Coned Barrel and New Lube at the Range

[morehops52]

Perfect winter day to shoot. In the 40's with frost in the morning so only the die-hards were shooting. Got the 54 out and wanted to sight in the new peep along with my cast T/C Maxis and 1st attempt at a home made beeswax lube. I had also coned the barrel last year and it was such a pleasure to shoot. I only shoot maxis any more so I coned my 54 to get the full bullet below the muzzle with finger pressure. Between that and my beeswax/olive oil lube I found that could shoot all day without a short starter or wiping the barrel. My kinda shooting and a lot easier that other experiences I've had.

 

[Dale Allen Raby]

I have only one gun with a coned barrel, actually factory QLA'ed at T/C's factory. It's a .50 caliber and really doesn't do all that well with PRB. Conicals and plastic unmentionables with pistol bullets work just fine.

Your lube sounds interesting. I routinely shoot PRB with olive oil as a patch lube. With my loads I generally get little or no fouling.... which is the same results I get with Bore Butter. Are you willing to share your recipe in terms of ratio olive oil:beeswax? I am using Bore Butter for conicals now, but that stuff melts in hot weather... and warm barrels. Come summer, I might do some home-brewing of my own.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

I use olive oil to beeswax in a 50-50 mix, switching to 1/3rd wax to 2/3rds oil only If shooting for extended shooting (up to 20 shots or more), and in Winter with temperatures around freezing or below.

Otherwise my hunting lube, for 1, 2 or 3 shots, but has never been more than 1, is mink oil by Track of the Wolf.

 

[Eric Krewson]

I have heard of a lot of folks who didn't like TCs QLA barrels. I had one but wasn't schooled on muzzle loaders back then so I don't know if it shot well or not because I didn't shoot any B/P guns well back then.

I coned a .54 barrel with a Joe Woods tool a couple of weeks ago and love it. I have a .54 GM drop in for a TC I am going to do next. There must be a difference in what TC put out and what the Joe Woods tool cuts, everyone likes the results of the Joe Woods tool.

 

[morehops52]

My lube mix is straight from members here. I wanted to keep it simple so I started with two ingrediants. Mt first batch was 1:4 wax/oil. too soft and messy for me. Then 1:2 was too hard but would work in hot weather. So now i'm at 1:3 and that works for me. Only problem was that it wouldn't always stick well to the bullet. It was suggested to add some lanolin to solve that but I have yet to try it. It was also pointed out that when using bees wax that i might need to clean with alcohol.