bore butter

[azmntman]

:youcrazy: Ya'all probably don't eat anchovies neither Heck, 50 million cat fish cant be wrong :blah:

Actually I love butter and since grampa lived to 88 and ate it and greasy bacon and sausage and such every day and had a strong heart I get away with it. I also do eat anchoves on Pizza and Anti Pasta Salads :redface:

Bore Butter? I have a 20 yr old tube, used it to seal chambers on ROA before I learned about felt wads. Its "vintage" by now :haha:

 

[R.I.Jerolmon]

After reading all these great posts.....I'm wondering if Preparation H as a lube will shrink my groups. :idunno:

 

[nhmoose]

:rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

 

[Rifleman1776]

I make my own "Bore Butter"....Beeswax and olive oil.

I call it Better Butter, or Bees Butter, or Best Butter, or Bertolli Butter, or Bullet Butter.... :grin:

I do similar. Have two mixes. Beeswax and whale oil and beeswax with peanut oil. Works for me.

 

[azmntman]

After reading all these great posts.....I'm wondering if Preparation H as a lube will shrink my groups. :idunno:

:metoo: :rotf:

 

[Scota4570]

It always amazes me at how oil/ lube/ cleaning juice threads take off like wildfire. People sure like to over think simple things.

 

[coloradoclyde]

It always amazes me at how oil/ lube/ cleaning juice threads take off like wildfire. People sure like to over think simple things.

It's just what muzzleloader shooters brag about and get excited about? :haha:

 

[hawkeye2]

After reading all these great posts.....I'm wondering if Preparation H as a lube will shrink my groups. :idunno:

Richard it's worth a try but don't get it mixed up with your chapstick. :grin:

 

[azmntman]

:surrender: :rotf:

 

[Jimbo47]

After reading all these great posts.....I'm wondering if Preparation H as a lube will shrink my groups. :idunno:

Richard it's worth a try but don't get it mixed up with your chapstick. :grin:

People at the range would then start asking, "who's the guy with the muzzle loader pursing his lips?"

 

[azmntman]

DO NOT MIX WITH SPIT PATCH :surrender:

 

[Bent Sight]

After a good cleaning with hot soapy water and a good drying with swabs and compressed air, I run a patch with Break Free CLP thru the barrel and wipe the nipple area good also, no real need for anything else.

I have been doing the same thing. I store the rifle with the nipple removed and a folded patch placed under the hammer. I push patches soaked in isopropyl alcohol through the bore and install the nipple before heading out to the range.

I have not been swabbing between shots and have been able to fire 30-35 shots without a malfunction. I do notice a change in accuracy after 15 shots or so and will experiment with swabbing.

I had thought about swabbing after loading powder, patch and ball. I figured the loose fouling would rest on top of the ball and leave the barrel when I fire the rifle.


I have learned a lot from this website and still have a great deal to learn.

 

[renegadehunter]

This is a long read, but wanted to share my whole Bore butter experience...skip to the last paragraph for an actual response to your question... :yakyak:

I inherited my Renegade from my step-dad when he passed away. I knew from growing up that he rarely shot it, and then only when my uncle was around that knew how to clean them "properly". When I got it I decided after a year or two that I wanted to learn what it takes to be able to shoot one and be able to keep it in good condition, mainly because there is a late muzzleloader season that gives me a second chance for an elk if I don't do any good during bow season (more often than I care to admit!).
Anyway, Bore butter was all I'd ever heard about for putting in the barrel when storing a ML...the few people I knew that shot them ALL said Bore butter for storage. When I ran the first swab down the barrel to start getting all of the liberally applied BB out, I noticed that the patches were coming out rust colored. I figured the bore was going to be pitted and in really poor condition but kept at it. I was using TC#13 to wet the cleaning patches. I couldn't ever get a clean patch after many many passes, but they were gray colored rather than rust colored. I went and bought a bore light at that point and found to my surprise that the bore actually looked really good! I've decided that all the rust color was from the BB that had been in the barrel for so long that it had just dried out to that color. When I started shooting I was lubing pre-cut patches with bore butter (quickly found out swabbing was very necessary), cleaning with hot soapy water, and following that with TC#13 soaked patches and dry patches. I still couldn't ever get a clean patch no matter how many passes I made. At that point I started reading forums and learning a ton. I now use pre-cut patches that are damp with Hoppes Black powder solvent (best groups out of my gun compared to several others I tried) for target shooting and Muzzleloader shoots. I still buy pre-lubed patches to use when loading for deer hunting since it won't foul the charge and my rifle shoots them well. I still clean with soapy water, but use cold water now since I was always seeing flash rust when using hot, even with TC#13 added to it or Hoppes Black powder solvent. I then swab with damp patches and dry patches, then do a final patch with alcohol, and then store with Hoppes gun oil. I swab it out with alcohol and dry patches when getting ready to go shoot again.

