Lube sizing musket balls and the United States of America

[quail4jake]

Fellow AMERICANS, Although I'm sure the NSSAers have already invented this wheel....
I am a Civil War reenactor so my comrades and I fire a lot of "powder only" blanks in an effort to save the Union or revive the Confederacy but I really admire the ability of the NSSA folks to make expanding ball and smoothbore muskets shoot well. I have been trying to live fire muskets as authentically as possible for some time now (39 years) and I have it down to the point that I make paper cartridges to ordinance manual specs and can fire a full cartridge box (40 rounds) continuously with no misfires, without wiping the bore, striking the 10in. steel target reliably at 100 yds. My accuracy is not up to NSSA standards but I can do it in uniform with authentic battle accoutrements firing exactly as the Infantry Soldier did in the ranks during the "War of 1861".
One of the challenges in making cartridges is lubing expanding balls (I use the term "expanding ball" instead of Minie (said "men-yay") ball because it is the name that the Ordinance Dep't. used in the 1855 and 1861 manuals). The Ordinance manual calls for lube made of 7 parts beeswax and 1 part tallow pressed into the grooves of the ball. I tried Alox, Carnuba, bore butter mixes, bear grease and any number of assorted lubes filling the cavity, using a felt wad, wiping every few shots and nothing would allow me to fire one after the other without having to wipe the bore. In addition, I couldn't find the lube that would stay in the grooves but not soak through the paper cartridge and cause the powder to stick and the paper to fall apart. Then I read the manual. Real simple... the boys that wrote the book really knew what they were doing! Or at least they were able to make it look good just long enough to pull the wool over everyone's eyes for about 10 years and many million rounds; then by 1868 none of it mattered because all of their technology was obsolete so they could admit that they were only guessing! I would suggest the former to be true.
Take home points from the 1855/61 manual: pure lead. lube as described above."Musket powder" (FFFg) cal..58 60gr., cal..69 exp. ball 70 gr., cal..69 ball and buck & ball 110 gr. (4 dr.). Specific sizes of trapezoids, mandrel and block specs, folding instructions and how to form an arsenal pack of 10 rounds and 13 caps. Following this was like an epiphany; all the problems went away. The lube sticks but doesn't weep into the paper, I can unfold, tear and load with no problem, fouling is minimal and repeat loading is easy especially once the barrel is hot! P.S...use Swiss FFFg.
Getting that precious ordinance lube into the grooves is easy and fun, right? This was truly a testicular torsion bar...I dipped them ...I rolled them...I made a little bloody tube to push them through....very labor intensive and I soiled my pretty fingertips on that waxy old stuff. ARRRGH! Then after hours of this tedium I expended them at the rate of three every 90 seconds. BTW... the old "three shots a minute dogma"...OK for the smoothbore but you would have to drill 12 hours a day (which they did) to get anything less than 90 seconds with the rifle-musket. Try it.
So one night I was drowning my sorrows in charred oak stained two carbon fragments when through my bloodstreaked eyes I saw the carnal vision of an outfit that makes machines to do this sort of thing, right on my telescreen! My bony, wax sodden fingertips scratched at the mouse and brought up the name....MAGMA ENGINEERING. Yes, our astute friends who have nursed us in times of anguish and guided our heathen hands to size, lube and in times of great need seat gas checks have appeared on the mount before me.
Right... so I called and asked if they could make a .576 die and the apostle on the other end of the line said "uh huh". Just that easy, no negotiation, just send a couple balls and we'll drill the holes in the right spots. This is the ultimate solution to the lube challenge, the ordinance lube flows perfectly through the Star sizer (treat yourself to a heated base) and the balls come out as professional appearing as I've ever seen. The rate of production is as fast as you can pull the handle. I ordered a .579 die for the .580 bore muskets I have also.
Then the ultimate challenge... the cal..69 "conversion musket" expanding ball. These weigh in at 710 gr. and were originally designed in the late 1850s for the M1842 US musket converted from smoothbore to rifled with lonnnngggg---- range sights added. The challenge here is that the 1842 bore is .690, the balls drop from the mould at .688 - .689 so a .688 die is in order, AND the Star sizer die diameter is .750...do the math! I called and again spoke to the deadpan disciple of plumbum at Magma and he said "OK, send some balls and we'll see". Ttthhannx, I said. Well, they gave it a college try but in the end the cost would be really high since they couldn't make the die from standard stock, so I thanked our metallurgically gifted friend and we parted in good spirits. I requested, then, that he let go of my balls and mail them home.
Long, chilling northern Pennsylvania nights can afflict a man's intellect. Soon, his mind ain't right, and he gets to thinkin 'bout musket balls...and Star sizer dies. One night I arose in a sweat and grasping my nightcap I flung from the clutch of my loving wife (who said..."again?") and out into the frost of the nocturne I sped, quickly to the shop, crying in the moonglow "I have a lathe, am I not a man?!"
OK, let's focus here, people. I turned 7/8 CRS to the outward dimension of a Star die on my 9" South Bend (born Sept. 28, 1958) and bored to .688 and polished to 1500 grit. I drilled the holes to the groove width and...voila! Don't pee your pants in joy yet, I havn't tried it...stay tuned. See the images below and note the wall thickness of .030". It is soft steel, Star dies are hardened to 65 Rockwell, one drop on the floor and...well we won't think about that.
I would venture to say that this may be the largest diameter die ever made for a Star, I would like to send images to the good folks at Magma but I don't think they do email. Why would they? They live in ARIZONA, where all the people from California with any sense go (except Ronald Reagan, who I know is reading this), god bless you, Dutch. If I lived in a place where there are no liberals and daylight saving time can be disregarded I may have the option of no email, but I'm here in the northeast where common sense evades many and The Cast Boolits forum is our only vent from oppression.
Well, (as I regain my composure) thank you all for your kind indulgence and please chime in if you have fooled around with this stuff. To the folks at Magma Engineering...HUZZAH!
Stay tough, home brewers of projectiles!, our trade is the lifeblood of free men. It always has been. From Bradford County, PA., where nonsense cannot survive the winter, and liberals flee.
P.S. You tube, American harpsichord music of the 18th century, 22'26". The battle of Trenton, a sonata for Gen'l. Washington. I think you'll like it.
Kindest regards, RB, East Smithfield, PA, UNITED STATES of AMERICA, due to our Military Veterans!

