Greese Cookies

[GregLaROCHE]

As I have mentioned before I am just starting to load BP. I have paper patched for smokeless, so don’t have any hesitation doing it with BP. What I don’t know about are greese cookies. I’ve read up on the subject, but there seems to be a lot of different ways to do it. What I am wondering the most about is the disc between the powder and the lube. What’s the best way to do it paper patching?

[upnorthwis]

I know several shooters who no longer use grease cookies. Since they swab after every shot, it makes the "softer fouling" a moot point.

[.22-10-45]

I have all my ducks in a row for shooting PP black powder loads in a .40-63 everlasting Ballard...but haven't had time! What I have used cookies in is an original Ballard No.3 in .25-25 Stevens using Swiss 3FG. I am using GG bullets (original Ideal 98gr.) lubed with SPG. I have found best match accuracy by wiping 1 barely damp patch thru after each shot. However, on hot summer days, there was a patch of stubborn fouling right in front of throat. I eliminated this with grease cookies. After drop tubing powder 36" into case, a .010" beeswax wad is placed right on top of powder. Next a 1/8" SPG cookie is cut & gently pressed onto wax wad. (I have a lube extruder). Over the cookie....I am still experimenting on this one. I have used Veg. fiber wad, card stock paper wad, and lately, filling space with Puff-Lon ballistic filler. The reason for the thin wax wad on powder was I wanted the least amount of material between cookie & burning powder so as to mix with & moisten fouling. I have also tried a wax-paper wad on powder..they all seem to do the job. I have made up various cookie & lube mixes..the latest are with mutton tallow..but am sorry to say I haven't had time to try them out yet. Best of luck!

[GregLaROCHE]

I know several shooters who no longer use grease cookies. Since they swab after every shot, it makes the "softer fouling" a moot point.

I’ve been thinking about using a duplex load to keep fouling down. Do I still need a greese cookie if I don’t want to swab after each round.

[upnorthwis]

I have not shot duplex since Lodi, WI went to NRA matches that require straight black, and was shooting GG at the time. Yes swabbing after every shot is a PITA. The usual MO is two wet and one dry. It's a lot of work but the results show up on the target.

[country gent]

I shoot PP with grease cookies in 45-70 45-90 and 40-65. Depending on powder, powder charge and barrel length, which all factor in to How thick a cookie you need. I use a heavy wad .060 rubber fiber over powder the grease cookie then a playing card wad and tracing paper wad. Compress with just the rubber fiber wad. Insert the cookie and with a needle pin or paper clip push a small hole thru the cookie to release air. Add the other wads and hand seat the bullet. The playing card wad helps keep the lube from migrating to the paper patch.

There are several ways to make grease cookies. All work well,
1) ribbon press, this uses a reloading press to press a ribbon of lube out around 1" wide and of a given thickness. works well and is fast. Normally a fixed thickness of the ribbon

2) Rolling a lube Sheet, this uses 2 pieces of stock of the thickness desired to roll the lube to the desired thickness. A piece of waxed paper set 2 pieces of flat stock on each side and the lube in the center. Use a round bottle or rolling pin to roll lube down to thickness. Again works well and adjustable with different gage bars . Sometimes the lube sticks to the waxed paper pretty strong.

3) melting a sheet. Requires 2 pans. Melts lube into a uniform sheet to be used. One larger pan with a couple narrow rails set smaller pan inside and add water to halg way up inner pan. Add water to inside pan to make a level surface. Measure this and add thickness of sheet to it, melt lube on top of water to the combined thickness and let cool. remove with a spatula and dry on paper towels. I have used this method for making .060 sheets to experiment with different thicknesses of grease cookies by adding cookies to increase thickness.

Lay ribbon or sheets on wax paper and simply push case mouth thru the lube to cut the cookie and start into case. Push down in a wad seater by hand.

[rfd]

grease cookies are relatively easy to make, i created a flat 3/16" high wood frame "mould" for capturing the melted lube, and used the cartridge case mouth to "grab a cookie innards". cookies are quite viable for hunting PPB loads. cookies are not something to use for a target PPB cartridge where you want to fill the cartridge to the rim with black powder as more is better, then you want to wipe 'tween shots for fouling control.

[Lead pot]

If you use a blow tube use a lube wad. If your wiping between shots it serves no purposes, your wiping it out anyway.
A lube wad does help seal the gas if your using a poor wad stack so I guess it does some good :)

[georgerkahn]

My methodology is to use a nifty tool purveyed by Buffalo Arms which extrudes a uniform strip of grease which I apply to Cut-Rite wax paper. I then use the case mouth to make needed "cookies". The left-over is then put back into the tool, so there is no waste; using the wax paper, too, there's no (for me) mess. If you wish to read about the tool, the URL for it is: https://www.buffaloarms.com/lube-ribbon-extruder-luberibbon
BEST!
geo

[rfd]

i wonder just how great an added gas seal a grease cookie gives - on ignition, that wax cake is prolly liquified, which in turn prolly does what it's s'posed to do, keep the bp residue soft.

yeah, the lube ribbon extrusion nozzle ... i used a modelling ribbon extrusion pump once, worked reasonably well, but using a frame cookie mould was easier fer me.

[Lead pot]

Naw, it don't all turn to liquid :) I done a lot of wad stack tests when I got some unexplained dirt diggers at the Lodi long range matches and gas cuts were the gremlins with the loads I used.
Here are what different lube cookies and wad stacks look like shot with the .44-90 BN Sharps with the hardness consistency of SPG to almost soft butter hardness (the pink lube).
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7192/6886550185_9439977bd8_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/buxnrT)IMG_0238 (https://flic.kr/p/buxnrT) by Kurt (https://www.flickr.com/photos/leadpot/), on Flickr

[rfd]

really interesting!!!

[GregLaROCHE]

I have a hand crank spaghetti maker. The first step is to roll a flat piece of dough before putting it through the cutter to make strips. I wonder if I could use that to make something like a lube ribbon? I’ll have to check how thick it makes it. It’s been a long time since I used it.