Baby Oil

[1sgt]

I have been using Balistoil to lube my rifles with good results for quite some time. The last I bought at Friendship was $12. That will last me about 1 year. I recently bought some baby oil for about $3. I used it after cleaning my .45 cal TC with Greene Mtn. barrel this past Sunday. I shoot this rifle 1 time per month. Lt Bench.
Does anyone have any experience with baby oil?

 

[Stumpkiller]

I could never bring myself to try it. Just the thought of babys being rendered into oil repulses me.

Baby oil, I think, is just mineral oil with scents added.

 

[roundball]

I don't...but the MSDS sheet says its just mineral oil mixed with a fragrance.

 

[cfmoviereplicas]

I have been using a food grade option for the past 17 years, since I recieved my first rifle at the age 13. I use Crisco, works great for patch lube and does not saturate the powder and great for keeping the barrel from rusting in the bore when in storage.

 

[mga2588]

how do you saturate the patches with crisco? do you heat it up and put the patches in or do you take the time to coat each patch?

 

[Matt85]

i use walmart brand crisco as lube for my guns aswell. ive also used it as minie ball lube with decent results.

i melt the veggy shortening down in the microwave and soak patches in it. for minies i put the minies in a small tupperware container nose up and then fill the container with melted crisco and let it cool.

edit: i should mention, use crisco sparringly as in large amounts it will cause your powder to fail.

 

[stone knife]

I could never bring myself to try it. Just the thought of babys being rendered into oil repulses me.

:rotf:

 

[cfmoviereplicas]

actually what I do is keep an old percussion cap tin with crisco in it. I just wipe one side of the patch with crisco and use the edge of the tin to scrape off the extra and then put the ball on the dry side. I have never had any problems. I used to buy led buffalo bullets that were not lubercated or jacked and just rolled the bullet in crisco and ram rod'ed away. I never melted the crisco and never found it necessary.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

A trick I saw to lube patches with shortening and keep the lube fairly uniform, was to soak a couple dozen in the melted shortening, then stack them up between two pieces of wood and squeeze them in a vice.

The tool I actually saw the guy use was one of those old clamps used when vulcanizing a patch to an inner tube.

He then dropped the lubed patches into a small plastic tub for use at the range.

I recently saw slug gun shooters do the same lube and clamp/squeeze their cross patch paper when lubing with automatic trans fluid.

The patch gets lubed, but not overly lubed and there isn't much excess to soak into the powder.

I personally use spit for range shooting, so I don't use the method anyway. Just throwing it out there as an alternative for some of you.

 

[hanshi]

I could never bring myself to try it. Just the thought of babys being rendered into oil repulses me.

How come? Something good should come of all the sticky-fingered little urchins crawling around in the woodwork. :hmm:

 

[Musketeer]

You could try out some plain mineral oil, using the press method described above to squeeze out the excess. I use mineral oil for pretty much everything (lubing folding knives, coating carbon steel blades, lubing my modern and BP guns), but never thought to try it on patches for some reason. I won't be doing any shooting till it drops below 100* here (I know, I'm a wimp :haha: ), so I'd be interested to hear how it works. Mineral oil is cheaper than dirt, non-toxic, lubes well, and pretty near lasts forever. I'll be stoked if it turns out to make a good patch lube as well. :bow: :thumbsup:

 

[robtattoo]

Hmmmmm......

Don't know about using it as a rust preventative, but I just made up a batch of lube for some Lee REAL bullets using 2oz Beeswax, 2oz Crisco & 1oz baby oil. I figured it was just a dirt cheap way of getting some mineral oil. The perfume is just a bonus!

I'll let you know how it does after a range trip tomorrow.

 

[54mountain]

I've used mineral oil for years as an all purpose rust prevenative with great results, never tried it on shootin patches though. For a wet lube I use Murphy's oil soap 50/50 with alcohol cost about $3.00 a quart if I want something heavier I use plain old unsalted lard, About $2.00 a pound

 

[1sgt]

I hope to have time this weekend to try the baby oil as a patch lube. It was 90 here today. May be cooler this weekend, 75 or 80 will be nice.I will try the b-oil straight, b-oil Murphys orange cleaner and alcohol/water in eaqual amounts. I have not tested the b-oil to see how it mixes.
The Balistol has served me well as a lube after cleaning and a patch lube mixed as above. The smell reminds me of me after a week in the field. Thats not good. The baby oil has a pleasant smell. I hope it works.

 

[ken.clements]

I could never bring myself to try it. Just the thought of babys being rendered into oil repulses me.

How come? Something good should come of all the sticky-fingered little urchins crawling around in the woodwork. :hmm:

be nice now...those that manage not to be rendered into oil end up pushing our wheelchairs later in life.... :wink:
We can only hope the sticky fingers are still sticky when they push us down a big hill :grin:

 

[1sgt]

I shot my .40 cal GM barrel on a TC Hawken stock. 40 gr Pyrodex powder, .016 denim patch, .390 ball. The baby oil straight was not as slick as I thought it would be and grouped 2inches at 40 yards. The b-oil alcohol water murphys mix was to slick. The group spred out to 3 inches with a flier. I tried some Hoppes 9 and got 3rounds touching. Last I shot 5 rounds with water only, damp not wet. All 5 were touching. I cleaned with water and Dawn, dried and lubed with Baby oil.
I will try the water only patch lub for a while. It is simple and it is my favorite price.

 

[CrackStock]

I will try the water only patch lub for a while. It is simple and it is my favorite price.

This is my experience as well. Spit, water and Dutch's dry lube seem to work about equally well for me these days. Convenience, bad tasting cloth and price have convinced me to use water.

CS

 

[feyx0006]

As a patch lube, seems to work about the same as vegetable oil for me. Might just try some canola (or equivalent) oil and save a few more pennies.

 

[VTdeerhunter]

Never tried baby oil, but would not be afraid to use it....I have used fine mineral oil for years on all my steel items; knives, guns, axes, camp gear, etc.... My experience is that expensive does not mean better or even different....started training in iaido 30+ years ago and like everyone else bought the $25 bottle of choji oil every couple of months to keep our swords protected...then found out that it was 99.99% fine mineral oil and .01% clove oil $25 buys a lot of fine mineral oil at the pharmacy :slap:

 

[CoyoteJoe]

"Expensive does not mean better or even different", so true. I'm reminded of the guy who was marketing a superior black powder solvent and doing a great business. Turned out he was just buying Walmart windshield washer fluid at $1.69 per gallon and repackaging it in his own 4 ounce bottles with a catchy name for $4.99. :haha:
I've always used spit as a patch lube and sometimes to clean the gun after shooting, it's free and nothing I've tried has ever worked noticeably better and most not as well.