Black Powder lube?

[cfxlongshot]

I am planning on buying some lead bullets online for my fire 202s but they have rooster bullet lube on them.  Will this cause trouble with my gun?

[lastmanout]

Red Rooster Lube is very commonly used for handgun bullets using smokeless (nitro- based) propellants. Black powder lubes are usually animal fat or vegatable fat (crisco) Rooster is not commoly used for black powder. You will have to try them both way with/without. The lube can be scraped off with your fingernail. I think a bigger problem may be the alloy used by the bullet maker. Airguns use much lower pressures than firearms, so a softer (pure lead) projectile fits to the rifling easier and usually gives better accuracy. YMVM

[Butcher]

Avoid super-soft black powder lubes.  Ruined a hunt shooting BigLube boolits lubed with extremely soft lube.  Accuracy just got worse and worse shooting it, and it took a while to figure out that the lube was the cause.  Clogged the barrel so bad that when we took it off and looked thru it, you could hardly make out that there was any rifling in there at all.

     The smokeless-type lube probably won't hurt, but I can't say that for sure.  I don't think it would help.

[melloroadman]

I tried many of the cowboy pistol bullets in my 201 . Some were very good at 25 - 35 yards but after that the groups fell apart . That is why I swag my own .357 bullets now . Here is Randys site which list some 9mm bullets . I never tried them but you might give Randy a call . As I mentioned to you before most of the people I know shoot .357 not 9mm through thier 201 . Good luck Marvin
http://www.adventuresinairguns.com/ammo-9mm-c-9_17.html

[cfxlongshot]

The bullets I found are 93 grn roundnose and 105 grain flatpoint both are hard lead, .358 in diameter and go for 9 cents each.   For that price it would  be worth melting the lube out of them and using just the bullets.  I looked into getting a swager from corbin to use on my rockhchucker but the cost can be very prohibitive.  I have tons of lead at my house I just need a swager.

[melloroadman]

The hard lead is not a good idea especially in a .358 . You can cast your own as well . I had descent results with a bullet that is very close to the lee mold number 356-120-tc . I would try it before I would cast any other bullet . Remember the mold will produce a bullet about .002 bigger than stated and needs to be resized . Also you can go to e -bay and do a search on swaging dies and you will see shooters shack which is Andy Hill from http://www.hawkbullets.com/ . He can make you a die .Also here is a thread about a mold I have and what helpped it Marvin
http://www.network54.com/Forum/414006/thread/1266010913/Jack+you+were+right+but

[Butcher]

You don't want true "hardcast" boolits, but the term "hardcast" is open to interpretation.  I consider hardcast (in general) to be anything over BHN12 or so.

     To get hollowpoint slugs to open-up at the velocities we deal with, the softer the better for sure.

     Dead-soft lead is NOT necessary in an airgun barrel (not the Korean barrels, anyway).  I have had great luck with anything up to around BHN10 in hardness, even when they were cast a couple thousandths oversize.  Many commercially available boolits are cast from 20:1 lead, which is about BHN 10.  I have some Lyman #454424 HP's that are cast from a 50/50 mix of clip on wheel weights/pure lead that tested at BHN8.5 a day after they were cast.  They go just as fast in my tuned 909 as the pure lead stuff the same weight.  When testing both BHN6, and BHN9 EPP/UG's in my friends older stock 909, the harder BHN9 stuff produced a better shot string.  Excellent accuracy as well.

     A couple of years ago I spoke with "the Pelletman", and he told me to stick with lead no harder than BHN10 or so.  Shop around.....part of the appeal bigbore airguns have over powder-burners is that you only having to pay about 5 cents per shot.  With the amount of shooting I do per shoot, I myself can not afford to shoot a powder burner like I shoot my 909.

     Here are some boolit links to get you started.  Lots more out there for sure.  If it's advertised as "Cowboy", soft, 20:1 (or greater), black powder, swaged, etc it is worth a try if it isn't harder than BHN10.  If your air rifle is a real powerhouse, BHN12.


http://www.whyteleatherworks.com/Accessory%20page.htm (BHN 9)

http://www.dashcaliber.com/big_lube_1_15.html

http://www.bpstuffllc.com/index.htm

http://www.cowboybullets.com

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=616817

http://www.mtbaldybullets.com/asp/products.asp

http://www.magnusbullets.com/new_stuff.htm

http://www.gunaccessories.com/speer/SpeerLeadPistolBullets.asp

http://www.westernbullet.com/castbullets.html  (BHN 12)

http://magnusbullet.powweb.com/store/page11.html

http://www.rimrockbullets.net/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1

http://www.blue-star-inc.com/catalog/lprbullet.htm

[Jaymo]

I have a couple of the Hawk Bullets swaging dies and like them a lot. One is .452 and the other is .429. I need to get him to make one for me in .454, but don't have the money at the present time.