Mini ball lube

[Fly]

What is a good home made mini ball lube?Also do any of you fill the hollow base with lube?

Fly:coffeecom

[fouronesix]

The # of home made minie lubes might equal the # of posts :)

I don't use hard lubes for minies. In my thinking, their flight stability is so tenuous that hard lubes might come off unevenly in flight thus disrupting that fragile stability- don't know if that is real or my imagination :veryconfu

In cold weather I use Crisco. In warm-hot weather I use beeswax mixed with Crisco.

Sometimes I put a little lube in the base cavity but never fill it up. Sometimes I don't. If shooting without cleaning between shots with long shot strings where fouling build up might be a problem with seating the minie all the way down- I use as much soft lube as possible.

I don't know the exact formula the original minies as supplied or packed in paper cartridges used, but some of the originals I've looked at appeared to be dark colored and fairly heavy, sticky tallow/grease or something similar. But after 150 yrs I don't know what it's original consistency was or what it looked like. I've seen some of the original "arsenal" formulas for minie lube but can't remember- maybe someone will post them.

[bob208]

i allways used crisco and i put some in the base.

[John Allen]

I just made some up with beeswax and olive oil and a little lanolin. I have not tried it yet but will hopefully get out next week.

[swamp]

I use tallow/ beeswax. Adjust beeswax tor temp. Another is olive oil/beeswax. Before I started using beeswax, I used parifin wax. Just enough to keep the tallow from melting in hot weather.

swamp

[John Allen]

Swamp, it looks like I am on the right track then with the beeswax and olive oil

[Fly]

Swamp I shot a couple of bullets I molded with that mold you sold me.I think it may be sweet.I must leave town tomorrow, but plan
to mess alot more with it when I return.
Fly

[TCLouis]

Recipe stolen from a member that was posted right here some years ago.

5:4 beeswax to EVOO.

Another that seems to work well if one can find it (comes in a tube, much like caulk for a caulking gun
DoALL ToolSaver

Picked up the second from Blue Spot Bill since he uses it for miniball in competition . . . well at least he used to when we had competitive events in the area.

[357maximum]

My conicals get Straight thrice rendered deer tallow (FREE for the effort) or rendered deertallow mixed with a touch of microwax430 for added flex/body...depends on the thermometer in your district I spose. I have never had my straight deertallow melt on me here in Michigan, but I do not do alot of shooting over 90+degrees either...not a big fan of HEAT myself.

[iron brigade]

Beeswax/Mobil 1 40w oil. mix 1 LB beeswax to 1 pint Mobil 1. stir well.

[Cactus Farmer]

In a pinch,GoJo hand cleaner works might well. Makes clean up a snap too.

[TheGrimReaper]

i allways used crisco and i put some in the base.
You mean like Crisco from the grocery store?

[missionary5155]

Greetings
Another vote for Beeswax and olive oil. Only lube I am allowed to mix in the kitchen. Tastes good on toast or fingers. Works well on dry skin and leather. Will even lube all BP projectiles.
Mike in Peru

[iron brigade]

You mean like Crisco from the grocery store?

yep! Lard works good too. the unsalted kind.

[PTS]

If and when hunting I never allow lube in the hollow base; I use Buffalo & Hornaday Ball-ets and conicals a lot and I clean out the hollow base so as not to contaminate any powder.

[TheGrimReaper]

yep! Lard works good too. the unsalted kind.

Well, learn something new everyday!

[fouronesix]

I don't know the exact formula the original minies as supplied or packed in paper cartridges used, but some of the originals I've looked at appeared to be dark colored and fairly heavy, sticky tallow/grease or something similar. But after 150 yrs I don't know what it's original consistency was or what it looked like. I've seen some of the original "arsenal" formulas for minie lube but can't remember- maybe someone will post them.

Odd responding to one's own post. :roll:
Well, I found one information source for an original arsenal minie lube. Makes sense judging by the gooey nature of the old original lube I've seen on minies and accumulated in bottoms of 1860s era cartridge box liner tins. One part tallow to eight parts beeswax.

[357maximum]

Odd responding to one's own post. :roll:
.

Not really...If you go over to the casting section at the Accurate reloading forums there are 2,3,4 page threads that basically have only one guy posting...it is like he is having a conversation with a mirror or something. Now that is ODD

[HARRYMPOPE]

Greetings
Another vote for Beeswax and olive oil. Only lube I am allowed to mix in the kitchen. Tastes good on toast or fingers. Works well on dry skin and leather. Will even lube all BP projectiles.
Mike in Peru

I use that formula in a .577 P-H 1858 Musket.I do not fill the base.I dip lube and let them dry on wax paper.And you are right i also get use of kitchen stove as its not stinky.

George

[vogironface]

The last time I made some i used crisco and parafin. I also used some minty oil which made it smell a little less rancid after it sat a while.
I have a question.
If i don't have any beeswax at the time is paraffin a problem in a muzzleloader?

[fouronesix]

I've used both types of wax for stiffener/binder in various bullet lubes. Last summer I tried some very soft cast bullet lube that had paraffin in it for minie lube. No problems that I could tell.

