saliva as a patch lube for hunting deer in late season ok or not

[Loyalist Dave]

If your first shot annoyed the bear who now knows where you are. any number of follow up shots might be required in a very short time.

In that case you better know how your rifle shoots with a bare ball. :shocked2: :haha:

LD

 

[Billnpatti]

Saliva is an excellent lube for target shooting where the wet patch won't sit on the powder very long. I would never use saliva when hunting deer because it can dry out while you are waiting for a deer. If you leave your gun loaded for a long time and have used saliva as a lubricant, it can cause rust to form in your bore. In freezing weather, it can freeze to the inside of your bore and cause significantly increased breach pressures which will change the location of your POI.

There are a plethora of other lubricants in use and most are pretty good. When hunting, I recommend that you use a lube that is not water based and has no petroleum based lubricants in it. Bear oil, Crisco, bees wax, olive oil, mink oil, Balistol.... and the list goes on and on. Heck, I often use Bore Butter and find that it is an excellent patch lube.

 

[Vaino]

None of my MLers have ever seen a "spit patch"...w/ so many good lubes on the market, why chance it?

If your spit doesn't dry out.....see a doctor.....Fred

 

[hanshi]

I use to use spit patch a lot if I knew I'd be shooting frequently. But I never used it as the first load for the day when hunting. I still use a non rusting lube as my first of the day. I don't use spit patch any longer; I'm too dry from meds I take. I use TOTW mink oil and/or Hoppes exclusively, now.

 

[Danny Ross]

Okay I have a question from the uninformed about the spit patch drying out. I don't use spit patches. So the seal between patch ball and barrel is fairly to very tight meaning little or no air movement at least not enough to allow the patch to dry out by evaporation, even do to wicking between the barrel and the ball. So how can the patch dry out quickly or even dry out over a 48 hour period or longer? I can see where a small amount of moisture from the saliva wicks into the surface layer of the powder charge under the ball and making it moist/damp, and "somewhat" drying the patch out, but even that moisture is being held against the surface of the patch, so there would still be moisture in the patch. I can also see the patch losing some of its moisture when the ball and patch is pushed down the barrel, but that has already been lost when the patch and ball is seated, so no more can be lost from that and the patch still should be damp. As mentioned if left in the barrel over a period of time the spit patch would cause a rust ring. The only way to cause a rust ring would be because of moisture held against the barrel, that moisture being held in the patching material. So how do we "know" the patch drys out in "a short period of time" or over what period time it drys out at all? Like I said a question from the uninformed. DANNY

 

[Black Hand]

My concern would be the very thin ring where the patch makes contact with the barrel/rifling and the ball. As the patching forward of this point is exposed to the air, I suspect the loss of moisture changes the thickness of the patch, ultimately leaving a looser fit.

 

[coloradoclyde]

It's really not an issue for most hunting applications.....Targets are another matter.

I've used spit for squirrels without any issues....even after several hours....and I aim for the squirrels head......Even after a day I could still hit the body....Which is still smaller than a deer's heart...

Test it yourself, on paper....and see if it meets your needs....that's the only way you will know for sure.....

 

[Vaino]

My one objection to using "spit" patches is that I don't like spreading germs to squirrels or other game.......Fred

 

[Sean Gadhar]

Black powder is a wick. :idunno: it seems to love moisture. Osmosis dose the rest

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I can also see the patch losing some of its moisture when the ball and patch is pushed down the barrel, but that has already been lost when the patch and ball is seated, so no more can be lost from that and the patch still should be damp.

Danny,

The patch is merely damp not soaking wet from the saliva. So..., as you mentioned, when you compress it against the barrel wall by forcing the ball and patch onto the rifling, some of the moisture is going to be left on the interior barrel wall as the pressure wrings the material. That which is around the hemisphere of the ball that doesn't touch the barrel wall, however, will still have some dampness and then contact the dry powder, and probably transfer a little moisture to some of the powder. This will very depending on the tightness of the barrel to ball spacing and the thickness of the patch.

One way for you or anybody else considering using spit patch for hunting deer is to try a test. Load the rifle with a spit patch. Set it in a safe place for the whole day, and then as the sun is setting, test fire it at your max range and check the accuracy. You'd be simulating loading the rifle at dawn and sitting all day, taking a shot at the deer as the light fades. See how well your load does? It might not make a huge difference, if any, for the distances that you shoot.

I use a lubed patch when hunting, though often I use spit when target shooting. I figure using the lube will help a tiny bit when loading up another shot after shooting at a deer. I reload as part of the 15 minutes that I wait before I start tracking the deer..., assuming it doesn't fall within view of where it was when it was shot.

:idunno:

LD

 

[Billnpatti]

Well, I have had to pull a spit patched ball that had been left in the bore over night. It was pretty difficult to pull but we finally got it out. Looking back, it would have helped if we had put a bit of lubricant down the bore first. The patch was dry all over. Obviously the sides against the barrel and the part above the ball simply wicked away the moisture. How did it get dry on the side against the powder? Most likely it dried by the moisture being absorbed into the powder. I think those are reasonable suppositions. Anyway, that is my experience that lets me know that the spit patch will dry out given a few, to several hours. It just does.