well bear grease doesn't work as well...

[Boerrancher]

Bear grease doesn't work as well as I once thought. I had been using it off and on for years for hunting, and nothing else. I had only ever fired three shots in a row with it and that was to check to see if it shot POA like my spit patches did. I was very conservative with my bear grease simply because it is hard to come by in these parts. I decided to play some to day and use bear grease as a patch lube. The first three rounds were ok, the forth was tight, and the fith was impossible. I ended up driving the fifth one the last couple inches with the rod. I mean driving it hard by bouncing the rod off of it. I can shoot spit patches all day long and not have fouling that tough. They say it is 50% bear grease and 50% bees wax, but I have never had any other animal fat and bees wax get that hard. Now I am going to have to find something else to use as a long term hunting lube. I am glad I decided to play with it I would hate to be out for a while and have trouble seating a ball. So any of you that thought about trying bear grease, Don't.

Best wishes,

Joe

[405]

Well, like a lot of things. When a story gets told and repeated enough to enough willing listeners with enough emphasis on details of history with enough embellishment and mixed with jargon like, "good nuff for greatgreatgreat granpappy", etc. it sometimes becomes gospel. I had a quart jar of nice clear rendered bear fat in my frig for at least 10 or 15 years. I'd use it once in a while for PRB purely for nostalgia and the anachronistic appeal. One day I said to myself, "self, what's the point, moose milk works better". Never did try it mixed with beeswax though. Maybe because I've never liked the thicker beeswax concoctions for PRB.

[KCSO]

I have never had that problem but in warm weather I use bear grease and when it gets cold I go to oil. I have used bees wax and bear oil for b/p lube and have gotten as many as 17 shots from 45-70 with no loss of accuracy. IMHO it works better than sperm oil.

[Boerrancher]

It worked great for the first three shots, then after that forget it. I am sure that It would make a decent boolit lube for a 45-70 cartridge gun, but it isn't worth a **** for extended shooting in a front stuffer. I didn't even like clean up. When I was swabbing the bore with hot water I was getting chunks of hard fouling in the water. As I said I had never used it for more than 3 shots. Maybe I should have run a wet patch down the bore after 3 but I doubt as hard as that fouling was it would have made a difference. I am going to stick with spit patches. I don't buy the cold weather thing and them freezing. Yes they may get frozen, but once that powder is touched off there is enough heat and pressure there to melt a frozen patch before it moves 1/4 inch up the bore.

Best wishes,

Joe

[JeffinNZ]

You are faced with a fairly major dilemma here Joe. I have done quite a bit of experimenting with patch lubes and the major thing I found was that too much lube will not produce premium accuracy. The bore is just too slick for things to bed down. Now here's the problem. To use the right amount will not allow for successive loading without wiping, as you discovered. What to do I here you ask.

One particular day I was shooting patches soaked in 'moose milk'. In order to be sure of consistency in the amount of lube on the patch I emersed them all in the fluid so each patch was soaked. Once loaded the bore was visibly wet and groups pretty average. For a test I loaded a wringing wet patch and seated the ball. Then I ran a snug fitting dry patch do the barrel until it stopped on the loaded ball then withdrew it. The bore was now quite dry. The result? Near cloverleaf group at 50m.

These days I am just as happy to run a clean patch down the bore between shots and then seat with the ball with another dry patch on the jag so the bore is cleared of excess lube AFTER loading. It's worth a try.

[Boerrancher]

Jeff

Accuracy never has been an issue with this gun be it bear grease or a spit patch. I don't use much lube and my spit or grease patches are just damp. With this particular 50 cal, a flinter, I have been able to consistently take off a squirrels head at 35 steps with a spit patch, as long as it continues to do that regularly I don't see a need for improvement on the accuracy part. The only time I miss is if I don't do my part by holding steady. Over the years I have only used the bear grease for deer hunting. Maybe now I know why I have only used it for 1 or 2 shots from a clean gun.

Best wishes,

Joe

[Alan]

Generally have to up the powder charge when switching to a "slicker" lube to compensate - it seems that slicker means lower resistance, so you have to up the powder charge to get the pressure back where it was for even combustion. In 50+, 5-10 grains should do it.

Alan

[Fly]

I can't say about bear grease, for I never used it.But I just started using mink oil
I got from Track of the wolf & so far I really like it on my patches.

Fly

[gnoahhh]

I have been using bear grease for years with no ill effects. Mine is straight rendered bear grease with nothing added. I found that accuracy and point of impact matches that which I get with spit patches (which I use exclusively when target/match shooting). With that in mind, I use pre-lubed bear grease patches exclusively for hunting, when the ball might stay down the pipe for an extended period of time. Cleanup is with hot soapy water, and I've never experienced issues in that regard after firing a bunch of bear grease-ed rounds. Probably another instance of each gun barrel is a law unto itself.

[Boerrancher]

I don't ever remember having an issue before with it in my cap locks, but this flinter does not like it. It shoots at the same point of impact as my spit patches, which is why I liked it, and I still may continue to use it for deer hunting where I only need one or two shots, but I am going back to my spit patches with my light loads for squirrel hunting. If I have to pull a ball on occasion to unload the gun then so be it. I had always heard that ML's were as different as people in their likes and dislikes. I guess this one does not like bear grease and Bees wax for a lube.

Best wishes,

Joe

[jeepman133]

I always used olive oil..

[Boerrancher]

I went back to spit patches in everything including my Crockett. They just plain work for most shooting applications and when deer season rolls around again I will use the bear grease patches or try something else when I get bored.

Best wishes,

Joe

[excess650]

I've been experimenting with different patch lubes. Wonder Lube, Bore Butter, Lehigh Valley( now Shennandoah Valley), moose milk, spit patches, and mink oil. I liked mink oil well enough (TOW), but thought my groups should be tighter. I remembered that when I was a teenager I used Crisco and it worked OK. My wife won't keep any "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil" for shortening, so I had my choice of olive oil or a an old tub of some sort of natural shortening. it looked like Crisco, so I thought I would give it a try. It shot as well or better than TOW Mink Oil, and fouling never built up in the bore even at the bottom. Too, I could feel that loading was easier, smoother, and my recovered patches looked like they could be shot again. Its "mechanically pressed palm oil". I like it but it gets pretty stiff below 40* F, but should be fine on prelubed patches.

[DIRT Farmer]

Joe I have had good results with several lubes but I keep going back to deer or mutton tallow. Hog lard works well in cold weather. I have put bacon drippings in a pan of water and simmered it to get the salt out and it worked well.
This past weekend I was using wads that I had treated with cooking oil last spring before the matches and they were gumming up the tubes on my 10 ga after just a few shots. I will be going to bees wax and olive oil in the shotgun boxes from now on for wad lube. I have went over 100 shots with no crud build up.