2 cap and ball questions

[Thumbcocker]

Just got a good used ROA. Have done a lot of reading and have ordered lamb tallow to make lube and will get some felt for patches. Two questions:

1.) What ratio of tallow and bees wax for the lube?

2.) What do I lube the innards of the pistol with? It seems to be dry and an unlubed cylinder pin really bugs me. I also want to lube the action parts.

thanks

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

I don't use lamb but with venison tallow I found 3 parts tallow 1 part bees wax , it will depend if your trying to shoot on the hottest day of the year or not but you can always remelt and change up the ratio to make it what you need for you

for the internals I use eds red oil 50/50 dextron ATF and K1

I tried Wonder lube but didn't think it gave good corrosion protection there are a lot of little nooks and crannies to get in , and the wonder lube doesn't get in them as well as the Ed's red If I was shooting and cleaning it every day the natural lube would probably work but , I am shooting cleaning and putting away for months

I just run a few patches with speed juice before I start shooting and haven't noticed any issue

[curator]

I make my lube from 50/50 Bee's wax & lard. It woks well as a base-pin lube too. Most good gun oils will work to lube the innards. I prefer Balistol if you can find it otherwise Dexron ATF. Both prevent corrosion and won't get gummy. I break my Ruger Old Army down completely once a year for a complete cleaning and re-lube. Lots of black slush comes out then but no rust whatever.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

notice how my vension tallow is 3 to 1 and curators pig lard is 1 to 1 , pig lard has a much lower melting point the melting point of your fat decided your fat to wax ratio, but you can always remelt and adjust as needed

[pietro]

.

IMO, patches are a non-starter in a C&B revolver - just use a ball large enough to shave off a thin ring of lead as it's seated in the chamber(s).

I use .457" balls in my ROA, w/o issue, and with good accuracy.

I recommend using some axle grease on the cylinder arbor/pin.

I use Crisco lard, spread into the front of the chambers, which thins & spreads everywhere when fired - keeping the powder fouling everywhere (including the bore) to a negligible level, and making the mechanical moving parts work as slick as a green snake.

Additionally, the Crisco makes cleanup a snap.


.

[rodwha]

I use the Gatofeo #1 lube recipe which was taken from a very old gun magazine that is an original recipe for outside lubricated bullets. The recipe is (by weight):
1 part mutton tallow
1 part paraffin wax
1/2 part beeswax

I use this for felt wads and bullet lube. It seems to work rather well, though I haven't tried anything else to compare it to.

I use Ballistol for gun oil. Love that stuff but it's not a very long lasting protectant. If I don't use it in a while I check it after maybe 3-4 months.

[shdwlkr]

I use crisco and .457 lead round balls I also use 3F powder and have tried 4F couple of times and see no real advantage to the 4F even thou Ruger made it strong enough to handle it.

[John Allen]

I also use the Gatofeo lube. I lube my felt wads with this. It has worked great.

[bob208]

I have all ways used Crisco before. but I have come into a large quantity of food grade grease that works real good and does not melt like some complain about Crisco.

[rodwha]

There is a fellow who researched Civil War paper cartridges and found Hazard's Pistol Powder used with conicals was 4F and was quite similar to Swiss.

[dikman]

Another +1 for Gatefeo's. I made up some that was equal parts (instead of 1/2 beeswax) and can't say that I noticed any difference. I also use it for soaking my muzzleloader patches in - dunk them in the melted mix then squeeze out the excess and let cool.

A bit of messing around, but it works for me.

[M-Tecs]

I make my lube from 50/50 Bee's wax & lard. It woks well as a base-pin lube too. Most good gun oils will work to lube the innards. I prefer Balistol if you can find it otherwise Dexron ATF. Both prevent corrosion and won't get gummy. I break my Ruger Old Army down completely once a year for a complete cleaning and re-lube. Lots of black slush comes out then but no rust whatever.

Same for me.

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

I use the Gatofeo #1 lube recipe which was taken from a very old gun magazine that is an original recipe for outside lubricated bullets. The recipe is (by weight):
1 part mutton tallow
1 part paraffin wax
1/2 part beeswax

This stuff is easy to make and inexpensive. I bought two pounds of tallow online and made up a pound. That was enough lube for a great long time. The second pound is sitting in storage until I need it, which looks to be a while.

[Avery Arms]

I use 50/50 beeswax and crisco works fine and the thickness of the wax helps reduce the "grease spray" during firing. For soaking patches and wads it helps to warm it up a bit.

[Tar Heel]

Watch Mike's video. I use his formula exactly and it works GREAT


https://youtu.be/YgNVPC2wmWI


134591

[Southron]

I carefully melt 60% Beeswax and 40% Thompson Center Bore Butter together.Then I dip my round, lead balls into the molten mixture and set them aside on a sheet of aluminum foil so the lube can harden up.

WARNING-WARNING-WARNING....Never, never leave the room while your lube is in a molten state, even with a double boiler. Keep in mind that if heated too hot, the lube can catch fire and burn violently.

Then I put the lubed balls in a box. When at the range, loading is very simple: (1) Dump a charge of FFFg Black Powder in a chamber followed by seating one of the lubed balls. (2) Then repeat the procedure 5 more times, cap the nipples and you are ready to shoot.

To avoid "Chain Fires": (A) Make sure your lead balls are big enough so a thin lead ring is shaved off of every lead ball when it is seated in the chamber on top of the powder. (B) Make sure your percussion caps properly fit the nipple and are pushed down all the way. It is estimated that 65% of all Chain Fires are caused by loose fitting caps that allow the fire from the cylinder being fired to "jump" into the other chambers.

[kens]

Back in the days of such a gun, tallow was the only grease they had. Animal fat, be it beef tallow, lamb fat, or raccoon tallow, it was all they had.
Today, we have silicone axle grease that is dandy. Modern motor oils too.
Plain crisco is a better lube than tallow, plus you can make biscuits with it as well.
Motor oil and axle grease will serve your pistol well.
Those black powder guns just aren't that complicated to need any special kind of lube, don't forget about vaseline either.