Do blobs of lube affect accuracy - Eley Club .22

[McTrucky]

Hi all,

I was shooting with some Eley Club ammo the other day - and noticed that some had blobs of lube on the head, while the majority did not. I've not noticed this on Match, Team, Tenex, Lapua, CCI, or other brands I've used. Could be I just didn't notice...

But - once I did notice this, I got to thinking (never a good thing) that this may affect the aerodynamics of the bullet. Accepting the lube will likely spray off/melt in the barrel, I still started to clean the affected bullets before shooting. Muppet huh! Inevitably with these thoughts going on in my head my shooting suffered...

Anyone got any thoughts or theories?

Cheers
McT

[demonloop]

Won't affect the accuracy, although bear in mind you will get flyers with that ammo as its at the lower end of the quality scale.

If you can get your hands on Team, the blue box, give it a try, its great stuff.

[tedmo]

I remember a guy some years ago who always wiped the excess lube off his Eley ammo, in fact he probably still does. He believed the excess lube clogged his gun up and reduced its accuracy. If you do it and your score goes up then carry on doing it, and good luck to you!

[Hemmers]

Have you had it a while? I've got some old Tenex like that. The wax has collected towards the tips either through being being stored somewhere warm (causing it to become a little bit more liquid), or just over time from gravity. Not sure which.

It's not normal anyway. The wax should be a smooth coating. And you shouldn't wipe it off in normal circumstances - it's there to lubricate your barrel. Eley spend a lot of time and effort getting a consistent coating on! They wouldn't bother if testing hadn't shown it to be beneficial.

[McTrucky]

Have you had it a while?
...
It's not normal anyway. The wax should be a smooth coating. And you shouldn't wipe it off in normal circumstances - it's there to lubricate your barrel. Eley spend a lot of time and effort getting a consistent coating on! They wouldn't bother if testing hadn't shown it to be beneficial.

No, just bought it recently (emergency buy as my ammo safe refused to unlock one day - but that's a different story...)

Agree about R&D on making the lube - but things do go wrong in production, and maybe the bullets with an excess of lube should be rejected, but aren't. My thinking is that the lube has to go somehwere - and if there is an excess of it will it not be pushed like a wave up the barrel, as well as lubricating between the lead and the steel. And could this wave impart a wobble on the projectile?

and yes, I probably have too much time on my hands if I'm thinking about stuff like this...

McT

[martini1215]

I have shot Eley club and Match both of which sometimes had a rather large deposit of lube at the bullet tip,with both types of ammo I have shot 100 ex 100 at 100 yards and the only time I found the need to remove excess was when I shot a BSA which had a falling block without spring assisted ejector it tended to stick the cartridges in the breech once I moved onto a Martini ISU and then Anschutz I found no need at all to ungum them,
I hope this answers your question somewhat Good Shooting Martini