Here's what I found on lube-
Stantheman86 mentioned SPG. I found SPG doesn't work as well as plain Crisco or lard. It's formulated for black powder cartridges and doesn't play very nice with minies.
Different repops have widely varying rifling but these ingredients are the ones I've found to work pretty consistently.
Beeswax+ (lard,crisco,tallow,olive oil,coconut oil)
Lube test methodology-
First I tested just the plain lube with no beeswax. The test is simple, use a moderate load, slobber the bullet with the test lube, load and shoot for group. Clean the rifle, repeat with the next lube. Once you see a winner, then it's time to drill down on it. Mix up a small batch starting out with 50/50 beeswax+lube and go repeat the test, but this time do a ladder test on the powder charge meaning 5 shots at lowest charge, increase by 3g, clean the rifle, repeat. You'll generally have to shoot at least all three groups, sometimes more. Once you see a pattern developing, try varying the charge by 1.5gr either way to look for further improvement. Once you've settled on the beeswax+lube part, then it's time to tweak it. Nearly all of my lube have involved about a tablespoon of lanolin added for "stickyness" to keep the lube on the bullet in the final formula.
A word about Crisco. It's been the "goto" for muzzleloading for years on end BUT, it's NOT the best available and your lube can greatly affect accuracy and grouping. In a deep dive on this subject a couple years back, I came upon a thread in a European muzzleloading forum talking about accuracy issues with Crisco and the consensus was when the formulation of Crisco was changed to eliminate the triglycerides to make it more "healthy" it degraded it's efficacy in being a lube for shooting. I happened to have a very old, unopened Crisco and decided to test it against a new one. They were right! If you could test the old against the new, you'd be looking for something other than Crisco as well.
A final word on lubing minies- accuracy is all about consistency and variable control. Since I load N-SSA style and use the minie as a "stopper" in a plastic tube holding the powder, I insert the minie into the tube only up to the rings. The rings then get dipped. Putting Crisco (or anything else) in the base is a shortcut to flyers and inaccuracy and is a reenactorism. Put nothing in the base. If you're having issues, with fouling, then the lube formula needs to be adjusted or you need to switch to a better grade of powder.
Stantheman86 mentioned SPG. I found SPG doesn't work as well as plain Crisco or lard. It's formulated for black powder cartridges and doesn't play very nice with minies.
Different repops have widely varying rifling but these ingredients are the ones I've found to work pretty consistently.
Beeswax+ (lard,crisco,tallow,olive oil,coconut oil)
Lube test methodology-
First I tested just the plain lube with no beeswax. The test is simple, use a moderate load, slobber the bullet with the test lube, load and shoot for group. Clean the rifle, repeat with the next lube. Once you see a winner, then it's time to drill down on it. Mix up a small batch starting out with 50/50 beeswax+lube and go repeat the test, but this time do a ladder test on the powder charge meaning 5 shots at lowest charge, increase by 3g, clean the rifle, repeat. You'll generally have to shoot at least all three groups, sometimes more. Once you see a pattern developing, try varying the charge by 1.5gr either way to look for further improvement. Once you've settled on the beeswax+lube part, then it's time to tweak it. Nearly all of my lube have involved about a tablespoon of lanolin added for "stickyness" to keep the lube on the bullet in the final formula.
A word about Crisco. It's been the "goto" for muzzleloading for years on end BUT, it's NOT the best available and your lube can greatly affect accuracy and grouping. In a deep dive on this subject a couple years back, I came upon a thread in a European muzzleloading forum talking about accuracy issues with Crisco and the consensus was when the formulation of Crisco was changed to eliminate the triglycerides to make it more "healthy" it degraded it's efficacy in being a lube for shooting. I happened to have a very old, unopened Crisco and decided to test it against a new one. They were right! If you could test the old against the new, you'd be looking for something other than Crisco as well.
A final word on lubing minies- accuracy is all about consistency and variable control. Since I load N-SSA style and use the minie as a "stopper" in a plastic tube holding the powder, I insert the minie into the tube only up to the rings. The rings then get dipped. Putting Crisco (or anything else) in the base is a shortcut to flyers and inaccuracy and is a reenactorism. Put nothing in the base. If you're having issues, with fouling, then the lube formula needs to be adjusted or you need to switch to a better grade of powder.
