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Thread: Simple/cheap patch lube?

  1. #1
    Boolit Master
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    Simple/cheap patch lube?

    What would be a good patch lube that would not cause any issues with being loaded in a gun for a full day of hunting? I've looked into it some, and I have seen just about everything you can imagine listed as being useful as a patch lube. Everything from spit, crisco, or olive oil, to bore butter or hoppes no. 9.
    ______________________________________________
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    You'll find everything listed here too. Everybody has their own favorite. I like a beeswax/olive oil blend.
    KE4GWE - - - - - - Colt 1860, it just feels right.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Beagle333 View Post
    You'll find everything listed here too. Everybody has their own favorite. I like a beeswax/olive oil blend.
    What's the ratio? I have a few chunks of beeswax lying around.
    ______________________________________________
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    Start out 60:40 oil to wax and blend for the season, so that might vary 20% either way. I like mine just a little bit softer than chapstick. Use a double boiler so you don't scorch the wax. Nothin fancy, I just use a 22oz bean can sitting in a boiler about 1/3 full of water, and melt the wax and mix the oil in the bean can. You can add a bit of crayon for color for each ratio if you make multiple batches, so you can keep them separate.
    KE4GWE - - - - - - Colt 1860, it just feels right.

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    any kind of oil or grease that won't leech into the powder, something that is not liquid at room temperature.

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    real mink oil used straight...and it won't migrate into the powder. I have left my flinter loaded over a year and I still was able to hit the 100yd target
    Domari Nolo

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    Be like the pioneers - use bear fat.................

    .
    Now I lay me down to sleep
    A gun beside me is what I keep
    If I awake, and you're inside
    The coroner's van is your next ride

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dryball View Post
    real mink oil used straight...and it won't migrate into the powder. I have left my flinter loaded over a year and I still was able to hit the 100yd target

    This right here is the answer. A large tub of mink oil tallow is cheap.

    https://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categ...210/3/MINK-OIL

    I am new to blackpowder so I have been testing things and deciding on what works for me. At the range I spit patch but I bought some mink oil tallow to try. So far it works great.

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    I see a guy on FB use small amounts of canola oil in rolled up pillow ticking. Looks like a awesome easy way to do it, but I worry the oil without BW will leach into the powder over a day or two. I am considering doing it the same way, but soaking my ticking strips in a lube like a soft pan lube with BW to stiffen it. I haven't tried it yet, but I think my Emmerts lube seems really stiff as a block, but once on ticking and thin will probably just perfect.

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    I use a dipper of grits over the powder charge to isolate it from the lube, drop of motor oil lube on the patch. I read somewhere on this forum that someone was using cornmeal but all I had was grits, it seems to work.

  11. #11
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    Gatofeo's #1 lube has been recommended as patch lube as well as bullets, conicals, wads, and as lube cookies which didn't effect the powder long term.

    An option other than food is to punch cardboard to use as over powder cards to separate them.

  12. #12
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    Although I am not too sure about some of the claims made by the people who make 1000 Lube or Bore Butter, I have found that after a year in a speed loader tube with a PRB, the loads shot just as well as a fresh load so migration doesn't seem to be a problems with them.

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    For forty responses you may very well get 40 different lubes as everyone has their favorite.

    Avoid spit patching and stick with a natural oil / grease based lube. I have always used a mixture of one real beeswax toilet ring mine with a pound of Crisco - melted together in in a tupperware bowl in the microwave and then poured in to something like a musket cap tin or similar - Altoid tin works well too. But that's me. Other's have equally as good lubes they use of their own concoction. If don't want to make your own, there are plenty of good commercial lubes made. Bore Butter, SPG, etc. The whole purpose of a BP lube is to keep fouling soft. If you make your own, pay attention to the temperature you are hunting in - as in the mix of olive oil and beeswax - the colder it is, the more olive oil - the hotter it is, the more beeswax. Some like bear grease, mink oil works well and mutton tallow has been a go to for many generations. Most will not migrate into the powder and for what you are using on a patch, it shouldn't be a problem.

    I have also used Dutch Shultz's method of using a water soluble oil - mix the solution together, soak your patching and let it dry in the sun so the water evaporates. That avoids having the "greasy feeling" of many of the natural lubes.

    Whatever you find works best for YOU and your particular gun, is the BEST lube. As a suggestion - if you are going to be out hunting and you feel the need to swab between shots, carry some alcohol swabs with you in the packet - the type you'd use to clean with before an injection. They are available at a fairly cheap price at the grocery store and in individual packets. You can use the alcohol swab with a cleaning jag, it will work to swab between shots and clean a lot of the fouling out and the alcohol will evaporate quickly. After running one down the bore and back with you at, you're ready to load again. A few of the alcohol swab packets are easy to carry in the pouch and easy to rip open and use if you need to swab the bore to clean it when out in the field. May not be "period correct" but it works and many use it.

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    Mink oil. You can buy a can at any Wal Greens.

    Fly

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    Quote Originally Posted by Fly View Post
    Mink oil. You can buy a can at any Wal Greens.

    Fly
    Do these "Mink oils" truly have any mink fat in them? Who renders mink?

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    Crisco, wax, bacon grease in equal parts.
    Je suis Charlie
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    Rednecks run the Brits out of this country years ago,
    I will defend this country from anyone or thing that tries to take it from me or mine
    I AM A REDNECK!!!
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  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by dondiego View Post
    Do these "Mink oils" truly have any mink fat in them? Who renders mink?
    Mink farms.
    The solid soft lead bullet is undoubtably the best and most satisfactory expanding bullet that has ever been designed. It invariably mushrooms perfectly, and never breaks up. With the metal base that is essential for velocities of 2000 f.s. and upwards to protect the naked base, these metal-based soft lead bullets are splendid.
    John Taylor - "African Rifles and Cartridges"

    Forget everything you know about loading jacketed bullets. This is a whole new ball game!


  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by waksupi View Post
    Mink farms.
    Does mink fat have properties that would enhance the performance, say, over crisco?

  19. #19
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    Mink oil provides the PETA enhancement...

  20. #20
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    Well Mink oil works as well as ANYTHING I have used & I have used so many different lubes over the last 40 years. I care not what any use
    here, I just said what works for me.

    Geezzzzz Fly

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check