Lube die for muzzle loaders

[Tomme boy]

TC used to make a plastic lube die that screwed onto the tubes of their bore butter. They no longer make most of the stuff they used to. I have been shooting my black powder rifles more as of late. And man that bore butter is greasy and gets all over everything. And to top it off it gets worse the hotter it gets outside.

So, I want to make a luber for the bullets and I want to add some bees wax to help thicken it up.

Has anyone made anything like this before? What I was thinking was to bore a cylinder to 0.515" as the bullets are 0.510" and that should keep the lube on the bullet and not all over the place.

And what I was thinking was using this grease gun to put the lube in and screw the die to the gun.

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I was also thinking of leaving one side of the die closed except to have a pushrod captured inside to push the bullet back out.

I just have to be careful on how thick to make the lube. I am sure it will have to be close to what the bore butter already is. Or preheat the gun to soften the lube and have them already to go before I go shooting.

 

[Tomme boy]

Then again, I do have 2 rcbs lubamatics sitting in the corner collecting dust. I think I might be able to make the die easier for that.

 

[Winelover]

You could do pan lubing.

I have the T/C Lube die adaptors for Bore Butter tubes, in 50 & 54 caliber. However, I mostly shoot patched round balls. Lot less lead used and whole lot less recoil. Those Maxi's are like shooting 12 gauge rifled slugs. RB is plenty for deer sized game.

 

[Missionary]

Looks like a workable solution to a messy lube issue.
Is this a solution to use up that tube stuff ?

 

[Bret4207]

If the bullet is .510 I'm betting you'd want the die right around .510+.511 or you'll have a mess on your hands. Those grease guns put out a lot of pressure.

 

[Rick H]

I have the TC lube dies that screw onto the lube tubes. What a royal PITA! The lube was always too hot or too cold. It would either make a mess or be so thick that I split the tube of lube open before lubing the bullet. I just gave up and used my fingers to goop the stuff on. Patched round balls or sabots now.

 

[JonB]

In the early 90s before I was a reloader, I shot BP. I have the 50 cal TC lube die that screws onto the TC's lube tubes. As Rick said, "What a royal PITA! The lube was always too hot or too cold."
I use a Lyman 45 for lubing, on the rare occasion I wanna shoot a BP conical...mostly, like Winelover, I shoot patched RB.

 

[Winelover]

No need to have issues with bore butter that's too hot or too cold. Use a muzzleloader loading block to store/carry your pre lubed conicals. Do the same with pre patched RB's.

 

[JonB]

I didn't have issues with storing or loading or shooting bore butter lubed bullets, I had issues using the dang plastic TC lube die mounted on the TC bore butter tube.

 

[RBHarter]

Got a lube die sort of for maxi ball etc . I can't remember who made it now . Just a flat bar of aluminum with 4 50 cal holes and a jack screw in one end with about an 1/8" through hole to the last hole away from the about 3/8 bolt . About 1" square stock about 5" long with about an inch of bolt push and reservoir.

 

[Maven]

Another possibility is to have someone make a Lyman/RCBS (H & I) sizing die that is large enough to just lube your conical bullets.

 

[Tomme boy]

Thats what I am going to make. I think. Fighting a bad back for the last 2 days. Have not been able to do anything except type on the computer.

 

[Maven]

I've got the bad back thing as well, Tomme. Hope you're on the mend!

 

[CZ93X62]

PRBs convinced me that conicals were a lot more work than they were worth. It didn't take long to absorb that lesson, and the T/C Bore Butter played the lead role in that instruction sequence. It did OK as a patch lube, though.

 

[Snakeoil]

Knowing what you are trying to do, I agree that a die for your sizer is the better solution.

 

[Tomme boy]

Thats what I am going to do. I am out pf bore butter right now. I have to order a couple tubes so I can mix it with some beeswax to thicken it a little. I normally heat my lube up and pour it into the sizer. I started to clean one of them out last night. Tomorrow is going to be the boiling in water to remove the rest of the lube in it.

I found a 1" piece of mild steel round stock that I am going to make the die out of. I also got a 3/4" round stock of aluminum to make the push rod out of. It does not need to be steel. If not I have a bunch of 3/4" grade 5 bolts I can use.

 

[Snakeoil]

You could always use a lube recipe like Paul Matthew's lube. I made my own when I was shooting BPCR and made in into sticks that just drop into my Lyman sizer like commercial lube sticks.

 

[RBHarter]

Dug this out while I was thinking about it . The screw is plastic, I guess I never got around to using it .

 

[Tomme boy]

I dug out some stuff for lube tonight. I have about 3 lbs of natural beeswax. A tub of lanolin and a bottle of liquid lanolin. I have a few types of oil to use. High temp coconut oil. Walnut oil. Single cold press evoo from Crete. The old lady will have to be gone to use this one. The only place we can get this one she likes is a Italian grocery store about 3.5 hours away from here.

The rest of the things I can get here at chinamart