How do you apply Alox to Buggered Up Smoothbore Rounds

[Eggman]

I end up using my fingers and use a lot.

[Steve Weems]

I end up using my fingers and use a lot.

What works for me is I use a small can put some Alox in the bottom and then roll the balls until covered. I then
place them on Aluminum foil and let them dry. Steve

[Rich Foster]

What works for me is that I went to Dollar store bought hard plastic plastic party bowls about the size of a regular eating salad bowl. Then I place about 10 balls in the bowl. Then put a drop of liquid alox in the bowl and roll the balls around until they change colors from using alox. Then i keep adding balls until the balls I add stop changing the same color. That means all balls are uniform (the same amount of alox). Most of the time I end up with about 20-25 prepared balls per bowl then I just lay out to dry on foil or magazine paper(you should have alot of that if your a NRA member). If you can get them in sun It does not take long maybe a day. If you lay out in house or gararge it could take a week. once they are dry put them in a ziplock baggie or a rubbermade container with a tight lid or both. What ever you do you want to make every one the same and i found out this works for me. Rich

[jonk]

Not to be a smart ass, but have you read the instructions on the alox? It's really as simple as that. Dump some balls in an old plastic container- I use an old coffee can- drizzle some alox in, shake and swirl, pour out on wax paper to dry. Repeat if needed.

[Rich Foster]

Tip on using Alox on a roundball with blackpowder. Alox is a lubricant does not work very well with blackpowder but it is used with some success in a smoothbore. I wonder why and does the amount of alox used affect the shooting of a smoothy from a day to day basis. I have experimented with it and it does. Does the amount of lube used on a minieball affect the shooting of the musket? The size of the roundball, the amount and type of lube, type of powder and grade is all you have to work with on a smoothbore to get it shooting in the same place everytime. Every round better be the same if you want consistancy. Then after that you have to focus on how Humidity,Temp affects your smoothy. Then be able to shoot it knowing the different characteristics of the weather.Or you can just vary on your ball size, use different amounts of lube and eyeball your powder charge then every now and then you can holler i hit one. It is a very fun gun and it is my favorite. Rich

[jonk]

I have actually given a fair amount of thought to this, and to build on my previous response and more to the point Rich's response, I think I have come to understand what the alox is doing.

To illustrate this let's first consider a normal minie ball. When you fire it, it quickly expands to more or less seal the bore. The lube in the bullet grooves provide some softening of the fouling, act as a seal (just like oil in an engine) between the moving metal parts, and the bullet itself having a tight fit scrapes off some of the existing fouling. Naturally, with any black powder gun, the efficiency of this process slowly goes downhill, until seating a new round is hard. For me that's after about 15 bullets with no lube in the base, or 30 if the base is filled with crisco. The hardest thickest fouling is right in front of the breech plug, because it is getting none of the benefit of the scraping or softening from the bullet or lube.

In a smoothbore, this all goes out the window. No lube grooves, no tight fit. The fouling is hard, dry, and builds quickly. Use of a standard lube- beeswax and crisco, spg, etc.- can help keep it soft, but with no scraping effect, it still builds up fast.

Lee Liquid alox doesn't do well with black powder, but it DOES stick to stuff TENACIOUSLY. While perhaps not an ideal lubricant per se, it's it's ability- unlike most lubricants- to stick to the ball that is making it work. It's not softening the fouling, but it is providing a 'greasy' contact to push past the fouling. I would strongly suspect that a bake on teflon finish would have much the same effect, for instance.

Personally I have tried it in 2 smoothbores, both originals with somewhat pitted bores, and recently have started to think that I get better results by rolling the balls in crisco/beeswax, and perhaps pouring a dropperfull on to the ball in the tube. But for those who use alox, I rather think that's what it's doing. It's a grease that won't rub off the ball that is providing lube to ease past the fouling deposits; and in fact, I would further wager, if anyone cared to paint a thin band of it on to a ball just on the sides contacting the bore as it goes down, the effect would be quite the same.

[Maillemaker]

I always assumed it was taking up windage as a patch would.

Steve

[Eggman]

Not to be a smart ass, but have you read the instructions on the alox? It's really as simple as that. Dump some balls in an old plastic container- I use an old coffee can- drizzle some alox in, shake and swirl, pour out on wax paper to dry. Repeat if needed.
The problem I had with the directions on the tube is -- I rasp the balls before using them which creates the feathering needed to stabilize the ball in the bore. My thought is if I shake the balls in a container with the Alox I'll beat down the feathering and be right back where I started.

[Lou Lou Lou]

Are you using farrier's rasps? I "rub" the balls between two rasps, then swirl in a tub with Alox, no issues with edges. I assemble the round and then dip thrice in lube. Loads shoots and cleans up like a dream.

[dennis g]

Just to let everybody know I'm completely nuts; I hand dip each ball like an old-timey Easter egg. I want my "tits" on my balls as big as possible.

