Bullet lube ??

[Nor'Easter]

The one that's in your shooting pouch and not back home on the workshop bench! Probably why a lot of shooters like spit. When your out of it your probably done shooting for awhile anyways . Seriously, in my limited experience each barrel sort of has its own preferences. But I do find myself using more TOTW mink oil and less of the other stuff. And man, that mink oil is seriously slippery!

 

[LME]

Wonder Lube , 1000 + , Also , pure mink lube works fine also. Lotsa places sell it including TOTW. If your pre lubed patches are a little dry , the mink can be applied over the pre lube , just rub off the excess. One thing , best to not use pre lubed patches , bought the year before or older.

I have some patches that are several years old and the lube has just about dried out. I shot a few rounds using them and they seemed to work alright but I wanted to refresh them.Being they are old, what is the reason I shouldn't use them?

 

[Nor'Easter]

I have some patches that are several years old and the lube has just about dried out. I shot a few rounds using them and they seemed to work alright but I wanted to refresh them.Being they are old, what is the reason I shouldn't use them?

I've heard it said that some lubes will cause the patch material to lose its integrity and start allowing burn-throughs. I have not experienced it, but others have. I have alot of old pre-lubed patches, mostly Wonder lubed, and haven't had problems with them, yet. Some are close to 15yrs old. I have a bad habit of having 1 of everything on hand so I can experiment.

 

[LME]

I've heard it said that some lubes will cause the patch material to lose its integrity and start allowing burn-throughs. I have not experienced it, but others have. I have alot of old pre-lubed patches, mostly Wonder lubed, and haven't had problems with them, yet. Some are close to 15yrs old. I have a bad habit of having 1 of everything on hand so I can experiment.

I have a lot of rifle/pistol parts and even more mess in my shop and I mean mess as some of it will eventually be tossed into the garbage can. I am long in the tooth and don't do much work now.I went oand looked at all the cans, boxes and anything pertaining to cleaning and shooting rifles. I found a container of."Wonder Lube" it was just about gone but it was still snow white and usable. I will give it a try. Thanks for waking up my mind! LOL!

 

[Greasecookie]

For bullet lube I use SPG, cuz I'm lazy and don't want to make my own. For patch lube, everything from spit to olive oil seems to work fine. I use mink oil if I am in a situation where the load will be in the rifle for a period of time, e.g., hunting.

 

[Josephg]

For bullets, if they have grease grooves, I use bullet lube. There are about six different types in my loading supplies. In a pinch you could use just about any grease.

 

[oldwood]

I don't understand why prelubed patches go bad , but unlubed patches seem to last forever. One reason , I think , patches lubed with animal renderings go bad , is the natural salt in the fat. Think salt degrades the patch fiber over time. Back when I shot competition, I used Dixie Old Zip, mutton fat , on my patches until 1000+ came out. Think 1000+ was an extract of Hohoba beans. Lots of other folks switched , too , and could'a been the reason for Old Zip to quit. As a rule,I try to use up all of last year's prelubes at the range for practice , It's all good , just go shootin' .. ...... oldwood

 

[Whughett]

All this talk of lubes, for the umpteenth time always makes me wonder what was used in the 18th and early 19th century. One animal fat for sure that was everywhere is hog fat, lard, or even beef fat, bear grease in the frontier towns or settlements maybe, Olive Oil was imported but most likely very expensive, whale oil maybe, an early American industry in the east but reserved for lamps, the finest oil. Sperm Whale oil, most likely too expensive to shoot out of a gun barrel. So hog fat, not only tasted good but lubed and prevented rust and was most likely available everywhere. Pigs were brought to the America in the 15th century and were an important food source to the American Colonies.
So rarely mentioned in these discussions is lard as a lubricant. Probably because it can turn rancid more quickly than other sources.

My self I use Crisco and beeswax with olive oil as a softener for some applications such as pan lubing bullets. Crisco is cheap sndckeeps forever. Mixed with bees wax it has a higher melting point.

 

[oldwood]

On the frontier , hands down , rendered bear oil was the all purpose patch lube , gun oil , hand cream , betty lamp oil , cooking oil , etc.. It is still right up there in popularity today , though availability is problematic.

 

[Griz44Mag]

On the frontier , hands down , rendered bear oil was the all purpose patch lube , gun oil , hand cream , betty lamp oil , cooking oil , etc.. It is still right up there in popularity today , though availability is problematic.

Only bears we have here in Texas will get you a life sentence for killing one of them, and they are so small you would mistake them for a large racoon.
I have lived here to 7 decades and have only seen one of them.
So bear oil may be great, but that is not an option here.
Rendered deer tallow for the oil STINKS to high heaven.
I have used lard, but just don't like it.
So TOTW mink is the go to.....

 

[Whughett]

Well it seems the theme here in this forum is AUTHENTICITY. So what was the most common used lube, say starting with the American Revolution thru the war of 1812, Mexican American war and The Civil War. Not bear grease and I’m doubting Mink Oil.

 

[Old Hawkeye]

Well it seems the theme here in this forum is AUTHENTICITY. So what was the most common used lube, say starting with the American Revolution thru the war of 1812, Mexican American war and The Civil War. Not bear grease and I’m doubting Mink Oil.

Mobil 1, synthetic! or whatever they had on hand.

 

[oldwood]

Shoulda prefaced what I wrote in time period reference as well as where , bear oil was used. In 1750, to 1800 , generally ,bear oil was commonly used as posted. Where ? , All my records are for East of the Miss. River. All I have for reference for the rest of the time and west of the Miss. River is a Francis Parkman history of his travels among the Mandan Indians , and some East of the Rockies. His focus is mostly about trying to kill buffaloes w/ small cal, Ky. Longrifles. rifles. Guess bears weren't prevalent on the plains...........oldwood

 

[dwarvenchef]

Being in the west, and interested in the late trapper early gold rush time frame. I’m thinking bear fat, Rockies to the coast should have still good populations of bears At that time. I’m going to look into that… something fun to research

 

[cal.43]

Beeswax
Lanolin
Castoroil
makes a good Bulletlube.

 

[Ranch 13]

For a basic bullet lube, that is somewhat authentic. Mix 1 part refined beeswax and 2 part jojoba oil in a double boiler. Let it set up to see if you need to add more of one or the other ingredient to get the consistency you want.
Jojoba is about as close as we in the US can get to spermicitti , unless you know someone over seas, where rendering spermwhales hasn't been deemed illegal.

 

[BadDaditood]

Just when you think you’ve got made, now make a summer blend and a winter blend!! ;-)

 

[deerstalkert]

Bear Paws Anti Rust & Patch Lube
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/bear-paws-anti-rust-patch-lube.127354/post-1971584works great for me and he is a member here.

 

[pwbsmokey]

Being a bee keeper I have my own supply of bees wax, I also have a supply of lamb’s tallow, what i‘m missing is the 3rd part to soften the mixture.

Any clues??

Olive oil

 

[Cherrybow]

Bear Paws Anti Rust & Patch Lube
https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/bear-paws-anti-rust-patch-lube.127354/post-1971584works great for me and he is a member here.

I’ll throw in a second for Bear Paws. Best I have used.