Mineral oil

[hawkeye2]

I'm thinking about Squibb or any of the other brands you buy at a drug store. I have used it for treating my wooden eating bowls and utensils as well as coating my tinware to prevent rusting for years. It's harmless unless you take too much :grin: and never goes bad, as a matter of fact I have a bottle of Revco brand (before CVS) sitting in front of me and I believe I bought it in the very late 70's. I just treated a bunch of our wooden kitchen items with it and it set me to wondering. Have any of you ever used it as an ingredient in bullet lube or for any other shooting related purpose? The price is quite attractive at $8.49/32 oz. at CVS. It is the base for baby oil, used in cosmetics and cold cream and is closely related to petroleum jelly so it is quite safe. BTW, it is not water soluble.

 

[54mountain]

I have been using it to oil my bores and everything else on my guns for years with no problems. I can't tell you how it works as a bullet or patch lube as I'm always afraid it might get gummy. I have mixed it with bee's wax and used it as a over the bullet seal on my revolvers with no problems though.

 

[mattybock]

I'm with this guy. A long while back I got some old lathe books and seems that mineral oil, vegetable based oils (olive, sunflower, etc) and even hog fat were the lubricants of the time. I experimented between a spray can of 336 and dollar store baby oil. Both served as good as the other, but the baby oil smelled better. :grin:

 

[bobthemotorcycle]

Crazy as it sounds my Machine Shop Teacher says Coconut Oil is the best lite oil there is. Way better then veg oil, olive oil, ect.

 

[buzz]

I to been using olive oil as an oil coating and crisco as a lube for couple years now no troublebut i try coconut oil might smell better

 

[ohio ramrod]

Cocanut oil is high in saturated fats. It has been pulled from many cookie mixes because of this. Is your rifle a thin bareled or heavy barreled one? A thin barreled one would be helped by the saturated fats, not a heavy one. :rotf:

 

[hawkeye2]

While I can see the benefits of saturated fats in changing barrel mass to improve balance I wonder if this advantage might be offset by clogging of the bore requiring increasingly smaller balls over time. Also could hardening of the barrel increase it's brittleness leading to bursting? :hmm: :grin:

 

[Zonie]

No. It won't effect the bore that way.

It will tend to plug small holes like the flash channel that connects the bore to the nipple or vent though. :grin:

 

[buzz]

Not to worried what my barrel eats but the shooters little lady worry if th shooter gets to growing