[Lou Lou Lou]

I use the loaded red tube as a "handle" with the ball half exposed. Thricely dipped

[jonk]

I use the loaded red tube as a "handle" with the ball half exposed. Thricely dipped

That would be nice. And if I was shooting a .69 I would do that. As I'm shooting a .72, the tubes are a bit too weak in their grip of the bullet, they gotta be seated down inside. But melting some beeswax/crisco in the oven on low in an old cake pan, adding the balls to that, and gently rolling until the wax hardens works well enough, just not as purty. :)

[Jim Barber]

I dimple the balls by shaking them around together in a can, vigorously, until I'm tired of shaking the can. It's enough that the sprue is only visible on close inspection, having been beaten into conformity. Then a few drops of alox, and shake the can for a little more, til they appear uniformly coated... lightly. I've been warned that heavier applications may cause the opposite of the intended effect, and gunk up the bore. They're actually barely brown--more like they got a little tan. Roll em out, let them dry & load tubes the next day. Shoots well. I had some difficulty pounding an 8th or 9th round down the barrel before cleaning (using Goex) but I've switched to Goex's Old Eynesford & it shoots much, much, much cleaner. As long as I can afford the extra 2 bucks a pound, I'm sold on Eynesford, especially for the SB. The other guns shoot just fine with Goex, so dunno if the extra cost is worth a little less fouling...

Also, the Alox will drizzle out easier if you zap it with the microwave for a few seconds. A wise Jedi master taught me this.

Just remember to loosen the cap first!

Just my .0005 cents!

Jim B.

[jonk]

I dimple the balls by shaking them around together in a can, vigorously, until I'm tired of shaking the can. It's enough that the sprue is only visible on close inspection, having been beaten into conformity. Then a few drops of alox, and shake the can for a little more, til they appear uniformly coated... lightly. I've been warned that heavier applications may cause the opposite of the intended effect, and gunk up the bore. They're actually barely brown--more like they got a little tan. Roll em out, let them dry & load tubes the next day. Shoots well. I had some difficulty pounding an 8th or 9th round down the barrel before cleaning (using Goex) but I've switched to Goex's Old Eynesford & it shoots much, much, much cleaner. As long as I can afford the extra 2 bucks a pound, I'm sold on Eynesford, especially for the SB. The other guns shoot just fine with Goex, so dunno if the extra cost is worth a little less fouling...

Also, the Alox will drizzle out easier if you zap it with the microwave for a few seconds. A wise Jedi master taught me this.

Just remember to loosen the cap first!

Just my .0005 cents!

Jim B. Good tip on the Old E. Gotta try some.

Another alox trick. Ignore the teeny tiny pour spout and just unscrew the cap. Still often pretty thick, but once you've poured out and used about a tablespoon worth of the alox, you can fill it up with mineral spirits, drop a boolit in to act as an agitator, shake her up... and the consistancy is now perfect. Never have to worry about thick alox again. (I have a reject .45 colt bullet in the bottle that's been in one bottle or another now for probably 10 years).

[Eggman]

Fascinating all the ways to skin a cat as far as lubing a round ball goes. Great so many folks are willing to let the cat out of the bag (semi mixed metaphor).

[Maillemaker]

I find the best way to lube a round ball is to melt it down and pour it into a Minie mold.

Steve

[Eggman]

Yeah I can relate to young Steve's hostility to the smoothbore. I built a smoothbore NW gun in the mid seventies and could not make it shoot a round ball (patched of course) to save my life. I had to content myself to use it as a shotgun. Periodically, about every four years, I'd mould up some round balls, pepper the landscape with them, and then retire the gun again--disgustedly. Now and then my Iredell Blues teammates would suggest I get an N-SSA legal smoothbore, but I would always react like Steve, pointing out the utter folly of shooting such things.
This ended when I watched Lani Harrison (44th GA) break more than 20 consecutive targets with his smoothbore at the Eva,TN skirmish a while back. After a little cajoling Lani showed me most of his tricks. I eventually applied his methods to the NW flinter and actually made the thing shoot round balls consistently in the black. But as John Holland pointed out, the NW gun is illegal at our events, so a new 1842 is now a work in progress.
So Steve you got to see it to believe it. There are new bridges to cross, new fish to fry, more moulds to break, and more songs to sing.

[Maillemaker]

It's actually just jealousy, egg.

I'm ranked #3 smoothbore on our team, and I don't own one yet. :) Chuck Garvey has loaned me his magical 1842 a few times.

Steve

[macvcallsign]

I end up using my fingers and use a lot.

Egg,

Have been using Alox for almost 50 yrs. Started using it when I was casing bullets for the M-1. It is an excellent lub for reducing lead fouling in the bore and this is basicly what it was designed for. When I started shooting in the N-SSA 40 yrs ago my teammates told me to use Beeswax and Crisco, which I did.

After a few shoots I thought to ad Alox to the mixture to cut down on lead fouling and have been using this mixture ever since. NO lead fouling in any of my skirmish guns. Have also never had a problem putting a bullet or ball down the barrel no matter howmany shots I fire during an event.

As far as lubing my Smoothie balls, I use a soft tube that fits the ball snugly, drop the powder in, fit the ball half way in the tube with the sprug up(pedersoli mold cuts the sprug off flush to the ball), and than I just dip the round in my lube mixture 3 times to put a good coating on. When loading the musket the lubed side is facing down in the bore and is enough lube to coat the bore when fired. Since the ball is not spinning the entire ball does not have to be lubed.

This has worked for me and my sons all these years with never a problem. Just more food for thought! ;)

Dennis Schuler, Cmdr.
4th Kentucky Cavalry, CSA
1561V

[Eggman]

Yeah Dennis yours is the method I've used for my test rounds for the smoothie - very good results. I've added the Alox because that's what Lani does and Lani is the smartest guy I know. I need to get out more.

[Fearless Frank]

Heat the Alox in the microwave before you roll
the balls in it.