Hi Dale. Of course I use black in my flintlock mainly 3F, and 4F to prime, but pretty much use 777 in my percussions because of the scarcity of finding black in Montana. I did experiment with Jim Shockley's gold, and it would work in my flintlock using 4F to prime but had a decidedly delayed firing. I don't load heavy, and that might make a difference, mainly punch paper. Lube is a whole new item. I have tried most milk, 2 kinds of hand cleaner, 1000+, kerosene, hoppes black powder number 9, frontier Gander's lube, Lanolin, and neats foot oil. I think that's about all. I did have a lube that I got from Tennessee, that really worked better than most, I think it was probably tallow and beeswax but I can't find it anymore, it used to be on the Internet. Moose milk worked fine, except when the patches were too dry at the right time of summer, I started some small grass fires and that put them on the no-no list. Fast orange hand cleaner was as good or better than most of them, bore butter 1000 works the best in the 1 in 60 twist 45. Not as good in the fifties that are 1 in 48. I'm patiently waiting for spring to try number 13 bore cleaner. I use a very tight patch but not a heavy charge, and they load fairly hard, so I'm going to experiment with a much lighter patch and see what it does to accuracy. I cast my own balls out of water pipe lead, weigh them and keep them within one grain of each other. My mold for my 45 is from Italy and actually cast balls that are .451 but they still seem to work okay. They do weigh 141 grains where they should weigh about 128. My 50 caliber balls are pretty much consistent at 177 but I did make some from wheel weight lead that weighed 173. I do have a .495 mold that makes 181 grain balls but I couldn't tell much difference in the loading or the shooting. None of the lubes were any more difficult to clean up with afterwards, I use warm water with sometimes a drop of soap, number 13 bore cleaner patches, and at the very end a shot of pure methanol of alcohol and blow it out with air. I clean my nipples, run that light patch of kerosene down the bore, and stand them barrel down. The next day run one more patch of kerosene and store them barrel down in just a dry room where there's no water close. All rifles are laid flat for the final patch runs with the kerosene patch.
As a young lad I religiously cleaned what guns I had every time I shot, have gotten old and crusty and some of the modern ones haven't been cleaned for years but the storage is probably the secret. Sorry for the long explanation.
Squint
