Who's got the best lube?

Pretty fond of 50:50 bear oil and deer tallow.

All I can comment is that the company I work for doesn't use any at all......

John Stark said:

All I can comment is that the company I work for doesn't use any at all......

Click to expand...

Gets old doesn't it.....

I use straight bear grease or bear oil. It depends on how the bear each year renders out. I've not figured out how to get them all to the grease state without refrigeration.

I want to kill me a bear .

Kentuckyjed said:

KY Jelly works slickery-like

Click to expand...

Tingly or warming?

tenngun said:

I think there is something like thirty thousand members of the forum. Each one has the best

Click to expand...

Actually I have the best the other 29999 are tied for second

hanshi said:

There are easily dozens of "lubes" from bear oil down to plain water that will work very well or to some degree or another. I don't hunt any longer so really don't have a need for the TOW mink oil I like so much. But I really like Hoppes BP Lube and have used it extensively for years. Today it is still all I use and I have no real interest in trying to find a better one. I think that says it all.

Click to expand...

ME TOO and tracks mink or Bear Paws Bear for hunting

I use bears oil ... real bears oil. That works well in my rifle.
Ohio Rusty ><>

azmntman said:

Tingly or warming?

Click to expand...

Both together. Get the full effect.

I have wondered why ppl don't use bacon grease and beeswax? Is it because it can go rancid? BTW I have seem the 50/50 Dawn/water thing on YT as well. Seemslike it would be better as a cleaner.

Curtis Lee said:

I have wondered why ppl don't use bacon grease and beeswax? Is it because it can go rancid? BTW I have seem the 50/50 Dawn/water thing on YT as well. Seemslike it would be better as a cleaner.

Click to expand...

Bacon grease is full of salt…

oh, thx

I DO!

TOW Mink Oil mix with Pure Bear Oil, whip it into a froth and let settle back down to a toothpaste like consistency.

I suppose bear oil mixed with beeswax would do the same but I have three tins of TOW to use up first.

Or sometimes I just spit.

I wouldn’t rely on any patch lube alone to protect my charge from moisture for extended periods. If expecting inclement weather, why not use a bore cot?

Whoops! My apologies here— this post was supposed to in a different thread entirely. I appear to be experiencing some technical difficulties.

Curtis Lee said:

I have wondered why ppl don't use bacon grease and beeswax? Is it because it can go rancid? BTW I have seem the 50/50 Dawn/water thing on YT as well. Seemslike it would be better as a cleaner.

Click to expand...

I did this but I was worried about the salt.
I boiled used bacon grease, let it cool, dump the water and put fresh water and boil again to remove the salt. It's kinda like crisco, or lard, or TOW mink oil. I didn't notice a difference between them. I added beeswax as needed to stiffen the mix based on temps. All got me 5-8 shots before the bore funked up and needed swabbing.

I found my magic mix, it's a pain to make, but i can make a batch to last me a year or more, so I don't mind. it's a home brew based on what I found in the Lehigh valley lube patent. I did my best to try to follow it, but it's not a recipe or process, just a rough list of ingredients with a lot of vagueness. So i did my best.

I didn't have access to tall oil, so I used a mix of oleic acid, castor oil, and raw linseed to mimic the ratio of fatty acids, and made a soap from it using lye. Added more oils until the litmus paper showed the pH was closer to neutral and the lye was used up, then added about 15% more oils. Then added about 30% by weight denatured alcohol to dissolve some of the soap solids, and .5% boric acid as a preservative and corrosion inhibitor, and finally 5% terpene (pine oil solvent) which dissolved the remaining soap solids and turned it back into a clear yellow liquid.

The result is a liquid soap/oil blend, it lubes well, shoots all day without swabbing, doesn't have enough water to freeze, and I've left it loaded for 24 hours with no noticable velocity change (I don't have a Chrono though).

I put few drops on my cast iron table saw top and left it there for a month - no rust, no corrosion. No problems at all.

tenngun said:

I think there is something like thirty thousand members of the forum. Each one has the best

Click to expand...

Amen, Bro. A search of past posts will bring up scores of lube ideas. However, IMHO, and experience, it is never a good idea to shoot multiple shots without swabbing. For more than half a century at this game I always swabbed between every shot, even when hunting or one a woods walk.

My ROA gets T-17 over the ball to seal the case mouth. Can go 10 cylinders before it gets too gunked up. If I add a lubed over powder wad can stretch it to 11 or 12.

When we were using the rifles a few years ago, T-17, Bore Butter, pre-lubed Ox Yoke patches, olive oil, coconut oil, etc. Whatever was close to hand.

Now that I have the rifles, wife bought a Ballistol Thunder Cloud cleaner/lube to try out. Will say it worked fine deep cleaning a .50 barrel -and- equally well on an 1895 pattern Stevens Favorite .22 rolling block. Both bores nice and shiny. It does make modern short shotshells stick in a 1908ish single shot 12g, gummed up the ejector.

Getting ready to try “stitched” .54 round balls in my GPR. Blob of T-17, ball, wrapped like a dumpling with thread up top. Goop squishes out through the patch, summer temps help it creep through the wrapping. Will it work? Probably. Will it work well? Unknown but will be fun testing. Going to test with 3F Swiss and 3F Triple 7, see which is dirtier with that much goop.