I'll get a lot of flack from you folks, but you asked me, so I'll tell you what I think.fw said:
Quoting from the back of a tube of NATURAL LUBE 1000 PLUS:
"Muzzleloading rifle (and shotgun) bores can be seasoned, much like a cast iron skillet."
(Pure Bunk!)
"Natural Lube 1000+ seasons the surface of the bore, yet will not chemically react with black powder or Pyrodex to create the fouling that other lubricants cause."
(Bunk on the "seasons", the rest is true because it uses a vegetable oil base instead of a petroleum oil base.)
"Less fouling leads to easier and more uniform loading, thus more consistent velocities and better accuracy."
(Dah..And who didn't know this?)
"In fact, the early mountainmen and trappers who used natural products avoided much of the mess associated with black powder rifles today. Though they may not have realized why, they knew that what the used, worked."
(I'm sure they used natural products and I'm equally sure they worked. Petroleum products were almost totally unknown at that time. I must point out though, they were NOT using Bore Butter 1000+. They were also very unlikely to use "sweet oil" (olive oil that I believe is the basis for Natural Lube 1000+) because things like bear oil and the like were easily obtained.)
I know there is a world of difference between a cast iron frying pan and modern low carbon steel.
The innergranular boundries in cast iron are large and relatively open. Steel does not have these open boundries.
Even if steel did have these boundries and could be "seasoned", who the hell would want their bore to look like a crummy black cast iron frying pan? Not me, that's for sure.
I think in general, the idea of "seasoning" the barrel is an old idea of questionable authenticity. It sounds real good and makes a great marketing ploy and I'm sure the manufactures feel that if it will sell more Bore Butter, so much the better.
Note, I use Bore Butter for lubing patches.
I think it does help keep the fouling soft and it defenitly lubricates the patch and makes loading easier than not using anything at all.
Spit works real good too, but it will rust the bore if it is not fired within seconds of loading.
I also think there are a lot of much better products on the market than Bore Butter 1000+ to protect the bore during the times your not shooting. (Birchwood Casey Sheath comes to mind.)
Anything with Castor Oil in it (which you have to make as no commercial products are available) is far better at preventing rust than olive oil is.
All of this of course is just my opinion and everyone has one of those, like a few other things I could mention. :grin:
