Crisco for Round Ball?

[Jeremy Bays]

i am new to muzzle loading. I have a .50 cal Kentucky rifle by Traditions. I am using .490 ball and pillow ticking (.015) patch. I was wondering about lubing the patch with crisco. Is that an issue?
Thanks
Jeremy Bays

 

[Richard Konish]

Crisco was used over the ball in percussion revolvers to prevent chain fires, but not sure about patched RB. Expect it will work fine but be careful to get the unsalted version. Someone is sure to chime in on this as well as formulas for mixing with other things to make it work better.

 

[Billy-by-gosh]

Hi there,
I can't help but say this was the first load I tried in my early ML/BP days. The rifle was loaded with 65 grains of 2F and a patched ball using Crisco on .10 patches. It worked fairly well, but accuracy was was mediocre. HOWEVER, I had to stop hunting with it, due to causing brush fires in the undergrowth! Sure halts the fun when you have to hurriedly stamp out 2 or 3 burning patches of grass and weeds after each shot.

 

[Erwan]

Crisco is what we call here "Végétaline", that can works on revolver but itsn't the best for the patches.
The firs time I was shooting it was with "mutton tallow" but it stinks. Now I simply use pure Neatsfoot oil (three drops on a patch the day before shooting) and it works well, may be that one other stuff could be much better, but for me this is the best one and this not to expensive stuff...

 

[rafterob]

Crisco works fine and is easy to get. Go ahead and start with that. You can add a little bee's wax to it to firm it up, especially for summer use when it can be pretty messy. I used Crisco for a few years but found it bothersome because of the greasy mess it would create as well as fouling build up issues. It had no affect on my accuracy. I have moved on to water with a small amount of Dawn for range use and spit patch if in the field.

 

[M. De Land]

i am new to muzzle loading. I have a .50 cal Kentucky rifle by Traditions. I am using .490 ball and pillow ticking (.015) patch. I was wondering about lubing the patch with crisco. Is that an issue?
Thanks
Jeremy Bays

I've never found anything better than winter grade windshield wash fluid for patch lube at any time of year. It is comprised of black powder friendly ingredients, water , alcohol and soap. It lubes the patch for the trip up bore (soap), dries out fast (alcohol) and dissolves fouling (water).

 

[Grenadier1758]

The truth is most everything can work as a patch lubricant. Grabbing a lube from the kitchen will likely be better served by selecting the olive or canola oil. For patch there is no need now to mix it with any wax. Murphy's Oil Soap is good for many of the same reasons that Winter Windex works. By the way, spit is a traditional patch lube. You will eventually settle on a lube that works for you.

 

[Kansas Jake]

I often used spit if at the range and will be shooting pretty quickly. For hunting I used crisco years ago. I’m now working with Dutch’s system.

 

[longcruise]

Crisco is ok but don't overdo it. Try smearing an even coat on the patches and then hit them in the microwave a bit. I cut at the muzzle so I did them in strips. They leave quite a bit of fouling but its soft and easy to wipe away.

With any lube there is such a thing as too much or too little. You just need to find what works. I have tried and used dozens of lubes over the years and found that if You fiddle with them enough they are all good. So that being the case, the old axiom "keep it simple" seems to apply with lubes.

 

[tenngun]

Lyman’s Black powder ballistics book had crisco used as it’s basic universal testing lube. I think most of us have used at at one time or another.
Is it the ‘best’?
That’s a never ending thread.

 

[Treestalker]

Shot a squirrel at distance one time, using Crisco lube. Just peeled the skullcap off and he hit the ground with brains fried up ready to eat. You should have seen the race between my dog Percolator and myself over the choice vittles!

 

[Carbon 6]

I was wondering about lubing the patch with crisco. Is that an issue?
Thanks
Jeremy Bays

It works, It has a low melting point though and tends to leave the barrel "wet" in warm weather.
I prefer olive oil mixed with a little beeswax over Crisco. but it will work in a pinch.

