lubing patches

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Salty said:
I use Dutch Schoultz’s method. Works great!
Soak patch material in 1:7 Ballistol to water. Wring it out through your fingers. Lay the strips horizontally to dry. Once dry to the touch I can still feel and smell the Ballistol they are ready. Doesn’t contaminate the powder.
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I too use ballistol as lube, it works great. At the same time, I make up a lube of bear lard, bees wax and a small amount of white Vaseline. I see no difference in my groups. The bear grease is just a fun way of setting one's self up a notch in a crowd of so called experts. These sport is about the doings.
 
I would like to know is it necessary to lube both sides of the patch when using a thick lube like mink oil or just the barrel side. My thinking is you want the ball to grip the patch. I usually use a liquid lube like Mr Flintlock which soaks through.
 
Howard Pippin said:
I have done that too when I melt the lube and then place the patch in it. I simply wring them out and hand press between some paper towels.
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I think my first response of surprise to the OP was because I misunderstood that he was wringing them out and pressing them during a shoot while loading ... not as a part of the lubed patch dipping process. That makes more sense. And in that case my response would also be paper towels.
 
I cut at the muzzle, and have had good luck with cutting patch material into 1.25" - 1.5" strips, rolling them up and placing them in a solo cup, then vigorously shaking then pouring either 1:7 ballistol / water, or olive oil / isopropyl alcohol, over them in the cup, then laying them out flat on a horizontal surface to dry overnight. I use a quarter sheet of coroplast as the horizontal surface, it doesn't absorb the lube, and can easily be moved from the island in the kitchen to the garage to dry.

I find 60ml ballistol or olive oil in a 500ml water bottle, then filling the rest with water or alcohol makes just the right amount to lube about 16-20 strips, and if you don't use it all any excess can be stored indefinitely in the sealed bottle until needed again, or poured into a small 2oz spray bottle and sprayed on dry patch material to use as a wet patch lube.
 
I also precut strips, but have been lubing the cutting end while shooting or as needed.

I clean my firearms with that mix, so I will try prelubing a strip and drying it like you suggest.

Thanks for the suggestion!
 
tenngun said:
It’s rendered fat. Hog fat, lard for me works as well as mink oil, but I buy mink oil any way. Has to be the snob factor of having mink, because I can’t think of a reason I continue to use it when lard works
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So your rendered hog fat works in the heat and cold as well as Tracks mink oil? If I took some lard out today it would be a puddle and I don't think it would do as well as mink oil on my winter rabbit hunts either.
 
I put a full stack of dry patches in an old pill bottle. Then pour an adequate amount of lube in and close the lid, its seems filling the bottle half way with lube is pretty close to the right amount. Flip it a few times over a few days and all the patches are perfectly lubed. Excess goes to the bottom. I wish I would have done it this way a long time ago.
 
Des52 said:
So your rendered hog fat works in the heat and cold as well as Tracks mink oil? If I took some lard out today it would be a puddle and I don't think it would do as well as mink oil on my winter rabbit hunts either.
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For me it has..but I keep buying my mink oil
But I have shot lard at zero degrees f and a hundred degrees
But
I’m not the guy who’ll win shoots
 
tomatobodhi said:
I also precut strips, but have been lubing the cutting end while shooting or as needed.

I clean my firearms with that mix, so I will try prelubing a strip and drying it like you suggest.

Thanks for the suggestion!
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I like it a lot better, you don't always get the patch material consistently wet during a match or hunting, the dry patches are consistently slick. They are easier to store in folded in a snack-sized ziplock, of course I do swab between shots with a patch dampened with a couple squirts from the 2oz spray bottle described above. Also, the same lube usually works with just about any thickness of patch material.

20240828_164121.jpg

Scissors, pencil, yard stick to cut strips. Medicine cup to measure ballistol, solo cup to soak strips, water bottle of patch lube mixture.

20240828_163801.jpg

Lubed strips drying in garage.

20240828_162213.jpg

Dry strips of various thickness folded and stored in ziplock bags.
Top to bottom:
.024"
.020"
.017"
.014"
2oz spray bottle.

20240828_163855.jpg

Storage in plastic ammo box.
 
Last edited:
I have never used lanolin. My daughter used a tiny bit of pure lanolin in her homemade balm and that stuff stinks to high heaven! I wouldn’t use it for anything if given an alternative. My two cents.

On the other hand… if I carried some up north to prevent chapping in the cold (nothing works better than lanolin), I might try it on a patch… but I’d hold my nose while I did.
 
tomatobodhi said:
I have never used lanolin. My daughter used a tiny bit of pure lanolin in her homemade balm and that stuff stinks to high heaven! I wouldn’t use it for anything if given an alternative. My two cents.

On the other hand… if I carried some up north to prevent chapping in the cold (nothing works better than lanolin), I might try it on a patch… but I’d hold my nose while I did.
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She is using the wrong lanolin, you can buy lanolin from the drug store, Walmart etc. that has no odor.

In fact some like Lasinoh is designed for women to use to prevent chaping when breast feeding.
 
Buckskinquin said:
Have to say, I’ve never felt a liquid prelubed patch fouled the powder, if shot immediately after loading. I’ve used dawn/water mixture, Hoppes BP lube and spit In various concentrations. Had a discussion with an old timer who figured if the load is tight, except for the exact center diameter of the ball, the lube will be squeezed out atop your ball and spread on the rifling or smooth barrel as you seat you load. Am wondering what caliber, powder charge, ball and patch dimensions are in this trouble firearm and how long it’s setting between completed load and firing. I’ve shot next to people who fill a shallow container with their chosen lube and lay rows of patches in it. The patches are soaked with lube and that’s how they shoot all day.
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That's why the other part of Duch Shultz's system is to swab between shots. You swab with a cleaning patch moistened with whatever you prefer, the dry pre-lubed patches are only to patch the ball, not to swab the bore. The point is consistently shot to shot, wet lubed patches are not always evenly distributed, or can dry out as the day goes on.
 
I use a beeswax & olive oil wet patch when hunting so I don’t set the woods on fire with a burning patch. I seem to get a burning patch when I use Ballistol or other lubes I have tried.
 

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