Various types of rendered animal fats have worked well for hundreds of years. Not saying that the new things don't work, but the old saying applies here: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Fired a few shots with T/C Patriots today that I hadn't touched in six months. Last time I cleaned 'em I used Bore Butter to lube the bore as a rust preventative and to "season" the bore... which, by the way, is not a one-time thing, but a lifetime process.
I had one misfire (nipple needs replacing) which fired on the second hit with the same cap. Used 3f Old Eynsford with patched round balls lubed with Bore Butter in both pistols. No rust and no fouling that I could detect.
Again, it works. No real need to try to find something else... though I may order some Bumblin' Bear Grease next time I place an order for something at October Country.
Back in the day with petroleum-based lubes, I had all the fouling I could stand and at the range, I could only fire a couple or maybe three shots before I had to either get the cleaning products out or go home for the day. Since I started using Bore Butter and other animal greases, that scenario has not recurred. You wanna use petroleum products? Go for it! You wanna push them on others? Well, you make your recommendations, you quote your "experts", and you use your right to free speech to the best of your ability. That said, I hold another opinion that is also held by others, and I've been shooting for longer than some of you have been alive.
Daniel Boone used bear grease and coon grease and whatever other animal fats he could find. Pretty sure that at least some of his guns are still around and still work more than a century after his death. Most likely he tried different greases over the course of his life, but I doubt that petroleum products ever came onto his radar.
In the end, it doesn't really matter what "experts" say. Experts can be wrong. Experts built the Titanic, amateurs built the Ark. Try different methodologies. Use what works and discard what doesn't. When the experts say you should be using the latest and greatest products synthesized from some rock found only in Baltisk crater on Mars, nod your head politely, maybe try the new stuff to evaluate it for your own purposes, and then go on using what works.
In general, though some of us really ARE idiots, (case in point, our Pres.... sorry... can't inject politics here
) listen to the grey-beards. We've seen and done more than you have and some of us know what we are talking about.
'nuff said... or maybe too much. Some of us get ornery in our old Me, I have for the last 40years have used some kind of lard. And for the last 8 or so that has been bear grease. The stuff seams to last forever, only one of three can had any oil separation and not to much. Even use the stuff I make up for the unspoken types lube in my sizing press's.
