Whole lotta questions....

[ChrisS]

Hello folks,

I'm new to this board and the BP scene, but just recently purchased a tc hawken. I have to say this is a hoot and I haven't had this much fun shooting in years. Right now I'm a little confused with the myriad lubes and solvents types and uses. I'm a simple guy and complicating bp shooting with lotions and potions is not for me, but, I do want the best accuracy and best bore preservative/performance I can get.

As a beginner, I want to describe my site-in shooting process and would really like it critiqued and maybe get some suggestions on the process you go through when you shoot. I have the Fadala book and another book on ML Hunting. Are there any other titles I should look for?

Here's what I've been doing:
- Bore is lubed with heavy coating of tc bore butter.
- At the range before shooting, run a couple dry cleaning patches through the bore to remove excess bore butter.
- Shoot one maybe two rounds max using pre-lubed patches or WalMart pillow ticking covered with either bore butter or saliva.
- Wet a cleaning patch with a water/soap mixture (forget the name of it but it is made for muzzleloading).
- Run a dry patch through to remove excess soap, water.
- Load and shoot next round.
- At end of session, clean out bore with the water/soap, followed by a patch of bore butter to prevent rusting.
- Get home and do a thorough hot water cleaning at home.
- Apply a thick layer of only bore butter to the bore and store away.

I'm going to mix up a patch lube when I can find some beeswax and castor oil and crisco. Fadala, in his book, said it wasn't worth the trouble and to just use bore butter.

Sorry for the long winded question. My head is swimming with questions but man this bp is fun!

Thanks very much.

 

[J.D.]

IMHO, you are doing pretty much the right things, with the exception of using bore butter for a bore preservative. Lots of folks like it, I don't.

All of the yellow miracle lubes are nothing but thinned chapstick which is nothing more than paraffin thinned with liquid paraffin. Paraffin is a petroleum product, BTW and the general consensus is that petroluim products are not to be used in a ML bore. So why do so many people use it???

In addition,the yellow miracle lubes, they are all the same, build up a hard cake in the bore that will eventually cause a loss of accuracy. And in temps of 40 degrees, or so, and below you might get a second ball down, but the third one ain't going without a mallet.

They can also seal in any moisture that might have been missed in drying your bore. And that ain't good.

IMHO, you would be much better off scrubbing that garbage out of your bore and use a good modern bore preservative. I like BreakFree, but swab it out with a patch saturated with alcohol prior to firing your first shot.

There are a LOT of good patch lubes out there. Plain old spit is one of the best. Windex is good too as is nearly any soap and water or soap and alcohol mixture. Gotta get the patch good and wet for them to work properly though.

A good liquid patch lube should allow shooting nearly all day without swabbing the bore, especially in somewhat humid conditions.

You mentioned that you use saliva as a patch lube, but you need to swab the bore after every shot. That should not be necessary and I suspect caking bore butter as, at least, part of the fouling problem that forces your to swab after every shot.

That said, swabbing between shots is the best way to maintain shot to shot consistency for match shooting. However, IMHO, swabbing after every shot is a royal PITA when just shooting for fun. Nor is it practical during a timed event.

For cleaning, soap and water followed by a good drying and coating with BreakFree. Store the gun muzzle up for a few hours to a day or so, then turn it muzzle down so any excess oil will drain out of the breech. Leave rags or some other absorbent material under the muzzle to soak up any oil that might drain out.

IMHO, Beeswax/crisco/minkoil/olive oil/ or what have you works pretty well as a patch lube for hunting, even in cold weather.

The chemical make up of beeswax and paraffin wax are completely different, BTW, so beeswax blended with other natural oils does make for a good patch lube.

J.D. who is ducking and running for cover for the heresy of telling the truth about the yellow miracle lubes.

 

[renovato]

Welcome aboard!

Sounds like you have it down pretty well already. If you want to simplify things further, try Ballistol. It makes a great patch lube, makes a great rust proofer too. It's also a fine oil for lubing the moving parts. It even protects wood and leather. It's a very good solvent for lead and copper fouling, but for cleaning the bore, soapy water is just simpler. I oil the bore with it after cleaning, and wipe the entire gun down with it, stock and all.

As a patch lube, I mix 1 part Ballistol in 5-7 parts of water, depending on the gun. They each seem to have their favorite ratio. I soak the patches with the mix and let them dry out. This leaves behind just the right amount of Ballistol. A little Ballistol goes a long way, so it'd be hard to get them lightly and evenly lubed without the water. The patches almost feel dry to the touch. This system is quite accurate in my guns and keeps bore fouling down.

Since Ballistol mixes with water, you can use the patch lube mix for swabbing at the range, or even for bore cleaning, though like I said, soapy water is still cheaper and easier.

 

[tg]

The only thing I would suggest is to use cold or maybe warmish water, it does not have to be hot to clean well and some folks have fouind flash rusting to be an issue with hot water, as for lubes...try them all and make your own choice as to what is best, you can lube the bore for rust protection with gun oil just make sure it is wiped clean before shooting, modern steel is much different than the iron barrels of yesterday so many of the old ways may not work the same today.

 

[MSW]

welcome to the world of smoke makers! there is an inexplainable and ineffable quality to BP shooting that is unavailable elsewhere- it's almost contemplative; relaxed, slow, certian that one well placed will out do a dozen on spray&pray. as far as cleaning, you seem to have a handle on things, but i would investigate the possible discontinuance of all that bore butter in favor of Ballistol (just one guy's opinion, which may well be worth exactly what you just paid for it).

good luck!