Lubing Jacketed Bullets

All bullets need lubrication, some more than others. I know it is commonly taken that jacketed bullets do not need lube. If that were the case however we would not use oil in the bearings on our cars. Fire a few thousand jacketed bullets through your barrel and watch it turn copper-colored in the rifling and then tell me jacketed bullets don't need lube. They do, however, need it far less than lead bullets.

A few years ago I ran a test - lubricating jacketed bullets. I did this after I pulled some early Winchester .45 Colt Silver Tip bullets and found that they had lube in a grease groove in the jacket!! Hmm....does Winchester know something I don't I wondered? So I gave it try.

TEST 1 - fired in a Ruger .45 Colt Blackhawk 7 1/2" - using WW cases with CCI LP primers - 22 gr. H-110 and the Speer 300 gr. PSP bullet. The bullet was seated out of the case as far as possible, crimping into the bottom crimp groove.

NO LUBE

Average of all shots - 944 fps

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LUBED WITH LEE LIQUID ALOX - ALLOWED TO DRY 24 HRS. BEFORE FIRING

Average of all shots - 1046 fps

Next I fired the 7 1/2" .454 Casull with the same bullet loaded over 30 gr. H-110, using CCI #400 Small Rifle Primers.

NO LUBE - average velocity 1698 fps

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LUBED WITH LEE LIQUID ALOX (dried 24 hrs. before loading and firing) - average velocity 1775 fps

FIRED FOR ACCURACY AT 25 YARDS FROM A REST

What did it prove? Bullets going down a bore have friction. Something we all know. Often we do not think about jacketed bullets and barrel friction though. BUT .. while this test is too small to really prove anything, it does indicate that some lube on jacketed bullets MIGHT be a help. Maybe. It would take a lot more testing to really prove this one way or the other. I never got around to doing it because for the most part, I am happy with the way unlubed jacketed bullets work ... at least the majority of the time.