All in all, I can now get clean patches out of the gun after cleaning. I think the BB builds up in the barrel and is really hard to remove if using it as a patch lube a lot. I still struggle to get clean patches after I've shot some of the pre-lubed patches on occasion. I think it works fine as a patch lube...but again harder to clean in my experience. As far as storage, if the barrel was nice and clean and DRY, it would probably be fine in a low humidity area (like where I live) if it was used for storage. It also should be mentioned that my dad kept this gun in the gun cabinet in a room that had our wood burning stove that we used a lot. I do still sometimes apply a light film to the outside of the gun with it to try to repel water when hunting in damp weather. I also have some issues with blocking the flash hole after shooting several times and swabbing between shots, I suspect it is as the others have stated and I'm pushing too much fouling down into the bottom of the barrel when swabbing. I'll be trying the trick of pouring in the powder charge and then swabbing on my next target shooting session to see how that goes. I guess overall I'd rather avoid using BB as much as possible and will soon be trying some mink oil as a patch lube from TOW to try to get away from it completely. I just find it really difficult to get out of the barrel without a ton of patches as well as having to use a brush...which is well documented on being fun as h*ll to get out if it comes off the ramrod.

 

[azmntman]

Ditch the TC # 13 NOW. MANY stories of rust.I use HOT water and never have had flash rust (ecept when I used TC # 13 :cursing: )

I have an .58 Enfield have not shot in about 15 years. For Poops n giggles I ran a oil soaked patch down and it was kinda jerky (putting me in panic mode). Seems I coated with BB after a good cleaning. Few hot water patches and barrel checked out as new. LOW humility here too. Coated with Barricade and back to the cabinet till I get around to posting it in classifieds.

 

[graybeard]

I have a 20-year-old bottle of stuff that makes me wittier than anything else. Doesn't do much for my shooting, though. graybeard

 

[Zonie]

I agree with azmntman.

Throw that #13 stuff as far as you can and forget where it landed. Using it will bring nothing but grief.

 

[renegadehunter]

I just read about that in another post, first I'd heard of it. Luckily, with the groups I've been getting using the Hoppes as a wet patch lube, I've gone to only buying Hoppes since I can clean with it too and haven't had any TC#13 in quite a while. Guess I'll have to try some hot water again the next time I shoot, I was sure the flash rust was just from using hot water but perhaps the TC#13 was causing it.
I was given some #77 Muzzle Magic Cleaner by a friend to try, any concerns with that stuff?

 

[azmntman]

Never heard of it? My take is buy the smallest bottle of Dawn dish washing soap you can find (a dollar at thrift stores) and use a few drops in hot or warm water and a guy can clean his BP guns for life for a buck? The concoctions don't work a bit better IMHO :idunno:

And come to think of they all have something in common....WATER :hmm:

 

[renegadehunter]

I went through several ways of cleaning, and more is coming back to me now that I'm thinking about it. All cleaning methods were the barrel in a bucket of water method, but different ingredients/water temperature. I always follow up the bucket wash/rinse method with damp patches and dry patches down the barrel until I get clean patches, then alcohol patch and a couple more dry patches, then it gets oiled and stored.

No matter what temp the heated water was, be it heated on the stove, hottest from the tap, warm from the tap, I would get flash rust. Tried it with just dish soap, dish soap & TC#13, just TC#13, dish soap & Hoppes BP solvent, and just Hoppes BP solvent. Tried washing with hot and rinsing with hot, washing with cold and rinsing with hot, washing with hot and rinsing with cold, all = flash rust. When I just went to using cold tap water for the wash and rinse, then I wasn't seeing any flash rust on the first patch I ran down the barrel...but I was always using TC#13 on the wet patches at that time because I wasn't using it as a patch lube anymore and wanted to use up the bottle I had. I attributed the flash rust to the hot water and have always used cold tap water ever since. Currently I just use a couple drops of dish soap and a splash of the Hoppes in with the wash water, and rinse in just water.
Now that I don't use TC#13 in the equation anymore I'll try some hot water again and see what happens.

 

[renegadehunter]

Just getting around to posting this. I shot a deer about a week ago and so had reason to clean the gun. Did my normal water bucket/couple drops of dish soap cleaning but used out of the tap hot water since there isn't any TC#13 in the equation anymore to see if there would be any flash rust. Rinsed with plain tap hot water. Leaned barrel up to drain water out, emptied bucket, and then took barrel inside. Wiped the outside dry, put barrel in gun rest, and ran a dry patch down the barrel...came out with flash rust. Ran wet patch again that showed a slight amount on it and then the next dry patch didn't show anymore. Still won't ever use the TC#13 again after Zonie's findings, but for whatever reason I just can't use water that is warm/hot or I wind up with flash rust. I've found that hot water is nicer for cleaning when I've used a wonderlube/borebutter type hunting lube to melt it out, but cold works just fine if I haven't used any of it such as when target shooting and using Hoppes BP solvent wet lube. When I have used wonderlube and clean with cold water then I have to wet patch, brush (nylon, it changes direction easily), dry patch quite a bit before the dry patches come out clean, which I believe to be the waxy Wonderlube still hanging on to the barrel. I have now gotten a tin of TOTW mink oil and hopefully will find that cold water cleaning and rinsing yields clean patches a little sooner. Perhaps the mink oil will also be sticky if no hot water is used, we'll see. I wonder why some see flash rust with hot water and some don't? Has to be the difference in barrel metal I would think?