paulvallandigham
Passed On
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2006
- Messages
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Take a deep breath and re-read all the advice on the lubes. The use of both Beeswax, and Crisco, for instance, makes a thicker lube. The oil you choose is what makes it soft, but spreads as easy as soft butter, on cloth patches, or patching. If you are shooting in 80+ degree temperatures, you may want to increase the amount of wax used, and cut back on the oil. If you are shooting in 30 degrees and colder temperatures, you may find that reducing the beeswax some and increasing the oil will hold up better.
There is NO Granite Tablet somewhere with these formulas on them! Depending on weather, and temperature( weather meaning rain, relative humitidy, snow, fog, mist, etc.) you will find any lube works better in some conditions than in others.
I found that using alcohol with some oil and maybe a drop of dish detergent seems to work well in below freezing weather. How much of each depends on how cold and dry the air is out there. If you use water soluable oils, or jojoba oil the detergent will mix fairly well . If you don't have then, then go ahead and skip the soap. The alchol cleans the barrel very well by itself. Look for one of those alcohol based window cleaners to " spritz " your cleaning patches in cold weather.
If its so cold that your loading patches are stiff, use the cleaner on the patch to soften it enough to form easily around the ball, and get down the barrel. The alcohol will evaporate, leaving the patch with only the oil left in it around the ball. I like to run a cleaning patch lubed with a grease mixture to grease the barrel in front of the PRB. This prevents rust from developing in the barrel while I am hunting in the cold weather.
All this works here in Central Illinois. But, where I grew up in Northern Illinois, its a lot colder, and because of the Great Lakes effect, a lot more humid. I would have to change my mixes to hunt just 140 miles North of here.
AND, that is my point in writing. You are going to have to develope your own mix, and not rely on anything the rest of us tell you.
The best advice is to take all this into consideration, and then find other MLers in your area, and talk to them about what they find works as the best patch lube. They may not have tried some of the ideas you have read here, so you may be able to contribute new information to them. That is always a pleasant surprise for a new shooter.
However, you are more likely to understand all of this after some hands-on experience of your own, through a whole year cycle, in all kinds of weather conditions, and temperature ranges. When you figure it out for yourself, come back here and share the info with the rest of us. :thumbsup:
There is NO Granite Tablet somewhere with these formulas on them! Depending on weather, and temperature( weather meaning rain, relative humitidy, snow, fog, mist, etc.) you will find any lube works better in some conditions than in others.
I found that using alcohol with some oil and maybe a drop of dish detergent seems to work well in below freezing weather. How much of each depends on how cold and dry the air is out there. If you use water soluable oils, or jojoba oil the detergent will mix fairly well . If you don't have then, then go ahead and skip the soap. The alchol cleans the barrel very well by itself. Look for one of those alcohol based window cleaners to " spritz " your cleaning patches in cold weather.
If its so cold that your loading patches are stiff, use the cleaner on the patch to soften it enough to form easily around the ball, and get down the barrel. The alcohol will evaporate, leaving the patch with only the oil left in it around the ball. I like to run a cleaning patch lubed with a grease mixture to grease the barrel in front of the PRB. This prevents rust from developing in the barrel while I am hunting in the cold weather.
All this works here in Central Illinois. But, where I grew up in Northern Illinois, its a lot colder, and because of the Great Lakes effect, a lot more humid. I would have to change my mixes to hunt just 140 miles North of here.
AND, that is my point in writing. You are going to have to develope your own mix, and not rely on anything the rest of us tell you.
The best advice is to take all this into consideration, and then find other MLers in your area, and talk to them about what they find works as the best patch lube. They may not have tried some of the ideas you have read here, so you may be able to contribute new information to them. That is always a pleasant surprise for a new shooter.
However, you are more likely to understand all of this after some hands-on experience of your own, through a whole year cycle, in all kinds of weather conditions, and temperature ranges. When you figure it out for yourself, come back here and share the info with the rest of us. :thumbsup:
