Bullet Lube

[Jesse Heywood]

In my previous years of reloading I loaded only jacketed bullets. So, my knowledge of lube for lead bullets is very limited.

Is there a way to identify the lube used on lead bullets that I have purchased. Right now I have some with red lube and others with green. When I look at Missouri Bullets I see blue.

The reason I am asking is that I want to keep leading of the bore to a minimum. I am having some issues with lead removal. I ordered a Lewis lead remover, but if I can control leading without the Lewis it would be nice.

 

[MutinousDoug]

In my experience, ALL the lead bullets I bought at any gun show regardless of make or color of "lube", leaded my .38 Spl, 9mm, .357, .45ACP or .41 mag pistols. Tumbling any/all of these in Lee Liquid Alox solved the leading problem.
IMHO, the "lube" used by commercial manufacturers is paraffin and not much else other than maybe food coloring.
Things may have changed in the last 15 years or so but Alox remains as my after purchase MoJo. I don't remove the existing stuff, I just tumble over it and let it dry or cast my own, tumble and size.
YMMV

 

[ants]

If you know who lubricated the bullets, you might ask. Many commercial bullet manufacturers use a limited number of lubricants and don't change very often.

Otherwise, color alone won't tell you what lube you have.

I would suspect that most bullet lubes are based on bees wax, not parrafin.