Patch lube -- I know this will get a dozen ideas for each 6 responses, but...

[morehops52]

...and so on, and so forth, ad nauseam.

 

[Mad L]

I thought we just did this last week, or was I dreaming?

 

[Mike in FL]

I am beginning to believe there is no best lube. But I have come to the conclusion that no lube can keep a black powder gun running without cleaning. 'Tis silly to think such a product exists. The button-rifled, shallow grooved mass produced rifles are better in that regard, maybe even much better than a deeply cut rifled bore of a custom gun, but still, we must swab frequently. I mean their comes a point when build up gets bad enough to require a mallet to drive the ball home. For those who say they can fire 40 times without cleaning . . . well, I just don't know what to say.

 

[snakebit]

I am more 40 dawn 60 water

Give it a try, and you will see

A good wet patch and you can run for days

Thanks for the tip. I was kinda worried about the powder getting to damp from the patch.

 

[longcruise]

I am more 40 dawn 60 water

Give it a try, and you will see

A good wet patch and you can run for days

I've used somewhere in the neighborhood of 95 water and 5 Dawn (or any liquid dish soap) and you can shoot all day without wiping if that's your inclination. But not something to load for a hunt and leave it in the barrel too long.

 

[IT47]

As a teenager, I was told by two shooters, who were born in the late 1860's, and whose first rifles were muzzleloaders to always use animal tallow, and if that was not available, spit. Clean spit, no tobacco or snuff chews. Run a patch often to keep the bore clean. Your rifle will talk to you, be consistent in all of your shooting phases, your rifle will last a long time; you both will grow old gracefully. Treat your friend right and it will never let you down.

 

[Grenadier1758]

I am beginning to believe there is no best lube. But I have come to the conclusion that no lube can keep a black powder gun running without cleaning. 'Tis silly to think such a product exists. The button-rifled, shallow grooved mass produced rifles are better in that regard, maybe even much better than a deeply cut rifled bore of a custom gun, but still, we must swab frequently. I mean their comes a point when build up gets bad enough to require a mallet to drive the ball home. For those who say they can fire 40 times without cleaning . . . well, I just don't know what to say.

A lot of those shooters who "never wipe" will use a pretty wet patch. Guess what? That wet patch will wipe the bore between shots. Fouling can still buildup in a chambered breech, but the wet patch will wipe the bore. Just don't let it sit on the powder long enough to dampen the powder.

Almost any liquid with a bit of slickness will be acceptable to some degree in some places. I suspect that with about 20,000 contributors to the forum, there are about 19,000 different acceptable patch lubes. The other 1,000 acceptable patch lubricants use spit.

 

[Mike in FL]

A lot of those shooters who "never wipe" will use a pretty wet patch. Guess what? That wet patch will wipe the bore between shots. Fouling can still buildup in a chambered breech, but the wet patch will wipe the bore. Just don't let it sit on the powder long enough to dampen the powder.

Almost any liquid with a bit of slickness will be acceptable to some degree in some places. I suspect that with about 20,000 contributors to the forum, there are about 19,000 different acceptable patch lubes. The other 1,000 use spit.

Your last two sentences indicates spit is unacceptable. I'm not sure you meant that. But then I'm a bit of a sentence structure nerd.

 

[Grenadier1758]

@Mike in FL, oh, no. Spit is one of the very basic and acceptable patch lubricants. It is probably the most historically correct. Thanks for the correction. I do try to get my sentences structured properly. I may have to make an edit

 

[IanH]

I am beginning to believe there is no best lube. But I have come to the conclusion that no lube can keep a black powder gun running without cleaning. 'Tis silly to think such a product exists. The button-rifled, shallow grooved mass produced rifles are better in that regard, maybe even much better than a deeply cut rifled bore of a custom gun, but still, we must swab frequently. I mean their comes a point when build up gets bad enough to require a mallet to drive the ball home. For those who say they can fire 40 times without cleaning . . . well, I just don't know what to say.

Humidity and powder quality has a lot to do with it, but I have fired over 80 shots from my Kibler SMR .45 in one day without once having to run a cleaning patch. The chamber was caked pretty good but after a certain point, 15-20 shots, it doesn't seem to get any worse. As Grenadier pointed out, with a dampened patch the bore is wiped every time the ball is seated so the bore stays relatively crud-free. The second shot is no more difficult to ram than the last. The patches don't have to be extremely wet, either.

The only times I have been forced to wipe on account of extreme fouling well forward of the breech I was shooting smoothbores with paper cartridge loads. Even with a spritz of water down the bore before ramming the wadded tail and ball I could only get five or six shots off before I could no longer seat the ball. Using a damp cloth patch and ball completely solved that problem in all my smoothbores. Cornmeal buffer and paper cartridges completely solved fouling issues with shot loads.

The only challenge I sometimes have with fouling is a carbon ring forming just above where the ball is seated. This ring makes it difficult to fully and consistently seat the ball on the fresh powder charge. The ring is formed from a combination of the dampened mung wiped by the patched ball and the chamber carbon creeping forward after every shot. Some water-based lubes are a lot better at minimizing and softening that ring than others.

 

[French Colonial]

Old story once again, started shooting ML in the late 70's. EVERYONE I shot with blew down the barrel and used spit patches and we did woods walks and timed Seneca runs and no one wiped between shots.

I tried Grenadier1758's wiping method for the first time in 2023 and it worked and will probably use it again when shooting from a bench, if I remember to bring the damp patches with me.

Those who can not load with a spit, mink oil, moose milk or other patches for multiple shots are probably using to tight of a patch and ball combination.

They develop a load while wiping between shots and sometimes with a short starter and then wonder why they can not load without, when what they should have done was develop a load without wiping and without a short starter to begin with.

 

[James Kopp]

I use ballistol and water as a patch lube. There is a video of a fella on YouTube shooting patches soaked with 50/50 Dawn and water. Haven't tried it personally, but he said he had no fouling issues. It's on the Internet so it has to be true. Right?

I used dish soap and water... works great at the range... very little fowling.....but not good for hunting....

 

[N.Y. Yankee]

'Bout 1:7 Ballistol and water, but that varies. Patches damp, not wet.