Liquid Patch Lube for Hunting

[rancher]

Is it ok to use a liquid patch lube for hunting (like moose milk) or is a paste (like bore butter) a better option. Also considering the rifle may stay loaded for several days.

 

[paulvallandigham]

You can a liquid patch lube when hunting, but you probably should use some kind of " firewall" between the powder and the PRB. Some fold over a cleaning patch and run that down on the powder. Others use fillers, like corn meal, to protect the powder from absorbing oil from the PRB. Then other use wool " bore buttons", or fiber OP wads for the same purpose.

The problem you want to prevent is your powder charge being fouled by oil from the patch. The longer a liquid lubed Patch sits in a gun with nothing between the patch and the powder, the more the powder is fouled, and you risk either a misfire, or a partial burn of powder when you finally take that shot at game.

This happened to me one day, when I loaded my gun in the dark of the night, then sat in a tree all day and tried to shoot a deer about 4:30 that afternoon. Some of the powder had fouled, and the powder that did light only pushed the ball out of the barrel fast enough to hit the deer in his right shoulder hard enough that he fell down. The ball bounced off-- altho I have no doubt that it bruised the shoulder pretty good. The deer got up and walked away- boy, that was an insult!-- while I reloaded my gun.

I now use a filler when I load a gun for deer hunting. Its just safer to remove the problem at the outset, so your mind is not bothered by the possibility again. The bonus is that fillers do a good job of scraping the grooves of the barrel when they follow the the PRB up the barrel.

The sound of the shot going off was the " clue" that the charge had been fouled. I got a "cough" instead of a loud "ROAR" when the gun fired. I later found unburned powder on the ground in front of where my muzzle would have been located when I fired the shot. The next shot went off just fine, BTW, when I unloaded the gun at sundown.

I hope this helps. :thumbsup:

 

[longcruise]

Moose milk, at least the homemade stuff, has water in it. Not a good thing to keep loaded in your barrel.

The Hoppes Patch Lube is ok in that department.

 

[hanshi]

I use and prefer Hoppes patch lube. Since it is a liquid, I always use an over powder wad of some sort. This eliminates powder contamination.

 

[ohio ramrod]

I use a mixture of lard and beeswax with a dry patch or leather wad between the lubed patch and the powder.

 

[buttonbuck]

make sure you check your point of aim where when or if you switch to using an over powder wad. My bullets and prb fly way different when I use one, I am considering using the op wad next year I had a similar experience to Paul's also keep a wet lube out of speed loader tubes I have gone to having one powder and using a seperate one for the prb and patch I need to find a nice piece of hardwood to make a bullet board.

 

[Dphar]

Is it ok to use a liquid patch lube for hunting (like moose milk) or is a paste (like bore butter) a better option. Also considering the rifle may stay loaded for several days.

Try *pure* Neatfoot oil then squeeze the patch that is going to be loaded for sometime somewhat dry, just enough to lube the bore, the rest can be kinda wet to ease subsequent loading if needed. Moose milk is for range use.
I suppose bore butter is OK but I have no idea whats in it.

Dan

 

[thewho66]

you dont say if you are hunting in cold weather or not, if you are the first load should be fine but if you need to reload for any reason I would have something else handy. For cold weather hunting and shooting I use mink oil from TOW on my patchs.

 

[Billnpatti]

My favorite hunting load is a patch dampened with straight Ballistol on top of a leather over powder wad. The leather wad has been soaked in Ballistol but has been dried by mashing between two absorbant rags to remove all the Ballistol I could. There will be sufficient Ballistol left in the OP wad to both seal the bore and prevent the hot gasses from getting around your patched round ball and to lubricate and clean your bore as you shoot. I have also used patches coated with Bore Butter and they work just fine, too. By using these products rather than anything containing water, you can leave your gun loaded without fear of getting rust in your bore from the water in the lube on your patch. If you want extra protection for your powder charge, you can place a card wad cut from posterboard on top if the powder and then put the leather OP wad on top of the cardboard wad. Sort of "belt and suspenders" idea. I use a hollow punch that I bought from Harbor Freight to cut my OP wads. The punches are typical Harbor Freight junk tools (probably made in China) but work just fine for cutting my OP wads. I wouldn't choose them if I were going to use them in my job :shake: but they make just fine inexpensive hobby tools. :thumbsup:

 

[redwing]

The very best hunting patch is the Texas Patching Teflon coated Sail Cloth. This is loaded dry and will improve accuracy as well as being safe cold or hot. :thumbsup:

 

[nkbj]

Shine. Good bore solvent. Won't freeze. Multipurpose.