Teflon tape for bullet lube?

[more_bullets]

I saw a video on YouTube, that I was actually watching BC of the revolver mentioned in the title, and he said something about wrapping the bullets with Teflon tape as bullet lube...this sound kind of time consuming and maybe a little insufficient...or is this actually something that alot of people do? Anyone here use this method?

[jmorris]

I have tried a lot of methods but not that one.

Paper patching has been around for over 100 years though.

[Mike Irwin]

I've seen reports of people trying it, and most of them report VERY poor accuracy.

[mikld]

If I remmer correctly; Teflon tape leaves a gooey mess. I believe I read about this in Castbullets.com, and Teflon tape would burn at firearm temps. and leave residue that was difficult to clean...

[snuffy]

Yes, for cast bullets! It's used in place of a grease based lube.

I tried it for 45/70 boolits, some 350 grain lee's. As Mike said, accuracy was terrible. The Teflon tape is supposed to unwrap after exiting the barrel. It does come off, as evidenced by finding it on the ground after firing. My theory is that in coming off the boolit, it affects stability. It DID prevent leading, very clean bore. Rifle is a NEF buffalo classic SS.

If the Teflon tape could somehow be adhered to the projectile, then I think it would work well. But Teflon is very slippery, so gluing it would be very difficult.

Traditional lubes work just fine in that rifle, so that project was cancelled. I doubt I will ever try that again.

[TimSr]

I wonder how it would work in place of a patch in a muzzleloader.

[mehavey]

- deleted -

[jaguarxk120]

I think some of the blackpowder shooters have used the teflon ironing board covers as patch material.

[Geezerbiker]

I made up 50 round like this for my .45-70 when I fist got it because the only cast bullets I had were .452" in diameter that I had cast for my 1911a1. I rolled them between a matched pair of files to roll in some knurling to grab the tape.

This pic shows the first 4 rounds out of the rifle at 50 yards.


You have to remember this was a new rifle with a new peep sight and experimental ammo. I think it works great and I know this isn't the last time I'll teflon patch cast bullets.

I forgot to take along a small screwdriver to unlock the set screws on the peep, so I didn't get to dial it in any further, but my groups stayed this tight for the rest of the box. These were also shot off hand from a seated position in a folding chair...

Tony

[AlaskaMike]

I wonder about using masking tape. It's mainly paper so it should behave similarly to paper patching, but with the adhesive it might be more convenient?

I've never tried it, just tossing out an idea, dumb as it may be.

Mike

[Geezerbiker]

I say try it and let us know how it goes. I'm sticking with teflon tape since I've proven it works. I found a 10 pack of 1" wide teflon tape for about a buck a roll so I have several years worth on hand...

Tony

[Unclenick]

Actually, I would avoid getting a deposit of Teflon in my bore. Back in the mid 1990's there was a good bit of experimentation with Teflon burnished into bore surfaces. A product called Friction Block was suspended micronized Teflon in oil, and I think S&W had their brand put on OEM bottles of it for a time. It was hoped that it would do what moly does to mitigate copper fouling, but by coating the bore rather than the bullet and with Teflon rather than moly. However, the rifle shooters found accuracy was poor with it. The conclusion was that the physical properties of Teflon just change too much with temperature, and that was resulting in the POI variations. It still is great stuff for working into sliding surfaces outside the bore, but causes issues inside.

I have paper patch .452 bullets for .45-70 gallery loads with no problem. Paper has the advantage of gently smoothing rough bore surfaces. Veral Smith came up with what he calls a Computer Paper Patch, which use self-adhesive computer labels for the paper, but I forget how the thickness allowance had to go. I was running two layers of 13 lb Onion Skin paper as a patch.

OK. I stopped and folded three different brands of computer mailing labels over on themselves (sticky side to sticky side). One no-name brand gave me a total thickness of 0.0076" on the micrometer, but Avery and MACO gave me 0.0087". So you'd need to measure what you have. It looks like one layer on a .452 would give you about .461, before compressing the paper. That should be about right. You can send the paper-patched bullet through a sizing die for insurance if you like.

[mikld]

Well, Snuffy and the guys actually tried it, and I just read about it, so there...

[Unclenick]

And this is preserving your anchor, no doubt.

I should emphasize that the guys who had problems were using a burnished-in finely divided Teflon and firing full powder jacketed bullet loads. Also, those guys were all match shooters using precision rifles of one kind or another. I don't know that a pistol would show up the issue. I was just left with the general impression that it was best to avoid Teflon deposits worked into a bore surface. But it could well be that its adverse effects don't show up at typical cast bullet velocities and pressures. It could require a minimum concentration be present, as I've never heard of the Teflon in Break-free CLP causing a problem in bores cleaned with it. It would take some carefully organized experimenting to quantify all the variable elements in the issue.

There are also different varieties of PTFE resins. Microlon Gun Juice uses one that they burnish into bores, though they don't state which one. I've never used that product, so I can't say anything about accuracy with it one way of the other.

[Geezerbiker]

All I can say is what I've experienced and for me it works well. I posted in detail about it on the Graybeard Outdoors paper patching forum. Perhaps my knurling the bullets first is what made the difference. I don't know but it works and it only took one wet patch (with Ed's Red) and one dry patch to clean it up.

Tony