Half the fun of muzzleloading is finding out what things work best for you, and doing your own thing.

P.S. There are hundreds of different lubes that guys use.

 

[Don Steele]

This feels like going to the confessional. 44 yrs ago when I took my very first mail-order T/C rifle into the woods to shoot, I didn't know anything about shooting BP. Nobody I knew had any experience shooting BP. I didn't own a book on the topic beyond what I had read in old (1950's vintage) Lyman reloading manuals. Crisco was my lube of choice. It worked fine, for the few shots I got off on that first foray. It seems that my limited reading on the topic hadn't taught me about FOULING... or the proper technique for seating the ball...it won't come as a surprise to you then to read that my first day as a BP shooter ended rather quickly (5 or 6 shots if I remember correctly) when I broke the T/C ramrod that came with my rifle.
That failure is totally on me. Not on the Crisco.

 

[dave951]

Try it. It won't damage anything. You will probably find through experimentation that other things work much better in the accuracy dept. Just avoid anything petroleum based. Those don't play nice with black powder fouling.

 

[user 34300]

Easy to find usable patch lube? For casual shooting Murphy's oil soap works great. Use it straight. Wring out the patches. Leave them wet. Load. The truth is most any water based liquid works well enough, including spit. Take a patch out of your mouth to load and replace it to saturate for the next shot.

Oily stuff like olive oil also work well. I prefer water based for range shooting because they cut the fouling. For hunting sometime greasy, like neatsfoot oil or mink oil are often suggested. You don't want water based lube for hunting because it can dry out and make a rust ring in the bore. Hard sticky greases my not release the patch consistently.

Crisco works. Putting a stack of patches in melted crisco seems like a good idea. You will get a stack of greasy patched stuck together in a ball. It is messy to deal with and fickle to tease off one patch.

 

[torpedo]

Water soluble machine cutting fluid at 8 to 1. Buy a quart and you are set for life and it works fantastic.

 

[toot]

don't melt the CRISCO, just dip your finger in to it and rub it into the patch. I carry it in an old pill bottle, works great. try it.you won't have a messy ball of patches as described.

 

[Griz44Mag]

Guess I am a bit lazy but I shoot a very wide variety of round balls.
I buy patches pre-cut (but dry) from TOTW (Maine shooting supplies)
I put 25-30 patches in a cap tin on a stove burner on low and dribble in melted mink tallow until the stack is saturated but not swimming. They are just right and super easy to use. Peel on off the top and load. Sizes and thicknesses marked. I keep a list of what I find works best with each gun on a notes list. Make a range session really pleasant to go out and shoot all afternoon and not spend a lot effort with greasing patches or dry your mouth out from spit patches, (which I found quite distasteful)

 

[30coupe]

Your rifle will eventually tell you what it likes. Lube can make a huge difference in the accuracy of your rifle. My Pedersoli Frontier .32 likes a patch dampened with Hoppes Black Powder Lube and Solvent. My Pedersoli Kentucky .45 likes a patch lubed with 6:1 water and Ballistol and dried to the touch. I'm still experimenting with patch material. The best so far is .013 denim in front of 70 grains of Pyrodex RS. Strangely enough, it doesn't like the Diamondback 3F black powder I use in both the Frontier and my TC Hawken...go figure.

If you want to learn a lot about lubes, patches, and muzzleloading accuracy in general contact Dutch Schoultz (Dr5x on this forum) and buy his system. It is well worth the money and time to read it. I don't always use his preferred method, but I'm finding that my latest muzzleloader really likes it. The nice part of it is the dry patches are not messy to handle. You will want to wipe with a damp (not wet) patch between shots, although a follow-up shot while hunting would work fine without it I would guess. Anyway, I highly recommend this purchase.

Welcome to the addiction!

 

[tenngun]

One has to ask what you are going to do with the gun. Plinking, woods walks, novelty shoots, hunting changing lube is not worth a hill of beans. Shooting hard competition lube can be the difference between 44 1 x and 49 2x