BLL and an experimental mix

[oscarflytyer]

FWIW - the Johnson's Liquid Wax is discontinued. Fortunately I have 5 cans. Can still get the JPW in a can. And I cooked it for awhile when I was making the 45/45/10 before going to the 60/40 or BLL. Not sure exactly how much need to cook, and not sure how big a diff it makes in the end.

[Ohio3Wheels]

I've never tried the 45/45/10, but I would think you could dissolve dissolve the JPW in the mineral spirits, maybe warm it a bit then add the LLA it would work. I went with the BLL or Emmerts for most of my shooting, cant use BLL with the black powder. Probably using more Emmerts than the BLL right now, but plan to try both with the next batch of 357s I cast.

Make smoke,

[jloader]

I've never tried the 45/45/10, but I would think you could dissolve dissolve the JPW in the mineral spirits, maybe warm it a bit then add the LLA it would work.

That's what I thought too...
melted about 5-6 oz of JPW, kept it on med-high heat till it got down to about 4oz, added 4oz of LLA and 0.5 oz of mineral spirit.
Got a nice, light brown, liquid which only after 2 days has turned from runny liquid to loose paste - that's no good.
So... I decided to boil half of it down some more hoping to reduce the mixed in JPW. Reduced it to about 4-5 oz. Now it looks like the LLA I've started with, same consistency. 2 days later, same consistency in bottle as LLA. That seems like a waste of time and materials.

I'll try to lube some bullets tonight using this "thing" (runny liquid part that I did NOT boil down) -The result: 1st coat - very thin layer that dried to touch within 2 hours. Run thru sizer and then tumble lubed once more. Left overnight - in the morning, it is still a bit tacky, but the lube grooves are nicely filled. I kind of like this, but will probably boil it down some so that I will end up with one coat only. Update - 2nd day - the finish is NOT tacky anymore. I guess it needed some more 'air time' - my bench is in a cool, dark basement so that may cause longer dry time. I may actually stick with this consistency of this concoction - very easy to apply.

Also, I'll try to lube with LLA, and some JPW added straight to the tumbler plus a few drops of mineral spirit - saw that on u-tube as a suggestion - suppose to dry within a few hours and have not tacky feel - will see. Total FAIL - some bullets got first coated with LLA and some with JPW. Took few minutes of tumbling before I got a uniform coating. Also dried to touch within 2 hours. Used 2nd coat of the soupy stuff from above paragraph for second coat to bring it to my liking.

Did I mention that I love basement chemistry? Yes, I have an excellent home made fume vent system with splash guard.

Update on using those bullets in LoadMaster. I used 2 batches of bullets with different lube:
1. Standard, not modified LLA - bullets are tacky and leave residue on fingers and pretty heavily inside the dies
2. 45/45/10 (the one that was very liquidy but dried after 2 days) - not tacky to touch, no residue on firngers, little deposit inside bullet sitting die (easy to remove with q-tip and mineral spirit. This is definitely my choice moving forward!!!! -