Home Rolled Lube Pills

[hildo]

Crushed lube pills okay?

Bought beeswax and will try too cook up something myself.
I see the lube pills pictured as nice round flat circles and start doubting if I can get them this good. Does it make much difference if they fit perfectly inside the cylinder bore?
Say I would just place a square, or otherwise non cylinder bore fitting, piece (pieces) of lube pill on top of the power before the bullet is seated.
What would happen?
My guess is that when the powder charge ignites it will be so hot the lube pill will melt instantly anyway so it should not matter what a lube pill looks like, or how it fits the cylinder, before you fire the gun?

 

[dwave]

I have found pieces of the lube pill that had hit my target, and they had the groove marks from the rifling on them. I make mine thick because to take up extra space in the cylinder seeing as I use light loads in my .44 (15 grs. 777).

I use a .38 special shell to cut my .36s and a .45 ACP to cut my .44s. Seem to be the right size

 

[Steve499]

Rusty, thanks for the pictures from your visit to the black powder Disneyland. I'll be looking forward to seeing more from the other camera if you are able to post them here.

Hildo, I don't think it would matter if the lube pills weren't round. I think, though, that making them round is probably the easiest way it can be done. My pill cutter is made from a .44 or .45 shell case and a piece of brass tubing I saved from a really,really old toilet tank. One can buy brass tubing at hobby stores in different diameters so you aren't out of luck if there's no old toilet tank in your front yard.

I cut the shell casing off and used the thicker part of the case wall, the end closest to the rim, as the cutting end. That way the inside diameter of the cutter is smallest at the cutting end, then gets bigger and frees up the pill stack as new ones are cut. I soldered the shell case to the inside of the brass tube with only enough overlap to make a good bond. I sharpened the cutting end with a case mouth chamfering tool. That's it.

The only trouble I have, negligable really, is leveling my molten lube so it cools in an even sheet. I make my pills fairly thin but if I was shooting light loads, I'd pour the lube deeper and cut pills thick enough to fill the chamber space to the right depth for ball seating. I don't believe you could get too much.

I used to put lube over the ball. Since I began putting a pill under the ball I think the guns shoot more freely, longer. I do put a card wad between the powder and lube pill if I'm intending to leave one loaded for any great length of time. That may not be necessary but it makes me feel better.

Dwave, I have had a card wad cut a perfect hole, right beside the bullet, on a 100 yard target I was shooting at with my .451 Volunteer target rifle. The only thing I can imagine was that the wad stayed against the base of the bullet, only separating from it a short distance in front of the target. I also had a home made, lubed felt wad follow a ball to penetrate a hog's skull. The shot was taken from about 20 feet. The ball penetrated completely through the skull but the wad stopped at the rear of it, behind the brain.

Steve

 

[rifle]

Howdy Pards and Pardettes, I'm glad to see some interest in people using lube pills in their cap&ballers. Steve499 has the right idea fer making a lube pill cutter. Nice to have a longer tube to have something to hold onto. If ya get a good recipe "the pills" do a fine job. Just make em hard enough to handle and soft enough to squish between the fingers. The brass tubes at hardware stores come pretty neat in the fact that each preceeding size is a perfect fit inside the next bigger size. Makes soldering a snap. The recipe using equal amounts of bees wax,paraffin wax and mutton tallow cut real nice when the short end soldered into the long wider tube has the lip left on the cutting edge by the little pipe cutter(hardware store too) used to cut the brass tubes. The lip cuts the pills a bit smaller than the short section of tube which in turn is smaller than the long section it's soldered into. That means the pills go up into the cutter and are a hair smaller right from the beginning so they don't stick in the tube since they are a hair smaller. If a person makes the recipe with 4 ounce each of soy wax,paraffin wax and mutton tallow and 2 ounces of toilet bowl sealer wax(hardware store) then filing the lip from the pipe cutter off the end of the cutter end cuts better. Soy wax recipe can crack some. Works very well though. The soy wax has good lubey qualities. Anywhooo.... In my opinion the pills being round and at least close to the chamber size would guard against chain fire. The pill can be a hair loose in the chamber and squish against the chamber walls when the ball is seated. The lube pills don't completely melt when the chamber fires. They ain't in there long enough once the cap ignites. They melt enough though to spray lube on the barrel walls before the powder gets it's fouling there. Anywhooo.....I melt my recipe ingredients separately in mason jars and then pour it into a measuring pitcher with a spout to get the right number of oz. Then I pour that ,once I mix it up good, into a pre-warmed teflon pizza pan that I level on a level surface. It doesn't matter if the pills are all the same thickness exactly to the .001's of an inch. Once the lube in the pan hardens from room temp I stick it in the freezer for 5 min. or so. Until the sheet of wax comes out when the pan is turned upside down. Then when the sheet of lube returns to room temp I go to punching out the lube pills. I think it's kinda fun. Gotta remember that wax gets hot. The jars are hot when they come out of the micro wave.
HEY BP TESS, Junk Yard Dog will sell ya some pills if ya want to try them. 740-824-5566.

 

[BP Tess]

HEY BP TESS, Junk Yard Dog will sell ya some pills if ya want to try them. 740-824-5566.

Thanks for the #, I think I will try them before I make a total mess of the kitchen. I've used the lubed wads before. I want to see if there's much difference with these pills. Teresa

 

[rifle]

BP Tess, glad to be of service. I'll get Junk Yard Dog right on makin up some nice fresh ones. You gonna be shootin in the cold? If so I'll add a little extra mutton tallow to the "recipe".

 

[dwave]

Don't forget to post how well they work and how well you like them.

 

[BP Tess]

Thanks for the#. I'll be gettin' back with ya soon. Was out of town for the weekend so I'll be makin' that call soon and i'll let ya know how they worked.THX Teresa