Pellet washing and lube

[Springrrrr]

There is always a lot of discussion about pellet washing and lubricating. The topic comes up quite often so here goes once more.

The washing is simple. I take some pellets, put them in a container, add some soap or a agent of choice, swirl them around, rinse them through a strainer. That part is over, but one of the things I have issues with is how some people say they either spray or add a few drops of their lubricant and mix it up with the pellets. To me, this leads to a very non-uniform method of equally distributing the lubrication.

I gave the following method a try and it seems to be working.

I put some water in a container and added a small amount of automotive car wax to the water. Stirred it until it dissolved and put the pellets into the mix. Swirled them around a little more and strained them again. Then hung them out to dry on a napkin. To me, that seemed to be a much more uniform way of getting the lubricant nicely distributed on each pellet. This may not work with an oil based lube because it would not mix with water, but maybe if it was extremely shaken up and the pellets were quickly introduced while the tiny droplets of oil were still in solution, it possibly could fly also.

 

[sonny]

i use Napier power pellet lube, it comes in a spray/mist bottle. I put a tin (300) pellets in a 1 gallon zip lock bag and seems to coat them evenly 

 

[John "spysir" Blount]

Lube can greatly harm accuracy, sometimes.

IF needed for that rifle I place 2-3 drops of MP10 on the foam under the pellets inside tins. Works just fine. Never had to clean an JSB pellet.



John

 

[sonny]

another plus about lubing pellets, it keeps the breech o ring lubed

 

[1BadDart]

I tried an idea this morning I got from a case lube pad for reloading brass cartridges. For the folks that don't reload it's basically a foam pad covered with cloth in a metal tray that you spread case lube on, then roll the empty clean cases on before resizing. the lube makes the resizing process easier.

I took a box that is about 8 X 10" and glued a piece of tyvek for an oil barrier (a plastic bag would work) with spray adhesive, then took a lint free blue paper shop towel and laid it on top of the tyvek and sprayed it with Royal Purple synthetic lube then poured in a tin of freshly washed pellets and rolled them around on the towel. If this method works out okay I'll buy a smooth bottom plastic tray with a lid so I don't have to worry about it becoming saturated with lube and making a mess.

 

[nced]

`I've been lubing hard lead Crosman premiers for a couple decades to minimize barrel fouling and extend the time needed before bore cleaning. For all these years I've used Slick50 One Lube from the areosol can and I'm still using the lube from this can all those years. LOL, that $3.29 price on the can gives an indication of how long ago that was..........

https://imgur.com/SKoFe9o

I don't spray the stuff directly on the pellets because it will diesel if it gets inside a pellet skirt when shot from my .177 R9 or HW95 springers. All I want is a film of lube on the pellet rifling surfaces so I spritz a few drops in the bottom of a dedicated pan, smear the lube evenly over the bottom of the pan with the fingers, dump in a complete 1250 count box of CPLs, stir the pellets around gently with a finger, then dump some into my pellet pouch and the rest back into the cardboard box they came from. Pellets being lubed.......

https://imgur.com/MkH4ZjP

I've recently lubed a box of CPLs using a lemon furniture polish similar to "Lemon Pledge" (judging by the contents on the can) and it does seem to work well also and it seems to be "wax based" whereas the Slick50 One Lube is "petroleum distillate" based with a ptfe additive (why the stuff will diesel). LOL, after a couple decades the plastic wrapper around the Slick50 One Lube can just came loose and these "warnings" were also printed on the can........

https://imgur.com/apA2YkN

https://imgur.com/ArN5uk7

Anywhoo....I didn't find that the pellet lube altered the velocity or accuracy of my .177 R9 or .177 HW95 shooting hard lead CPLs, but it did reduce bore fouling and increased the barrel cleaning intervals...............

https://imgur.com/D2uLwIO

https://imgur.com/t7myvjG



A couple groups shot sitting on a bucket resting on cross sticks using pellets lubed with OneLube..............

https://imgur.com/eIKiook

https://imgur.com/d5v1VdP

https://imgur.com/Rk1wmix

https://imgur.com/8SZm6IE

https://imgur.com/v6Ug0yH

 

[Gaberossi]

I am a huge fan of Napier power pellet lube. Each tin gets a spray and a mix around in a bag or Tupperware. 

 

[LDP]

I dont wash pellets but I do lube my .25 JSB for my Daystate wolverine after trying lubed pellets. I work for an ammunition manufacturer so we have hornady one shot case sizing lube at the shop. Its a dry lube kinda and it has no petroleum products in it. It sprays on and the carrier evaporates leaving a wax film on the pellets not an oily film. My Wolverine shoots very good with un lubed pellets but I thought I would try just to see what happened. So I took about 20 pellets and sprayed them with one shot and did an accuracy comparison. The unlubed pellets did about what they usually do and shot .340 - .360 @ 47 yds for 5 shot groups using a single shot tray. The lubed pellets shot .320 with two 5 shot groups @ 47 yds. Thats not a big difference but I noticed the pellets going into the breech past the o-ring much easier. I think the lubed pellets going in the breach easier may have been the small difference with the single shot tray.



