Moose Milk

[lonewolf172]

I have the following and want to make some Moose Milk. Ballistol, Murphy's Oil Soap, Minerial Oil, water or 91% rubbing alcohol. What's a good mixture/percentage of each for a good patch lube?

 

[Bnewberry]

Are you going to pre-lube or apply at the time of loading?

For pre-lube I use oil (olive) and alcohol. Mix the two in whatever ratio you prefer, I like a 50/50 mix. Saturate the patch material and kay it flat to let the alcohol evaporate. When dry put the patches in a bag.

For use at the time of loading, which for me is a way of doing a semi-swab of the bore, Ballistol and water. I am still working on the best ratio. Whatever the ratio you don’t need to use a lot or you will wet the powder. A spit patch also works well.

I look forward to answers from more experienced shooters!

 

[lonewolf172]

Are you going to pre-lube or apply at the time of loading?

For pre-lube I use oil (olive) and alcohol. Mix the two in whatever ratio you prefer, I like a 50/50 mix. Saturate the patch material and kay it flat to let the alcohol evaporate. When dry put the patches in a bag.

For use at the time of loading, which for me is a way of doing a semi-swab of the bore, Ballistol and water. I am still working on the best ratio. Whatever the ratio you don’t need to use a lot or you will wet the powder. A spit patch also works well.

I look forward to answers from more experienced shooters!

Actually I was thinking of the pre-lube idea.

 

[azmntman]

Thats a kinda "dry patch" system and swabbing between loads likely a necessity.

 

[Bnewberry]

Thats a kinda "dry patch" system and swabbing between loads likely a necessity.

The more oil the less swabbing. If loading gets hard, a bit of spit added to the pre-lubed patch fixes it. Usually not needed for less than 5 shots or so.

 

[Crow-Feather]

For target shooting, a 15% Ballistol, 75% water, with a dash of liquid soap, has kept my last shot as easy to load and as accurate as my first shot with NO swabbing. And the barrel is very easy to clean. The patch must be damp but wet clear though. Before a match, my wife dumps her patches into moose milk, then squeezes out the excess, then puts them into a plastic food bag, then putting the bag into a leather pouch. Never have to swab tween shots as long as you do not use oil in your barrel.

I tried a heavier percentage of Ballistol in the mix and let the patch material dry. Was never happy with the results. So for hunting, I use T/C bore butter on my patches and slugs.

 

[hanshi]

You'll probably do much better with the real stuff.

 

[rp77469]

From a couple weeks ago. Many formulations, probably all work, otherwise folks would not be using them. What's your Moose Milk mixture

 

[user 36911]

I just use spit for swabbing between shots. For patch lube I like a paste. I was using Mink Oil but i'm going to try Frontier's Bear Paws Anti Rust & Patch Lube with Bear Oil. Good patch lube and really good at preventing rust. I may not have to swab as much with this new patch lube. We'll see.

 

[N.Y. Yankee]

For cleaning/swabbing the bore, I just use Ballistol and water 1:7. For patch lube 1:4. Seems to work fine just like that. ALways shake well before use.

 

[N.Y. Yankee]

A long time ago, visited an older man who what trading stuff out of his garage and we talked BP for quite a spell. He told me to use a mix of 2 ounces Murphy's Oil Soap to a quart of plain blue windshield washer fluid. It makes a good BP solvent for swabbing the bore, and it does, but I find it sticky on my hands. It does clean BP soot though.

 

[Stony Broke]

For over 30 years I've been using the same mix to clean the bores and to wet patches for match shooting. I take a bottle of Windex and mix it with a cup of Murphy's oil soap. I put a spray bottle in my shooting box and give each patch a squirt just before loading it. Given the fact that I use a fairly tight patch/ball combo, you are merely swabbing the bore on the way down, not depositing liquid on the powder. I can shoot in a match all day without swabbing between shots and I use the same mix to clean the bore when it's all over. It has worked so well for me that if I am still shooting another 30 years (which would put me over 100)...I will still be using the same mix. To tell you how happy I have been with it, I shot in 4 segments of the last match I was in which resulted in scores of 50,50,49, and 49. Three of those scores were rifle and one pistol......now if I could only get past a 49 here and there !

 

[Bnewberry]

For over 30 years I've been using the same mix to clean the bores and to wet patches for match shooting. I take a bottle of Windex and mix it with a cup of Murphy's oil soap. I put a spray bottle in my shooting box and give each patch a squirt just before loading it. Given the fact that I use a fairly tight patch/ball combo, you are merely swabbing the bore on the way down, not depositing liquid on the powder. I can shoot in a match all day without swabbing between shots and I use the same mix to clean the bore when it's all over. It has worked so well for me that if I am still shooting another 30 years (which would put me over 100)...I will still be using the same mix. To tell you how happy I have been with it, I shot in 4 segments of the last match I was in which resulted in scores of 50,50,49, and 49. Three of those scores were rifle and one pistol......now if I could only get past a 49 here and there !

I notice that new bottles of Murphy's Oil Soap say, “new formula”. Are you using this new formula or are you working with the old kind?

 

[Stony Broke]

I mixed up a large bunch quite some time ago, and didn't even have any idea there was such a thing as a new formula. I doubt it would make much difference. The Oil soap just adds a little lubrication to the mix and the Windex does all the cleaning and dissolving of the powder residue. I can take a small spray bottle to me at shoots and make it through at least half a dozen of them on less than a cup of the liquid....including cleaning the guns afterward.

 

[david w]

I still have and old bottle of Falkenberry Juice. The best lube I've ever used. No matter how many times I shot, the next load went down easy. I guess i need to see what moose milk is all about. Then again, I may just try some Ol Griz lube instead.