted to Javelina from Lyman Black Goop within the first year of starting to cast, and bought a couple of those 12-packs not long before the company closed shop. That lasted me a while, and after retiring I bought a second Lyman press (4500) for the White Label Carnauba Red (for rifles and handguns running 1200 FPS+) and converted my rebuilt 450 to White Label's 50/50 clone; this gets used in the handguns that don't bark so loudly and buck so hard.
 
Good old NRA 50/50. Still one of the best for handguns and moderate rifle loads. Never dries out on a bullet never flakes off. I have bullets lubed 30 years ago which are ready to load. I still have plenty, but the reports on White Labels clone look good so we are OK.
Complaints about smell and smoke are usually because too much is used. For target loads under 1000 fps in pistols and revolvers I only fill one lube groove. For 38 wadcutters only about 1/3 of the bottom groove.
 
G.B.--

I have only experienced one down-side to the beeswax & alox lubes. Around 20 years ago Buckshot and I were out at one of our desert shooting spots adjacent to the old Kaiser Mine RR where it turns from south to west toward the UPRR junction at Ferrum. He and I were busily returning cast lead alloy to Mother Earth as our Creator intended when a nearby hive of Africanized honey bees noted this (in their minds) ATROCITY......burned/oxidized beeswax. Rick and I got driven out of the area in one quick hurry by a swarm of very indignant insects.

Gotta read the room/audience far better than we did. BUT--if you wish to find Africanized honey bees, I can recommend 12-15 fired rounds using 50/50 lube as a first-class attractant. They'll come in Code 3 mode from downwind most ricky-tick.
 
There's a shop in Wamego that takes in and resells wayward reloading stuff from estate sales and such. Last time I was in thete he had a box that must have had at least 50 or 60 tubes of NRA formula. I'mset for lube for quite a while or I might have bought it. Probably still there.
 
Thread swerve warning, just so ya know.

Georgia Boy touches on a subject that has gone largely unaddressed--the over-abundance of lube capacity on a lot of our classic cast bullet designs. In these times of powder-coating I might be like someone mourning the loss of 8-track tape decks here, but bear with me.

This is not a new idea. C. 1978 I was at the Lake Cahuilla Range in La Quinta one winter day when a member of Coachella PD was shooting his 4" S&W Model 29 with handloaded Lyman #429421 castings that were still slinging Javelina lube onto the B-27 target paper at 15 and 25 yards. Maybe in Old Elmer's day those huge lube grooves were just the ticket with his bear grease & beeswax lube concoctions, but they were too much even using Lyman Black Goop and utter overkill with 50/50. Conversely, they WEREN'T enough for black powder use with SPG--I proved that to myself conclusively. Those Big Lube designs did all right, though--even with Goex Flaming Dirt.

The Keith SWC designs are sorely in need of revisions--down-size those lube and crimp grooves. The Thompson GC-SWCs are OK as-issued, but adding lube to the middle crimp groove is gilding the lily--and lubing BOTH crimp grooves is completely wasteful.

Heresies are now aired and I feel better.
 
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Let's swerve into the other ditch just for the thrill of it. Perhaps when used in pistol caliber long guns, the lube might be needed to transit the length of the barrel, but more likely to support the body of the bullet to prevent collapse under acceleration if the lube grooves are left empty.
 
Having the unfortunate experience of shooting commercially cast bullets that had bullet lube made from blue crayons, or some other similar hard wax, I can definitively state that NRA 50/50 is a far superior lube for handgun bullets.

As for the capacity (size, depth, shape and number) of lube grooves, perhaps the old Keith designs didn’t catch up with the improved lubes such as 50/50. But at least we have the ability to design custom molds that hold less bullet lubricating material OR simply not fill every available lube groove if we choose.

My most often utilized 38 Special wadcutter bullet is a Accurate 36-154W, which has only 2 lube grooves and works just fine. My MP hollowpoint mold has two lube grooves but they are rather shallow and that also works. Traditional Keith bullet styles were likely set in stone just a little too soon. And similar to CZ’s comments, if you powder coat, this is about as relevant as discussing the best buggy whip.
 
I fill all lube groves of all my bullets, for rifle or handgun.
I have a lifetime supply of 50/50.
Quite frankly, I have never tried filling less than all of them to see if accuracy changes.
They all shoot to my satisfaction.
 
i messed with the 358091 back when i could still shoot a handgun well enough to see a difference.
i put lube in all the grooves, some of the grooves, and only one groove.
i even spent the time and used 3 different lubes in all three grooves but in different order.
i finally settled down on only the bottom groove needing any lube to make the smallest groups.
it didn't matter much if i used the hardest or the juiciest lube, as long as it was only in the bottom little tiny groove.


oh.
P&P their secret recipe...
micro wax, a little carnuba [about 5%] and your choice of red/green/blue/or clear candle coloring.
why? because they can be seen with the smallest amount of coloring agent being added.
 
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