I used it once in the cap&ball, once in the rifle & found that a little lube helped but it did not need to be a BP lube. In the 357 it didn't quite group as tight as I wanted. In the C&B I did not use lube or a wad and found that lead smeared onto the mouths of the chambers (along with some fouling) that made the balls hard to seat by the end of the match. Other than being less powerful than the other subs it metered well and smoked fine. You can use standard smokeless lubed bullets with it.