The biggest accuracy change came when I tried the magazine. I built the single shot tray right after buying the wolverine because using the mag would give flyers that caused a couple bad head shots on ground squirrels that needed follow up shots. I dont like bad shots especially when its my gear causing the problem. The single shot tray fixed that and I have used it ever since that time. I was really happy with the results of lubed pellets shot from the magazine. I lubed 10 pellets and loaded the magazine and did an accuracy comparison between the single shot tray from the earlier groups and the magazine. I shot two 5 shot groups from the magazine and the lubed pellets held the same group size as the lubed pellets shot from the single shot tray. When I first bought the Wolverine I noticed the pellets pushed fairly hard thru the magazine and then again thru the o-ring in the breech. The lubed pellets slide thru the magazine easily and thru the o-ring without the resistance it had before. That must be the biggest difference between the lubed and non lubed pellets in this particular rifle.



I immediately tried lubed pellets in my BSA scorpion after these results. The Scorpion is extremely accurate with non lubed pellets even from the magazine. Sadly the lubed pellets gave about twice the size of groups. So the scorpion will continue to shoot non lubed pellets.

 

[Xbowsniper]

Every barrel is different, even same brand guns, with same brand barrels.

In this past episode of Field Target Tech, I describe my methods of washing and lubing pellets, for use in my WFTF Field Target PCP rigs. These methods are the way I do it, your methods may vary.



https://youtu.be/b_9fP1z8D08

Tom Holland 

 

[Stefanjan]

Maybe Im missing something but we wash the lube off the pellets then relube them? I wash pellets mainly for lead flakes and whatnot and got to thinking maybe a dry wash (basically shake them in a plastic strainer) might be more effective. Thoughts?

 

[Xbowsniper]

Stefanjan,

The "lube" that is on the pellets straight out of a new tin is not lube. You should wash your pellets, (I always do, for all brands) as the reasons you just stated. What is on those pellets, after the manufacturing process is a release agent that is applied during the swaging process. This helps the pellet free itself from the die/mold. We want to wash our pellets of this substance, because one, we don't know what it is, and two, companies change the release agents from time to time, and, we still don't know what it is.

I like to have a clean slate, so to speak to start. This also guarantees that everything done to those pellets is by me, and can be controlled, making them more efficient out of the tin



Tom Holland 

 

[DRAGON64]

I have tried silicone lube for pellets after cleaning them, but most recently I made my own batch of "Whiscombe Honey" and prefer it over the silicone. shots seem much more consistent/accurate. I may try the Slick 50 in the future.

 

[Stefanjan]

Tom. Interesting thoughts. Not knowing the release agent is the variable we are trying to eliminate. Of course when you reach your shooting level anything you can do to control variables is a plus. It would be intersting to see what release agents are used as i often wonder when i get a tin that shoots better or worse than normal why this happens. I recently started washing pellets as i got some real dirty tins and my accuracy has fallen off. I chalked it up to bad pellets or dirty barrel. Possibly the lack of relubing [or lubing] is the cause. Time to research pellets lubes.

 

[Guest]

I’m surprised a manufacturer hasn’t decided to wash and lube their pellets before packaging them. Obviously it would cost more. 

 

[Stefanjan]

A lot more. We would see pellet prices probably double. Washing the pellets would remove lead contamination (or whatever alloy being used) the waste water or washing solution would be contaminated with heavy metal and would have to be processed. Uggh environmental disaster.

 

[nced]

I only wash pellets to remove the "crud" on the pellets, not to wash off "lube" (if prelubed) and I lube my hard lead Crosman Premiers because they tend to foul the bore quicker when unlubed.

I've used the die lot marked and dated 1250 count boxes of Crosman premiers for a couple decades and straight from the box there have been cases with "dirty pellets" that needed to be washed, and then lubed.

My fingers looked like this after handling the 500 count pellets from the tin of CP hollow points so they got washed. I found that if I lubed pellets with excess parting compound creates a barrel foul goop of lube+graphite (I think that's what Crosman uses for parting compound) ..........

https://imgur.com/CQh86oC

This stash of 1250 count boxed Crosman Premiers ordered 3 years ago I haven't needed washing before lubing..........

https://imgur.com/GhAG8F0

On the other hand, not long ago I received an order of two 750 count tins of Benjamin Hollow Points (also made by Crosman) and after handling my fingers looked like they did after using the Crosman Hollow Points...........

https://imgur.com/CDvouhm https://imgur.com/D7WCNvy https://imgur.com/tWFuKYP

These two tins of pellets were washed and here is the residue/swarf washed off the pellets..........

https://imgur.com/IsbKx3N

The swarf in the sink was rather coarse so I'm thinking that any of the lead pieces inside the pellet skirts would create imbalance to the spinning flying pellet so those pellets were washed and then lubed since I'm pretty sure that they are "Crosman alloy". I really haven't tested the Benji's from my HW95 yet but the two tins I bought have a more consistent head diameter than the tinned Crosman Premier Hollow Points. I haven't used up my stash of boxed CPLs yet but whin I do the Benji's might be a good choice. My CPL stash is now at this point so I'll be testing the Benji's before too long. If they don't perform well I'll order a few more cases of CPLs............

https://imgur.com/u9c0bpA