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iron brigade
05-16-2011, 12:40 PM
1858 rem pietta revolver-
need recipe for a lube over the ball. i have beeswax and crisco as well as lard and olive oil.
trying to remember if the combo was 80% crisco and 20% beeswax or???

missionary5155
05-16-2011, 01:28 PM
Greetings
I have been using 45 % olive oil & 55% beeswax (summer) for many years. works very well with 2F & 3 F in my revolvers. In cooler weather I go to 50-50. can also be used on any skin problem and leather. Only lube my wife will let me mix inside the house.
Mike in Peru

troy_mclure
05-16-2011, 03:52 PM
i just use another wad. tons less messy.

Omnivore
05-16-2011, 05:57 PM
I started out using the commercial lubes. Those would become liquid in hot weather, and they cost a lot. I now use a mixture of Bee's wax, venison tallow (it's free, 'cause I'd be throwing it out otherwise) and olive oil. Blend according to weather. I use a similar mixture for the Lee conical bullet's lube grooves, but mix for a harder consistency. Lubing over the top of those is entirely redundant.

You don't need much lube over the ball, since most of it will blow out from the unfired chambers on the first shot anyway.

I've also used the pre-lubed wads. They're handy but expensive unless you set up to make your own. They've also degraded the powder during long term storage of the loaded cylinders, such that velocity was substantially reduced. I've never placed a wad over the ball.

There seemes to be a very wide variety of methods and recipes, all of which work.

troy_mclure
05-16-2011, 10:13 PM
i do: powder, wad, ball, wad. always a clean barrel, and no greasy mess.

iron brigade
05-17-2011, 12:12 AM
i mixed up a batch on saturday of 50/50 beeswax and crisco. stuff was to hard after it dried to be used for pistol lube. i think it would be ok for lubing minie's when still a liquid.
gonna put the stuff back into the double boiler and give 'er a nother try.

Hellgate
05-17-2011, 12:28 AM
I do everything: lube wad under the ball and lube over the ball. As was stated, most of the over ball lube gets blown away by the adjacent chamber firing. However I still apply it. I use 50/50 beewax/olive oil for making warm weather felt lube wads and 1:1:1 beeswax/deer tallow/olive oil for winter cold weather wad lube. For over ball lube I apply rotgut cheapo automotive grease applied with an irrigation syringe with the tip cut a little shorter so the thick grease will "syringe" through the tip easier. I lay a small bead around the ball/chamber juncture. I have used lubed fiber filler wads in the past and just recently ordered a bunch of 45cal pre lubed 3/16" thick fiber wads from Circle Fly that can be easily split into two wads and a bag of 1/2" high unlubed 45cal fiber filler wads that I will lube myself from Circle Fly. They are pretty economical especially if you buy two or more bags of the wads (500ct). I haven't tried the pre-lubed wads yet but the dry ones lubed and split worked quite well (very clean bore) a few years back when I made my own from them. They weren't as uniform as felt (difficult to split exactly the same each time) but actually scrubbed the bore better.

I never would count on a C&B performing reliably if stoked for several days or weeks if it had a lube wad under the ball. There's too much likelihood of oil leaching into the powder.

waksupi
05-17-2011, 12:31 AM
The thing that worked best for me, was a pinch of corn meal under the ball. Was able to shoot longer with out the revolver fouling out, and being hard to cycle.

stubshaft
05-17-2011, 12:36 AM
I use plain Crisco mixed with 5% Ivory soap to stiffen it up.

troy_mclure
05-17-2011, 12:58 AM
a guy i know that carries a naa c&b uses a hard wax disk between the boolit and powder. he has went 4 weeks thru the louisiana heat and humidity and had 5 successful shots.

Omnivore
05-17-2011, 04:36 PM
I tried "lube pills" for a while. BW, tallow and olive oil, made into a waxy consistency and cut into ~1/8" thick wafers, placed over the powder. The guns ran fine, but I saw no obvious advantage over lubing over the ball, except that the projectiles, with the lube pill material and burning powder stuck to them, made for a nice tracer round-- the ball leaves a trail of smoke. That also might could start a fire in the wrong conditions, as I've seen the powder sparkle on the paper targets once in a while. The 200 gr .450" conicals I use, pan lubed with a similar mixture, sometimes exhibit this tracer effect also. They sometimes have lube on the base and I don't bother to remove it. You're more likely to see the smoke trail if someone else is doing the shooting.

coopieclan
05-18-2011, 02:42 PM
I tried Crisco (too melty) then I thickened it up with wax.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?p=1212819#post1212819

This is my old post about the project.

I like my Remmy it works %100 of the time.

iron brigade
05-19-2011, 12:55 AM
I tried Crisco (too melty) then I thickened it up with wax.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?p=1212819#post1212819

This is my old post about the project.

I like my Remmy it works %100 of the time.

thankyou for that post

NickSS
05-19-2011, 04:11 AM
I have used all sorts of stuff for lube in a C&B revolver over the years. Some commercial stuff and some home made. The two that i use mostly now are a home made lube of 40% bees wax, 40% crisco and 20 % olive oil. I use the same lube in a 45-45-10 proportions for BPCR bullets. Or secondly I just use Natual Lube 1000 maxi ball lube. Both of these let me get off 30 t 50 rounds without cleaning and are easy to clean up. Various greases that I tired over the years worked but were a real mess to clean up.

45-70 Ranger
05-20-2011, 06:22 PM
This has been a topic of discussion and such for decades. In the early '60's I used Crisco over the ball. In the '70's I used this stuff called "Spitball". In the '80's it was Wonderwads...Now, if not using T7 (no wad or grease), I'll use a felt wad with some beeswax and tallow (mutton or deer) when I'm shooting BP. The wad is cut from old wool felt hats I find at flea markets and such.

To be real honest and fair, there are as many ways to mix lube and wads as there are opinions at a highschool football game on who's got the best whetever going for them. IMHO, use what YOU feel gives you the best performance for YOUR weapon. Try as many combinations as you can and record how they work. After testing many, check your notes and go with the best you found.....Many of the methods listed are tried and true good ones. Your fellow shooters do know what they're talking about here...

Wade