But, I don't use stiffer lubes until it gets pretty warm. The last time I shot minies out of one of my .58 muskets- about a week ago- I used straight Crisco and a load of 55 gr of FF Wano. The temp was pretty chilly at about 40 F with maybe 30% humidity. I shot about 12 shots without cleaning and it wasn't until about shot 10 that I could even tell the slightest build up as the minie approached final seat. Probably could have just kept on shooting without cleaning for who knows how many more shots. The first shot was slightly lower than #s 2-12 but only by 1/2" - 1" at 50 yds. Most times that first shot is very slightly higher than the rest but this time a little lower so who knows??? Learned long ago to resist the temptation of proclaiming absolutes. :)

[ken s]

I'm shooting a .58 springfield original using .584 and .585 original style minis' and getting good results with SPG. hand lubed while I'm watching TV. (instead of eating)..
I tried dipping some in a mix that was a little harder. When I load, a lot of the mix just breaks off. You want it to stay on the ball, and SPG does that. Don't make anything that flakes off while you're loading, especailly if you like a tight ball fit for accuracy. Ken

[WOLF257]

If you don't mind my asking, where did you find a .585 mold?
My Nepalese 53' Enfield has a bore diameter of .586.
I tried .578 minies and 50 grain charges, obviously I'd have been better off using a slingshot since they were all over the place even at 50 yards.
A friend suggested that since I'm a tool and die maker I should consider making my own mold but the only type I could produce would be the smooth sided minie and I don't think that would work very well.

Thanks in advance.

Jim

[fouronesix]

If you don't mind my asking, where did you find a .585 mold?
My Nepalese 53' Enfield has a bore diameter of .586.

Jim

Yep, likely a larger diameter minie would work better. The problem is the original style minie mold that cast at .585 was a Lyman mold that has been discontinued :(

Track sells those Lyman .585 minies already cast.

Maybe find one on the used market somewhere. Or paper patch an undersized minie up to about .585.

The only other possibility that comes to mind for an available factory mold would be the RCBS N-S .584 minie.

[WOLF257]

Thanks for the quick reply.
I'll see if I can find that mold as well trying to paper patch the minies I'm making now.
The rifling seems to be ok but the rifle is very inaccurate even using patched balls.
I've had cap and ball pistols for quite a while but I'm still learning about black powder rifles and I guess an original one probably wasn't the best choice to learn on.
Thanks again.

Jim

[6pt-sika]

Not really...If you go over to the casting section at the Accurate reloading forums there are 2,3,4 page threads that basically have only one guy posting...it is like he is having a conversation with a mirror or something. Now that is ODD


I don't look at that as odd !

I have a thread going on the Cast Bullet Assoc forum thats about 67 pages been going for about 4 years now . And 75% are my posts I actually use it more like a journal to keep track of some of the stuff I'm doing . Also has a few other items of intrest to me that I post that have NOTHING to do with shooting or hunting .

[fouronesix]

WOLF257
I play around with a variety of original rifled muskets and the variations in bore dimensions are real. Even though the Nepalese guns should've been fairly close to the standard, accepted .577 spec, it was a very distant outpost- soooo. That doesn't mean you can't make it shoot well but may take some experimenting. Wouldn't hurt to pick up a small quantity of the Lyman .585 cast minies from TotW to see if they will shoot well. No need to spend a huge amount of time looking and maybe a premium in $ for the mold then find out it also doesn't work well. Might also try some PRBs just for another check of the accuracy potential in the gun itself.

I get a whole lot more satisfaction getting an old original to shoot well than shooting any number of modern MLs. The only reason I have the repro MLs is to reduce the inevitable shooting wear and tear to the originals.

Another consideration would be: what WAS acceptable accuracy from these guns 150+ years ago versus what IS acceptable accuracy today. I've got an idea there'd be quite a bit of difference. Additionally, kind of along the same lines- think about shooting at 25 or 50 yard targets first with the final accuracy test at 100 yards. Then for anachronistic purposes go ahead and shoot at much longer ranges to see what was possible or at least check how close the rear sight registration is.

[WOLF257]

I'll definately look into getting some of the .585 minies.
I tried PRB's, .570 Hornady balls, pillow tick patches and 50 grains of Pyrodex R-S and at 50 yards the group was about 2 feet in diameter.
Needless to say I was somewhat less than happy with the results.
It's also possible that the patches simply aren't thick enough to engage the rifling and make a good gas seal but the math says they should be.
I'm using a 20% bee's wax 80% tallow lube which may be too sticky, causing the patches to not seperate from the RB's clean enough or soon enough.
The rifling is visable all the way to the end of the bore so I don't think the barrel is shot out and I don't think the powder charge is big enough to cause it to jump the rifling.
I have the Lee 578-478M mold so I'm also going to try paper wrapping these to bring them up to about .585 and play with the powder charge.
I tried them once so far but they weren't wrapped and I think I screwed up anyway by filling the base with bee's wax.
The recoil was noticably less than the PRB's so I figure the bee's wax kept the skirts from expanding right and I wasn't getting a good gas seal.
Thanks again for your time and suggestions.

Jim