I have used pig tallow (lard) exclusively for a number of years and it works very well as a patch lube and metal protector. Here in Wyoming, I don't mix it with bees wax at all. Harriette Simpson Arnow in her book, 'Seedtime on the Cumberland' mentions that as settlers pushed westward in the wilderness the one thing homesteads all had in common was the ever-present pig. Pig tallow/fat is very similar in properties as bear tallow, another commonly used patch lube and metal protector. We don't need all those concoctions you find on the store shelves or people's miracle cleaners/patch lubes. The old timers used plain water to clean their guns, and pig or bear tallow to lube their patches and protect their bores and lubricate their locks. It also does well in putting a mellow shine on the stock (but buff the excess off). Where/when present, sperm whale oil was used for lock lubrication but it does not appear to have been commonly used as a patch lube. Read the label on that commercially prepared lard you find in the baking sections of stores. It is hydrogenated. This means it has water added to it. Don't use it for preserving the bore of your rifle or for lubing your patches when hunting, as you don't want that to sit in the bore for very long. Better to go to a meat processor or butcher shop and purchase a bag of pig fat and render it down to lard (easy to do). I have never used beef, sheep, or buffalo tallow for lubing shooting patches. I have heard, though, that they don't work as well as pig tallow and will often produce more fouling in the bore. Here in the Rockies, the mountaineers of the early to mid-1800s used the tallow of black and grizzly bears, with no record of buffalo fat being used as a patch lube or lock lubricant. Though under extenuating circumstances, any animal fat/tallow will suffice.