Conical lube

[Kansas Jake]

Unless you are in a big city, you probably have someone bee keeping close to you. Check at a farmer's market or county extension agent for someone that is a local bee keeper. You probably can buy some bees wax much cheaper locally. Also while you are at it pick up some great local honey.

I bought raw bees wax from a neighbor. I had to heat it and then strain it through cheese cloth to get rid of some of the other stuff. After it cooled I also just used what was in top of the container as some of the dirt etc. collected in the bottom of the jar. The bottom 1/2 inch had some other stuff in it.

 

[nkbj]

Thumbs up on local.
Buy a big hunk.

 

[Billnpatti]

There are thousands of lube recipes but I have found that most any non-petroleum grease that has been thickened with bees wax works quite well. I have experimented with several non-petroleum greases and all seem to work about equally well. About the cheapest mix is either lard or Crisco and bees wax. Adjust the amount of bees wax to suit your weather condition. My preference is for patched round balls but if I choose to use conicals, I shoot T/C Maxi-Balls. I pre-lube the conicals and then wrap each one in a strip of either parchment or waxed paper and twist it shut. That keeps the bullets from getting grease on the other stuff in your bag and keeps the bullets from collecting bits of dirt, fuzz, etc. from inside your bag. Your bullets are lubed, clean and ready for action and your bag contents are kept grease-free. Just un-wrap and load. :hatsoff:

 

[nkbj]

There's some basic easy to obtain ingredients that have a track record of acceptable results. My go to version is:

Lanolin (because I happened into a bucket from a soap making / chemical warehouse in Pasadena, TX, now out of business)

Olive oil (because we always have it in the kitchen)

Beeswax (because Rudy is a nice guy). http://www.rudyshoney.com/

Tried other adjuncts such as peanut oil, vegetable oil, graphite, solid soaps, liquid soaps, machine tool lubricants, crayons, Saturday night wrong side of the tracks pool hall smelling pomade, lotsa stuff. Haven't had anything work better than my basic "go to" stuff. The only drawback to it is that when cooling after melting together the beeswax tries to solidify out first. That means that with whatever container you pour it into, you can get a relatively beeswax rich outer perimeter and a relatively lanolin and olive oil rich center. That means you need to be mixing during cooling. Yeah, bothersome. Formulas with lard may work better in this regard.

 

[Stumpkiller]

That Amazon source is way steep at $6.40 for 5 oz plus shipping. That's robery.

I get mine from this source. Have been well pleased with the product (free shipping, too).
http://www.beeswaxfrombeekeepers.com/buybeeswax.html