Hot Weather Lube

[crockett]

I'm starting a new thread. There's been some talk of wads versus lube. In a hot weather climate. who has a home made formula for a good lube that is made of easily bought ingredients? (No bear or coon fat, etc) By "good" I mean a lube that seals well and is heat resistent and suitable for summer or hot weather?

 

[Flash Pan Dan]

Since I use Cream of Wheat on top of the powder charge and then add a dab of lube on top of the CoW before seating the ball/bullet. I have never run into the problem of having the lube melt away. But a simple mix of bee’s wax and mutton tallow has worked well. You can vary the mix to meet your needs.

 

[Robert Egler]

I don't use lube over the ball anymore, but I experimented with plain beeswax. No mixing with anything. Seems to work ok, and doesn't melt if the day is hot.

 

[Coot]

Well, it's not homemade, but years ago, I used white lithium grease from the auto supply & applied it using a paste wormer tube (like a big hypodermic tube with a plastic spout & no needle) which were free from the local large animal vet. Its a bit messy but cleans easily & the guns always turned freely. With the grease & no wads or fillers but always using well fitting caps, I never had a chain-fire either.

 

[1911nutjob]

One campbell's soup can, one to one and a half bricks of canning paraffin added to half the can full of crisco, a few spoonfuls of bacon grease if you have some on hand. Melt it on your stove grate at the lowest setting. Draw into a few 99 cent oral syringes, and dispense when it cools. It won't run down the gun and while some gets blasted out of the chambers, it still leaves a nice unmelted ring around the ball.

 

[Matt85]

I don't use lube over the ball anymore, but I experimented with plain beeswax. No mixing with anything. Seems to work ok, and doesn't melt if the day is hot.

im with squirrel, i used lube over balls when i started but have since found it not to be important. my load for my 1858 is:

1. 24 grains schuetzen 3F
2. dry card wad
3. lubed felt wad
4. .454 ball

the dry card wad keeps the powder away from the lube which means my pistol can stay loaded as long as i wish. it also brings the ball closer to the chamber edge which seems to help accuracy some. most important is that the card wads are seriously cheap! i use the .455 1/8 nitro cards from TOTW (a little of the card shaves off on loading).

and before someone says lube protects from chain fires... a tight fitting ball, wad, and cap are more then enough to ensure you will not have chain fires.

 

[Bon Sauvage]

Is that bacon grease in your lube that salty stuff that comes from store bought bacon?

 

[crockett]

Well parafin is cheap and available- I think I'll start with a Crisco/Parafin mix and see how that works. As I said, I like wads but they take up space in the chamber that could otherwise hold powder. At the shooting range that isn't an issue but if I am carrying the gun for hunting, etc then it would be better to have a larger powder charge- that is, no wad and lube over the ball.

 

[1911nutjob]

Is that bacon grease in your lube that salty stuff that comes from store bought bacon?

I take it from unsliced bacon I buy by the slab from my butcher, but yep-not as salty though. In the concentrations I'm using it no corrosion has been created but it's not essential to use in my mix if that concerns you. I just use it as a dispensing aid in an effort to not let anything go to waste, also makes a good additive for use in candles. Remember that one of the ingredients in black powder is in fact a salt, in much higher concentration. Crockett, play around with the blend to get what you need. I up the paraffin for summer use and cut it for subzero shooting when I'm crazy enough to shoot in that. You can get the syringes at any drug store or use your tool of choice. I have the wads as you do, but only use them at the range. I like to keep one of my revolvers loaded at all times, so I worked up that over-ball blend to keep my powder clean. Best of luck.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

2 parts beeswax and 1 part lanolin makes a smearable grease. right stiff in cool weather unless it's carried inside shirt pocket

 

[B. Miller]

I start with approximate equal parts beeswax, crisco (unsalted), and olive oil. I then adjust the beeswax component to the outside temperature.

 

[Billnpatti]

If you want to use old bacon fat as your lube, it is easy, and highly recommended, to remove the salt from it by boiling it in water a few times. You just put it into boiling water for a few minutes and then chill it long enough for the fat to harden on the top of the water. Lift off the fat, dump and change the water, and repeat a few more times to remove all of the water soluable salt. You will end up with clean pig lard which is, for all intents and purposes, indistinguishable from bear grease.

 

[cynthialee]

Thank you for that obvious fix that I had not even considered!
One of those ideas that leave me wondering where my brain has been.

 

[1911nutjob]

I like that and I'll give it a try if I ever have enough. I eat bacon rarely enough that I never have more than a spoonful or two though, and added in a can full of crisco and paraffin the salt level is pretty darn low. More often I add it to candles as I burn alot of 'em to keep the heat bill down in the winter. I might have better luck doing the boil with sausage grease 'cuz I make more of that.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I start with approximate equal parts beeswax, crisco (unsalted), and olive oil. I then adjust the beeswax component to the outside temperature.

This is true. The problem with parafin is that when you get up around 95º+ it starts to get soft. Use it as the wax base in a blued barreled rifle or pistol, or in a blued revolver cylinder, and that temp will get above 100º+, or after one or two shots in a revolver, the heat transfer to the unfired chambers causes a melt down and the parafin may liquify. Crisco liquifies at much lower temps. So I use beeswax as the wax base.

Beeswax has sufficient higher melting temp, that when mixed (having first been melted) with olive oil, or melted crisco, or another oil, when the combination cools it gives one a good lube and leather grease. The less beeswax the lower the melting temp. I have found that 1/3 beeswax plus 2/3 of olive oil (the same ratio as the quote) makes a good bullet lube, but in very hot weather and for use in a revolver, I'd try a 50/50 mix of beeswax and an oil, and might even need to go with as high a mix as 60/40 beeswax and olive oil.

LD

 

[crockett]

Thanks.