Anything wrong with Crisco?

[Len Graves]

I used to use crisco for lube. Once I got some buttery flavored crisco . Kept looking for whoever was making popcorn! I still will use a little on a patch for hunting when it is below freezing and spit patches might freeze. If you go to the drug store and get some oil of wintergreen, put a drop in your crisco then a drop or two of yellow food color. you might have just created "Majic Bore Lube" . I probably just throwed away a fortune. Coulda called it some kind of snot. Dang!

 

[Walks with fire]

I use it all the time; but I don't shoot at all until the temperature is below 60 or so. It still works well in the coldest temperature I care to hunt in here in Pennsylvania. I have some other lubes that I had used in testing a few years back but still go to good old Crisco for my deer loads.

 

[Zonie]

For those foreigners who don't have the foggiest idea of what we are talking about, Crisco is a thick vegetable cooking shortening used for making pie crusts, cakes, cooking french fries (chips) and dozens of other cooking and baking jobs.

It is white and has the consistency of cool butter.
It has been sold in the U.S. for so long that almost everyone who lives here knows what it is. That's why everyone seems to know exactly what it is.

Hope this information helps.

Now, I have often used it to fill the chamber mouths on my Cap & Ball pistols and during hot weather it can be messy.
On the other hand a 1/2 pound tin of it costs almost nothing when compaired with the similar stuff that is made specially for muzzleloaders.

I have never known it to go rancid even when an open can of it is stored sitting on a kitchen shelf for a year or more.

Because it is a vegetable oil there is no chance that it will add to the hard fouling in a bore and if I were limited to using only one "lube" for all of my muzzleloading I wouldn't hesitate at choosing Crisco.

(As it is, I do use Stumpkillers patch lube instead of Crisco because using it wet gives the patch some moisture to soften the fouling from the previous shot and makes ramming the patched ball easier.)

 

[jan buck]

i use plain old lard. @ $1.00 a lb its hard to beat. will admit to using ballistol on occasion to.

it does get messy but it works good for me. :grin:

 

[1911nutjob]

When I first got into blackpowder shooting, I used automotive grease that I had on hand. That was a mess to clean up. Lately I use crisco, and it does get runny on a warm gun, I solve that problem by alternating between pistols. One trick I've tried that works is to buy one of those oral syringes at your local drugstore, and fill it with melted crisco. With cap n' ball, you can dispense precisely the needed amount into each chamber. As for it turning rancid, one of my old high school buddies played guitar, and his pedal was squeaking bad. I told him to lube it with crisco as a joke when we couldn't find any plastic-safe lubricants around the house. He took me seriously and did it. The stuff never turned rancid, and worked for many years without further attention. I'm starting to wonder how crisco would hold up in ball joints and driveshafts. :grin:

 

[Blizzard of '93]

I used Crisco too until I found better alternatives - it did OK.

 

[nw_hunter]

Good old Crisco! I think Crisco or olive oil is the way to go.Buy you a bottle of olive oil or crisco, and go huntin.It also has many uses around camp.You can lube your patches, fry your favorite foods, good for dry skin, and other health and beauty aids, I can't mention here. Try doing that with Moose milk, Billistol,or Bore Butter :surrender:

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Almost every target or match shooter I ever met uses plain old spit on their patches for PRBs. And they all wipe the bore between shots.

I must confess however, that I do use crisco on occassion for such things as bullet lube for my blacck powder cartridge guns. But it is a mixture of crisco, beeswax and cheese wax. (Red stuff around Gouda or Edam cheese.)

For cap and ball revolvers to seal the chambers to prevent hang fires crisco soon turns into a runny melted mess. Some folks use wads under the balls. I don't like that approach because I want the lube to precede the ball down the bore, coating it and leaving something to soften the fouling from the powder residue. Cap and ball rev's aren't legal for hunting much of anything here in the Keystone People's Republic (Coyotes and groundhogs) For those cold hunting shots when you don't want spit soaking into the powder, it is great. But for me, that is about five shots a year. I use other lubes on my shotgun wads and cards.

I don't fire enough conicals or minnie balls to have an opinion about using crisco on them.

 

[ohio ramrod]

Good old Crisco! I think Crisco or olive oil is the way to go.Buy you a bottle of olive oil or crisco, and go huntin.It also has many uses around camp.You can lube your patches, fry your favorite foods, good for dry skin, and other health and beauty aids, I can't mention here. Try doing that with Moose milk, Billistol,or Bore Butter :surrender:

I use a mixture of 80% lard 20% beeswax not only for patch lube/minilube. But also for hand cream, lip balm, leather softener/water proofer, as well as to seal the edge of percusion caps on the nipple for hunting in rainy weather. One lube many purposes just like the old days when they did not have as many choices as we do now.

 

[cowpoke1955]

I have used Crisco and agree with most. It is cheaper than Bore Butter and about the same results. Crisco in a cap and ball revolver is good for about one shot. After that first shot, the front end of the cylinder, frame and most of the barrel is covered with a nice mess of melted Crisco from that frist blast :rotf:

 

[1911nutjob]

I have used Crisco and agree with most. It is cheaper than Bore Butter and about the same results. Crisco in a cap and ball revolver is good for about one shot. After that first shot, the front end of the cylinder, frame and most of the barrel is covered with a nice mess of melted Crisco from that frist blast :rotf:

Cowpoke is damn right about the mess, but it's easy to cleanup if you use soapy water as your cleaning solution to begin with. I've tried bore butter, lard, auto grease, etc. with cap n' ball, but you get your bang for the buck (no pun intended) with the crisco.

 

[user 14027]

I been using crisco on rifle and revolvers for 10 years it costs less easy to find and your gun does not turn into a french fry. no problems with my experence.