Can I use grease from cooking as patch lube?

[Art Caputo]

I have used TOTW Mink Oil almost exclusively for more then a couple of decades.....an 8oz tin for about $7 goes a long way, and it does everything I could ask from a lube, particularly shooting consistency and temperature stability.

 

[rocket708]

I'll give you my horror story from my teenage years. I had an older brother that got me involved in hunting when I was 9 or 10 years old. Jump forward to when I was 16 and it was the day before BP season opened and I went to pilfer his supplies as I always did and he has tired of me stealing his ammo and accessories. He hid his powder, lead and lube and I was forced to load my gun using Crisco. I ended up leaving my gun in the car while I was at school and it got hot enough to melt the crisco and dampen my powder. That evening I had the biggest buck I had ever seen come to 40 yards and I popped 2 caps with no bang. It still haunts me.

 

[Intosomthin]

Recon i'll weigh in. My opinion is just that. Anything that seals the patch to ball will work. Spit, any grease you can concoct. They all work. Trick is finding one that works best. You can set here all day waiting on best answer...thats pretty much the best answer. Will hamburger grease work? Absolutely.

 

[Grenadier1758]

You can wait all day for the right answer and never get the right one. You determine the best answer through load development.

We try to give reasonable starting points.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Can I use grease from cooking as patch lube?

Do as ya please, but you won't catch me doing it. Aside from all the negatives is the fact that there are many better alternatives.
Oh, and cooking grease, and rendered fats or oils that may be used for lube aren't the same thing.

 

[beardedhorse]

Leaf lard from around the kidneys of pigs is harder and melts at a different temperature than other fat from the animal. Makes great pie crust and will hold up better in warm weather than beef tallow or the "other" fat on the porker. My friends are also Lakota that wants my bear oil. October Country sells a Bumblin" Bear beeswax and bear patch oil but doesn't disclose the exact amounts or if there are an additives or filleres. I was able to sell mine at a similar price with the claim that it was pure bear oil and beeswax and no additives.

 

[Musketeer]

That's so true. My best friend is a Lakota Indian and he's always hitting me up for bear fat. He renders it and uses it on his hair and skin.

You should start selling it. Your motto could be: Throw some bear in your hair!

 

[GomezMunoz1951]

Way back in 1973, I bought my first muzzle loader, a Uberti .44 Remington Revolver and soon after bought a .58 Navy Arms Buffalo Hunter (sporterized Zouave) and a guy at the gun store I bought both, told me to use Crisco. So I got a tin of Crisco (stole it from my mother actually) and used that. Later when I was doing a lot of shooting I came across a stick of 50% Alox and 50% Beeswax used for bullet lube. I melted it all together, the Crisco, Alox and Beeswax and threw in a bit more beeswax since I had a lot of Crisco still in the metal pail. I stirred it up and let it set up and got a small cake spatula to spread the mix. The little spatula works great to spread lube over the cylinders of my revolvers (3 Pietta 1958 Remington .44's and 1 .31 Remington pocket revolver, and 1 Uberti Remington .44). I bought extra cylinders so I have a total of 16 Pietta .44 cylinders that I can load, and 2 Uberti .44 cylinders. Somewhere along in my travels I came across a box of wiping cloths that are lintless. I use them as patches and they work great. I use a Piece of pipe that I sharpened to cut out the patches and I use the little spatula to spread on lube and shoot to my hearts content... I built a CVA .44 Kentucky Percussion rifle and pistol set and later on got hold of a Belgium .69 caliber converted to percussion smoothbore. The lube works great on all of them.

 

[bcbdmorrison]

patches soaked in gojo works best.

 

[necchi]

I've been cooking a lot of ground beef lately.,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,thinking maybe it could be used as patch lube?

No.
It's simple if ya really think about it just a little bit longer.
Have ya ever seen "Hamburger Grease" listed as an ingredient for anything beyond an hours old flavored gravy mix?
I mean,, we've been shooting these things for 400yrs now,,
We've seen successful marketing of tallow's and lards, waxes, secret mixes of aqueous formulas, home brews with cat snot, possum squeezins and toad sweat for many-many decades now.
Yet somehow, hamburger grease never seems to make the list,,

 

[pooch156]

Back in the beginning , 1970 , Dixie gun works Old Zip patch grease, rendered mutton fat , was good for me. Don't think Dixie sells it anymore. Any grease should be used frugally , and be viscose and not hard.

I have 1-1/2 tins of Ole' Zip patch grease. Had it for several years. Still looks and smells OK. I'll find out soon. Dixie still lists it but says it is unavailable.

 

[pooch156]

Being a former redhead, added to a resultant strong aversion to direct sunlight, the very thought of temperatures like that on a daily basis is enough to make me curl up and die. A dear friend of mine, who oftbetimes posts here, recently moved back to his ancestral home of New Mexico, another state where temperatures can be fatal for me. I'm happiest at around -15C to +20C - and not ashamed to admit it.

I would be as happy as a clam to have been either a Sherpa or an Andean hill-farmer.

