Making some 1/8 inch Duro-felt grease wads

[M. De Land]

I got busy this PM and punched out some wads for a couple of my .36 cal revolvers. The wad diameter is a thousands or two over barrel groove diameter.
These are much cleaner to shoot and seem to be as accurate as over ball lubing from what I can tell so far but I do need to do an even comparison test between the two methods to confirm if the accuracy is equivalent.
I lube them with a mix of 25/75 bear oil and bees wax. I'm letting the summer sun help out on the picnic table before final melt in a pan of boiling water. I pick out the saturated wads with tweezers from the lube melt and let them cool on a sheet of wax paper.
The wad punch is a copy of a Fred Leith design that fits in my loading press and is very convenient and easy to use.
I'll add some more photos as I lube and pick them out for cooling .

 

[M. De Land]

I got busy this PM and punched out some wads for a couple of my .36 cal revolvers. The wad diameter is a thousands or two over barrel groove diameter.
These are much cleaner to shoot and seem to be as accurate as over ball lubing from what I can tell so far but I do need to do an even comparison test between the two methods to confirm if the accuracy is equivalent.
I lube them with a mix of 25/75 bear oil and bees wax. I'm letting the summer sun help out on the picnic table before final melt in a pan of boiling water. I pick out the saturated wads with tweezers from the lube melt and let them cool on a sheet of wax paper.
The wad punch is a copy of a Fred Leith design that fits in my loading press and is very convenient and easy to use.
I'll add some more photos as I lube and pick them out for cooling .

Here is the finished wads saturated with 25/75 bear oil and bees wax lube. There is approximately 250 count so that should give a good amount of test shooting to see how well they work. I have enough lube for about 500 more it looks like if these work well.
Now I need to figure out a good charge weight that will place the ball near the chamber throat exit and leave no air space.
I'm wondering if adding the bear oil was such a good idea now as I hadn't planned on using any milk carton wads between the wad and powder. The bear oil just might migrate into the powder if left loaded to long.
Well I may be forced to use a milk carton wad for all day carry.
Odd how the bear grease is amber when liquid but goes back to pure white when solidified. Note how white the cooled wads are. All of the wads are completely saturated with lube.

 

[Pete453]

Lubed wads are the only way to fly. My bores look like I've been shooting that modern, fad stuff, I've posted pictures on here a few times. Any chance you can put up a picture of your barrel after shooting? Curious is all, I like to see how the different lubes compare.

 

[M. De Land]

Lubed wads are the only way to fly. My bores look like I've been shooting that modern, fad stuff, I've posted pictures on here a few times. Any chance you can put up a picture of your barrel after shooting? Curious is all, I like to see how the different lubes compare.

I do have a Hawkeye bore scope but no camera attachment for it so not sure how to take a meaningful bore photo without it ! Might be a good reason to pick up that accessory to my equipment !
I'll also be interested in how this lube works in the bore as well as arbor load fouling.
The bear oil in leu of Neatsfoot oil, in black powder cartridge, cast bullet lube works well, so I'm hoping for the same results in revolver wad use.

 

[Tweeter and the MonkeyMan]

Here is the finished wads saturated with 25/75 bear oil and bees wax lube. There is approximately 250 count so that should give a good amount of test shooting to see how well they work. I have enough lube for about 500 more it looks like if these work well.
Now I need to figure out a good charge weight that will place the ball near the chamber throat exit and leave no air space.
I'm wondering if adding the bear oil was such a good idea now as I hadn't planned on using any milk carton wads between the wad and powder. The bear oil just might migrate into the powder if left loaded to long.
Well I may be forced to use a milk carton wad for all day carry.
Odd how the bear grease is amber when liquid but goes back to pure white when solidified. Note how white the cooled wads are. All of the wads are completely saturated with lube.

The lamb tallow I used the last time did the same thing, with all of the input I've read about on this topic from many ML shooters over the last few months and all the different lube recipes the one thing they all have in common is they're all animal or plant based, not petroleum based. I'm almost convinced that it's more a personal preference, whether it's mink oil, beef tallow , alive oil , Crisco or whatever they all will work to varying degrees but outside atmospheric conditions plays a big part.

 

[M. De Land]

The lamb tallow I used the last time did the same thing, with all of the input I've read about on this topic from many ML shooters over the last few months and all the different lube recipes the one thing they all have in common is they're all animal or plant based, not petroleum based. I'm almost convinced that it's more a personal preference, whether it's mink oil, beef tallow , alive oil , Crisco or whatever they all will work to varying degrees but outside atmospheric conditions plays a big part.

I made up wads for my .44s from the same felt but only used melted bees wax and they seemed to work fine. Then I wondered if adding some kind of animal oil would help out with fouling control after reading Ned Roberts book on percussion rifles and how he exalted the properties of rendered bear oil.
The last bear I killed was so hog fat I decided to bring home about 30-40 lbs of it and rendered out 2.5 gallons in a crock pot , strained it through cheese cloth and keep it in Mason jars in the shed. Doesn't seem to ever go bad if kept air tight in the Mason jars.

 

[Pete453]

I do have a Hawkeye bore scope but no camera attachment for it so not sure how to take a meaningful bore photo without it ! Might be a good reason to pick up that accessory to my equipment !
I'll also be interested in how this lube works in the bore as well as arbor load fouling.
The bear oil in leu of Neatsfoot oil, in black powder cartridge, cast bullet lube works well, so I'm hoping for the same results in revolver wad use.

I took this one of my 60 army barrel. I used my phone, it works and was easy for me to figure out how to post them.
Neetsfoot oil and beeswax worked good for me, but beeswax, deer tallow and olive oil leave it in the dust. Plus, the neetsfoot mix ate at the metal tins and dried out. Tallow has been better for me. Your bear ol should excel also, it's a proven lube.

 

[M. De Land]

I took this one of my 60 army barrel. I used my phone, it works and was easy for me to figure out how to post them.
Neetsfoot oil and beeswax worked good for me, but beeswax, deer tallow and olive oil leave it in the dust. Plus, the neetsfoot mix ate at the metal tins and dried out. Tallow has been better for me. Your bear ol should excel also, it's a proven lube.

That looks like a decent enough bore fouling photo to me and will save the expense of camera adapter equipment. I'll give it a try and see how it works out with my digital camera and if that don't work the cell phone.

 

[M. De Land]

I made up wads for my .44s from the same felt but only used melted bees wax and they seemed to work fine. Then I wondered if adding some kind of animal oil would help out with fouling control after reading Ned Roberts book on percussion rifles and how he exalted the properties of rendered bear oil.
The last bear I killed was so hog fat I decided to bring home about 30-40 lbs of it and rendered out 2.5 gallons in a crock pot , strained it through cheese cloth and keep it in Mason jars in the shed. Doesn't seem to ever go bad if kept air tight in the Mason jars.

Yah know the more I get thinking on this and looking at what other people call bear oil, I think what I actually have is bear grease as it always turns back to solid when cool to room temperature. I'm hoping this quality may make it less able to migrate into and kill the powder charge if I leave out a milk carton wad.
I got digging around in my five gallon pales of brass last night and found a zip lock bag of about 4-500 .36 cal bees wax lubed wads I had forgotten ever making ! Guess I'll get to try both recipes against each other.
The bees wax lubed wads made of the same duro-felt come out grey in color and when bear grease is added to the recipe they come out white.