would pine tar work?

[luna butte]

as you can tell from the number posts i have made, i am completely new to cast bullets and the thought of bullet lube. though i have been reading quite a bit and looking around the house at what i have available right now.

i came across a can of "Hubbards boot grease" which is a mix of beeswax and pine tar and it got me to thinking if i could use it in a lube recipe. i use pine tar quite a bit at work and i have a bunch of it.

has anyone ever tried it as a lube? if not why not

am i a dork for even considering it.

[old turtle]

I think pine tar has rosen in it. This could be hard on the barrel. But then again I am not an expert. Most lubes are not that expensive

[geargnasher]

just use a proven formula, either commercial or from any of the good recipes listed here in the sticky thread.

Beeswax and pine pitch are excellent fluxes for lead alloys, I would use it there, not in the barrel.

Gear

[luna butte]

i am sure you guys are correct,

but there is a big differance between Pine Tar and Pine Pitch. Pine tar is sold at farm stores, and has several medicinal qualities useful to vets and farriers, it has been a common ingrediant in homemade soaps. it is a liquid at warmer temps and a bit stiffer in the winter. i've used it occasionally instead of "bullgear grease" when out baleing hay without ill effect that i am aware of. course there is a differrance between a 63' freeman baler and a gun barrel.

pitch/rosin seeps from trees and is what bullriders put on their rope to make it sticky and can be hard almost like glass.

[fryboy]

ummm ...
" Pitch, gum, rosin, amber, pine tar, oleoresin... different names for the same thing. The various forms are all derived from the sticky sap of pines and other trees. Pine tar production is known as colophony."
http://www.worldwideflood.com/ark/pitch/pine_pitch_tests.htm

rosin is the tar with the turpentine umm distilled out of it

IMHO it is one of the very best fluxes as for boolit lube ..never tried it , but i'd love to hear about it if you do ...all that being said i have to agree with gear ... there are so many proven lubes and inventing a new one is a daunting task ( at best ) even straight beeswax or straight grease has been known to suffice for some loads but do much better for even more loads mixed

[smokemjoe]

Rosin when compressed makes a lubing compound, I mix it in my bullet lub.

[wiljen]

If you use pine tar in lube, remember that it has a pH of about 3.5 and should be cleaned immediately after use and it probably wouldn't be a bad plan to rinse everything with a mix of bicarb and water afterward to neutralize the acid. I don't think there is anything hard enough in Pine rosin/Tar to hurt a barrel, but acid has ruined many a piece of steel which is after all all a gun really is.

[buck1]

If it were me, I would be thinking flux more than lube?

[montana_charlie]

The boys in the Smokeless Paper Patching forum like to discuss various substances for making their patch paper stick to itself. Maybe you should toss your pine tar suggestion into that ring...

CM

[luna butte]

thanks for the info, though i'll prolly stick to a more conventional lube at this time. though the thought of using it sure sounds cowboy to me.

[btroj]

Give it a shot and let us know how it works.

Brad

[smokemjoe]

I use rosin in my lub.Have over 9,000 in my 35 rem. bench rifle, 1,000 in my 06s, 41 swiss, 100 rds. of rounds, Never had any trouble with rosin and no throat wear.
I melt it at 300 deg. with beeswax, ivory soap and tran. fuild.