Froze while shooting today!!!!!

[oldracer]

Yeah, okay I know 45 degrees is NOT freezing but we had about a 30 knot wind blowing straight at the firing line and in San Diego that is cold! So anyways I wanted to try several more things with my Pedersoli Gibbs so I went into the wilderness, to try some things. Here is the list of what I tried and what happened.

- Tried 80 gr of powder (no compression as per Lee Shaver) instead of my normal 70 for 100 yard targets and there was no real difference.

- Tried compressing like I do with the round balls and the charge did not want to ignite. I tried twice and it took a couple of caps each time so I think a patent breech really does not like that. Won't try it again.

- Tried store bought 540 gr pointed 3 groove bullets and as before that shoot great. Tried 3 and they nearly touched at 100 yards.

- Tried the 520 gr Pedersoli 4 groove bullets sized down to 0.448 and they shot very low, real low with Bore Butter lube and also Doug Knoell's lube. I'll try them in my Tryon later on or recast them.

- Tried a home cast 540 gr pointed bullet with Bore Butter and it shot very low also. Shot a bit better with Doug's lube.

I finally quit when my finger had trouble feeling the trigger, even with gloves on! Yeah I know, I have turned into a wimp....

So I need a soft COLD weather lube as Bore Butter was great in September when the temps were 95 degrees just before I had my mini stroke but it is terrible now so if any one has a good idea what to use, please let me know as I like the idea of a soft lube in Pedersoli's handy range lube tool and lubing just before the shot.

[PTS]

Track of the Wolf has a Mink Oil for cold weather shooting. They say it won’t freeze. Haven’t tried it yet. Don’t know how similar it is to mink oil for leather shoes and such.

[fouronesix]

45 degrees cold? hmmm

The Mink Oil from Track won't freeze necessarily but it is most assuredly much stiffer than bore butter. It looks like an emulsified cream. Not as tacky as some of the other leather treatments called mink oil or shoe grease, etc. It seems to work ok as a patch lube but never tried it as a Minié or conical lube as it's much stiffer than what I prefer.

The bore butter I have and tried and don't use anymore is pretty soft and tends to separate out in weather a lot cooler than 95 degrees! For cool weather conical/Minié lube I use Crisco. For hot weather I use Crisco stiffened a little with beeswax.

[webfoot10]

Were you using real blackpowder or that phony junk. I tried all the Pryodex and other make believe blackpowder subitutes
and went back to GOX Blackpowder, No more FTF if I kept the gun clean. As for lube, mix beeswax and pure lard together
to a Vaseline consistency and lube with it. And use the German #11 caps as they are much hotter than the USA made caps.
webfoot10

[oldracer]

Yes I only use Goex FFG so no weird stuff. I will try the lube recomendations to see how it works.

[johnson1942]

their are some case lubes used in reloading that handle cold weather real well. i was swageing the other day useing some light oil to help the swaged bullet come out of the die and it was so cold that the bullet froze in the die. i had to take it in the house and warm it in the oven to get it out. i then remembered a lanolin based case lube and when i used that it worked fine in lubeing the lead core through the swageing process. their is no heat in my gun shack. was minus 26 below zero the other day. too cold to shoot or do any thing. wish the cold front would move north. if you can find lanolin you might want to add it to your lube also.