[quail4jake]

You've got some balls!

[dondiego]

You have a gift for words!

[carbine]

As one of those N-SSAers for 35 years, I applaud your efforts. Your accuracy is on a par with most skirmishers. I don't make paper cartridges, but we have members who do. We also have a Traditional match for unaltered muskets. Check out the N-SSA.org Bulletin Board. I myself have been using Lens Lube for my Minie's. We have ranges in Springtown PA, and Lancaster PA, come out and you can shoot on Saturday during Individual competition. I am in gun-friendly New York. Feel free to contact me. Tammany42@aol.com

Lou

[Omnivore]

Nice write-up!

A good old lathe is a treasure, but one who can hone a tool properly, to the proper angles, set it to the work properly, and operate one to good effect is rare indeed.

Here’s the secret, People; It’s all in the calculation, preparation and setup, and the most expensive, high tech machine tools can’t do any of that for you. Once you’ve started cutting metal, your job is already largely done.

And yep; lubes with oil in them (such as Bore butter) shall weep, whereas wax and tallow generally will not. It's a secret, so don't tell anyone! They knew it well in the middle 1800s, but in this enlightened age no one pays any attention. Track of the Wolf (among others) sells mutton tallow, which is far less prone to go rancid, but again; that’s a secret no one wants to know. All the sporting goods stores sell Bore Butter or Wonderlube instead. Never mind what the War Department spent years of careful experimentation uncovering.

[quail4jake]

Thank you, I graduated magna cum laude in B.S.!

[quail4jake]

Thanks so much for your advice about mutton tallow, I will get some and try it. Going rancid is a problem and I actually used bore butter instead of tallow in the ordinance lube but would rather stick to more authentic standards, I think it pays dividends. BTW one of the chief engineers behind the ordinance manual was Ambrose Burnside, who had a reputation as an astute scholar of ballistics. It was Lincoln, the lawyer, who cajoled him to take the position of General of the Army of the Potomac which Burnside asserted was beyond his competence. So he was in charge of the Fredricksburg disaster and the crater fiasco, really against his own judgement. If only he'd stuck to firearms development...we may now have the Burnside Automatic Rifle or the Ambrose '73! Yes, well, anyway mutton tallow it is and I agree with you about tool grinding, it is the essential skill. Thanks again.

[fouronesix]

That lube formula was pretty common for arsenal packs of Miniés in cartridges. It may very well be somewhat resistant to going rancid and for sure it is tenacious. However it may run over time but that surely depends on storage temperature and the time may be very long. I have cleaned the tin liners of cartridge boxes, the use of which dates back 150 years. Some have noticeable build-up of arsenal Minié lube- presumably from the leakage of lube through the paper cartridges and paper packs. It doesn't have any rancid odor. It's not solid but is certainly sticky (tenacious). Overall, I'd judge it to have a pretty long useful shelf life

[Omnivore]

Some years ago now, a fellow going by the screen name, Gatofeo (ugly cat) did a bunch of research into period lube, focusing more on the percussion pistols, and came up with a mixture of bee's wax, mutton tallow and paraffin wax. It's about as close as he could get to a genuine, period lube, and he calls it "Gatofeo #1".

I call it GF1 for short. I've been using it exclusively for percussion pistol loads, either using it to fill the lube grooves or placing a lube cookie behind the bullet, or both, and it's been keeping my bore free of any fouling accumulation, i.e. the 100th shot leaves the bore no more fouled than the first shot. The trick is to use enough lube.

Also a single, tight-fitting dry patch, pushed through once, will leave the bore looking essentially clean-- That's the test, I think, for whether you have the right fouling mitigation practice, at least in a revolver. It also means you’re getting enough lube blown out through the cylinder gap to keep your cylinder turning without assistance.

Another fouling mitigation practice that one should use is blowing through the bore (and over the chambers of a revolver) after firing your shots. That’d be after six shots in a revolver, or one from a single shot. The moisture in your breath can make a very noticeable difference in softening the fouling.

So it’s a combination of using the blow method and using enough lube. You’ll see BPCR shooters often using a “blow tube” for that purpose. You see Quigley doing it in the movie. For a muzzleloader it would difficult to get enough air down the bore, so you’re pretty limited there.

[quail4jake]

Great advice! I think I'll make some Gatofeo #1, I've been fooling with revolver lube for years using beeswax and bore butter in various combos but it seems that mutton tallow is a key ingredient. You're right on it with the humid breath advice, and that's for anything that uses black powder. I have a piece of 1/4" copper tubing in my revolver box to get the moisture to where it counts, do it right and you don't need oil on the arbor between loadings. I like this mutton tallow thing...I raise sheep. I'm quite sure that when this catches on I'll be filthy rich from the sale of tallow! I think I'll quit my day job, that's good advice, right?

[Rifle 57]

Man what a great post!!

[quail4jake]

Thank you, Boolit master. It's all fun but we truly stand only due to the sacrifice of our Veterans!

[SSGOldfart]

Try 85% Crisco and 15% beeswax I can get over a 100 rounds without wipe then clean up is quick and easy,no smelly mess or soap and water other than your hands,