Anyone use deer fat in their bullet lube?

[THBailey]

After boning out my buck I boiled down what was left to clean the bones. A friend wanted the bones to make bone charcoal for case hardening projects. When the pot cooled a nice layer of white fat/grease formed. Anyone use this for lube or as an ingredient for lube?

 

[Winchester97]

I use it for all sorts of stuff. I Mix it with olive oil and bees wax for bullet lube, works great on maxi balls, and over the chambers on percussion revolvers.

 

[necchi]

Nope. It'll turn rancid and all the work will be lost.
Not sayin it can't be used for lube. But all the time spent finding just the right mix for a good load,, will soon be lost as the deer fat decomposes in storage.
In olde days when the fat went bad, ya just went out and got some more,right(?)
Well that's kinda hard to do when there's a short limited time for legal harvest each year.

Reality is, with 400yrs of practicing "lube" in muzzle loaders, most of the animal fat's that work well are already defined. And those fat's are known and marketed globally for use in these guns either being pure or in a synthetic mix.
I'm not going to try to make a full list of lubes good or bad,,
,,but the proper mix of Toad Sweat, Cat Snot and Possum Sqweezin's work's GREAT!
The Possum has to be an un-bred Male of the proper age, and fermented.(prior to squeezing)
The Toad Sweat, should be gathered near a south moving stream, if possible.
It's the Cat snot! That's the hardest to get, but crucial, it's all about vigilance and timing, (wear heavy gloves during harvest attempts!)

 

[Winchester97]

Keeps just fine in sealed mason jars. I have some from 3 seasons ago, smells fine yet when opened.

 

[bluemule66]

I use it to. Mix with olive oil. Still have some that's around 5 or 6 years old. No smell.

 

[Eric Krewson]

I have found that the nay sayers on these boards are usually quoting from something that they read and not speaking from personal experience. I run into this all the time on bow making forums, on these boards I have asked the members only to offer input from actual experience and not pass on something that they read which is more often than not hearsay garbage.

My personal input on any forum is entirely from personal experience, If I haven't done it, I keep quiet. I also document everything I do in the shop with pictures to add credibility to my posts.

I have never rendered deer fat, never really though that much about it but I think I will give it a try this year to see how it goes.

 

[sheriff john]

In sealed Mason jars, I kept deer tallow for well over 20 years with no problem. But when I filled the grease hole in my southern mountain flinter it drew flies and got all over my shirt sleeves. Used some for patch lube, worked ok, but didn't trust it for keeping rust away. Finally put it in the bird feeder where it disappeared quickly.

 

[necchi]

I have found that the nay sayers on these boards are usually quoting from something that they read and not speaking from personal experience

I have never rendered deer fat, never really though that much about it but I think I will give it a try this year to see how it goes.

Good luck, it goes rancid/changes. Olde Deer fat stored, ain't the same as fresh Deer fat. Maybe "rancid" was the wrong word. The properties are not the same.
Sorry, but my comment is from personal experience.
Good luck with your years long experiment. I already did mine.
Your mileage may very,

 

[Eric Krewson]

Good info necchi, did you try to re-render it or add any thing like beeswax or olive oil to stabilize it, (just thinking out loud).

I was only going to try kidney and stomach caul fat. With the acorn crop we have this year I suspect all the deer will be rolie polie fat.

I have a row of huge white oaks at the back of my yard where the woods start, the ground under every one of them looks like this as does almost every oak in the woods I hunt behind the house.

 

[Pete G]

That's quite a pile of oakanuts.

 

[Whughett]

Beeswax/Crisco will go rancid in time. For sure any animal fat will do the same. Even bacon as cured as it is will get rancid.
Rancid however doesn’t mean it’s lost it’s lube quality.

 

[necchi]

Good info necchi, did you try to re-render it or add any thing like beeswax or olive oil to stabilize it, (just thinking out loud).

What I/we did was cut the hard fat off all the meat,, of a randy ole 6-point buck taken during rut (his neck was thick). We call it tallow, it's not good to eat and taint's the meat flavor when cooked.
I processed like pork lard, slow melt, filtered the cracklin's, let it cool till solid, then re-heated slow. IRRC,, I got a little less than 2 pints, slapped a lid on the one when it was hot and started using the other short jar.
I actually found no practical use for the greasy substance, the tallow flavor made it no good for cooking even a fried egg.
Sure it's greasy, and come TEOTWAWKI,, I know what I can do, but I found it to be a waste of effort for what I got.
The time and effort gave no result that was any better then many other inexpensive options already available
If I need to lube a patch for ball, I can use spit. I's free and always available, and as long as I have patched ball, I don't need to lube a bullet.

 

[Flintlock]

Used deer tallow, neatsfoot oil and beeswax mix for over 25 years, still have a open batch on top of the safe I made up roughly 6 years ago and it hasn't turned yet. ONE overlooked thing with using it for patch lube is if you have dogs. I've found that most dogs will hunt down the stinky used patches and swallow them ( probly not easy to pass but ???) anyway dogs seem to love them.
I switched to olive oil years back becouse it loads easier in cold weather ( beeswax-tallow) patches freeze hard. And I can carry a tiny bottle of period correct olive oil and also use it if nessesary to lube patches, lube both lock and bore as well as a outside coating. BUT mixture is great for greasing mocsand other gear.

 

[kcmetman]

I always learn something new reading these posts.

 

[Whughett]

Used deer tallow, neatsfoot oil and beeswax mix for over 25 years, still have a open batch on top of the safe I made up roughly 6 years ago and it hasn't turned yet. ONE overlooked thing with using it for patch lube is if you have dogs. I've found that most dogs will hunt down the stinky used patches and swallow them ( probly not easy to pass but ???) anyway dogs seem to love them.
I switched to olive oil years back becouse it loads easier in cold weather ( beeswax-tallow) patches freeze hard. And I can carry a tiny bottle of period correct olive oil and also use it if nessesary to lube patches, lube both lock and bore as well as a outside coating. BUT mixture is great for greasing mocsand other gear.

Olive oil was available to the colonies in North
America but was an imported item and very expensive. wonder how many frontier men used in for a lubricate.
Butter and animal fats were the primary cooking oils. So by extension most likely used as lubricants also.
Just browsing the Internet. 😊

 

[pwbsmokey]

I rendered some once for lube. Mixed it with beeswax and olive oil. It was ok. I had to make a winter and summer blend. Now I use Track’s mink oil. I went back to using deer fat for bird food

 

[Jim Wag]

Used deer tallow, neatsfoot oil and beeswax mix for over 25 years, still have a open batch on top of the safe I made up roughly 6 years ago and it hasn't turned yet. ONE overlooked thing with using it for patch lube is if you have dogs. I've found that most dogs will hunt down the stinky used patches and swallow them ( probly not easy to pass but ???) anyway dogs seem to love them.
I switched to olive oil years back becouse it loads easier in cold weather ( beeswax-tallow) patches freeze hard. And I can carry a tiny bottle of period correct olive oil and also use it if nessesary to lube patches, lube both lock and bore as well as a outside coating. BUT mixture is great for greasing mocsand other gear.

How about the
Neatsfoot by
Itself
For
Patches
I have some

Jim in La Luz
😎