I'm with you all the way!! I worked outside year round for most of my working life here in Maryland & Virginia. Fall, Winter & Spring were my friends. Those blistering hot & humid summers were almost unbearable. I lived in Greece (near Athens) for a short period in 1988. Temps of over 100°F on a daily basis w/o air conditioning. It was horrible. I'm like my Dad . . . A fair skinned Celt.

 

[Notchy Bob]

I have 1-1/2 tins of Ole' Zip patch grease. Had it for several years. Still looks and smells OK. I'll find out soon. Dixie still lists it but says it is unavailable.

Just a couple of days ago, I discovered that Guns of the West (the paper cartridge folks) have lube made from lamb tallow and beeswax: Guns of the West Bullet Lube

I don't know if it is exactly the same recipe as Old Zip Patch Grease, but it has similar ingredients. It costs more than I remember paying for Old Zip. Even more than SPG lube. However, it's good to know its out there, for those of us who miss Old Zip.

Notchy Bob

 

[troy2000]

Being a former redhead, added to a resultant strong aversion to direct sunlight, the very thought of temperatures like that on a daily basis is enough to make me curl up and die. A dear friend of mine, who oftbetimes posts here, recently moved back to his ancestral home of New Mexico, another state where temperatures can be fatal for me. I'm happiest at around -15C to +20C - and not ashamed to admit it.

I would be as happy as a clam to have been either a Sherpa or an Andean hill-farmer.

I don't think you'd be happy in Blythe California, where I grew up - and came back to over thirty years later, to work for twenty years before retiring. The average temperature in July is 109 degrees F (almost 43 degrees C). The 'official' record high is 124 degrees (51 C), but I've seen it hotter than that more than a few times. I guess it depends on where you set your thermometer - and the official one is set in deep shade, above a well-watered lawn behind the fire station.

There's a bar in the desert across the river in Arizona, which (strangely enough) is called The Desert Bar. I was there one summer afternoon enjoying the almost balmy day with a bit of breeze for a change, and there was a Swedish band playing. The lead singer was mopping her face, wringing her hair, and asking how we could possibly survive in such a climate.

 

[pooch156]

I don't think you'd be happy in Blythe California, where I grew up - and came back to over thirty years later, to work for twenty years before retiring. The average temperature in July is 109 degrees F (almost 43 degrees C). The 'official' record high is 124 degrees (51 C), but I've seen it hotter than that more than a few times. I guess it depends on where you set your thermometer - and the official one is set in deep shade, above a well-watered lawn behind the fire station.

There's a bar in the desert across the river in Arizona, which (strangely enough) is called The Desert Bar. I was there one summer afternoon enjoying the almost balmy day with a bit of breeze for a change, and there was a Swedish band playing. The lead singer was mopping her face, wringing her hair, and asking how we could possibly survive in such a climate.

I had the pleasure of living in Monterey, CA for eight years. Perfect weather every day. 68 to 72 degrees. It spoiled me. Moved back to the Maryland area and the summer heat. Not a good move. Should have moved north to Washington or Idaho.

 

[Ian Straus]

Dixie gun works has sheep tallow back in stock.

 

[Treestalker]

I'm with you all the way!! I worked outside year round for most of my working life here in Maryland & Virginia. Fall, Winter & Spring were my friends. Those blistering hot & humid summers were almost unbearable. I lived in Greece (near Athens) for a short period in 1988. Temps of over 100°F on a daily basis w/o air conditioning. It was horrible. I'm like my Dad . . . A fair skinned Celt.

Pooch, I grew up in the swamps of SE Texas near the coast, the humidity was about 100%, 100% of the time.Temps in the summer an easy 95 degrees F, sometimes more. Mosquitos no end. Miserabelist place anybody ever called home. Only good thing was, the girls' complexions seemed to absolutely glow, and we boys always thought we had the prettiest gals to dance with. Maybe it was the chemicals in the air from the refineries! ln the winter at 33 degrees it felt like 20 below zero with the humidity and wind chill. The story was there was only one old barbed wire fence between there and the North Pole, and it was down, LOL!

 

[nkbj]

Pooch, I grew up in the swamps of SE Texas near the coast, the humidity was about 100%, 100% of the time.Temps in the summer an easy 95 degrees F, sometimes more. Mosquitos no end. Miserabelist place anybody ever called home. Only good thing was, the girls' complexions seemed to absolutely glow, and we boys always thought we had the prettiest gals to dance with. Maybe it was the chemicals in the air from the refineries! ln the winter at 33 degrees it felt like 20 below zero with the humidity and wind chill. The story was there was only one old barbed wire fence between there and the North Pole, and it was down, LOL!

Allergy capitol of the world!


Keeping your powder dry takes on a whole new meaning on the Gulf Coast.

 

[Codger Craig Wilcox]

Through living on all the continents except Antarctica, that cold weather is more easily overcome than hot weather, especially if you do not have electricity. You can make a fire, put on more clothes or blankets, drink hot toddies, etc.
But hot weather? Come on, folks - there is a societal limit on how much clothing you can take off and still be out in public!

 

[bud in pa]

Like I've always said if I get cold I can always put on a sweater or a coat. If I get too hot and take off your clothes you could either get arrested for indecent exposure of fined for poluting the environment