Black Powder Boolits

[BobInAus]

Good afternoon Gents,

I have a P-H Whitworth and have been using a homemade lube consisting of bees wax and tallow. A mate told me to try bees wax and lard as the lard will assist better in keeping the powder residue moist between shots.

Does anyone out there have an opinion re this little problem?

Regards

Bob

[jdfoxinc]

The formula I use is bees wax, olive oil and peanut oil. A friend uses sheep tallow and bees wax.

[fixit]

Be careful on the lard. I've heard that some lard has salt in it, even though it might not be listed. Pure heresay, but better safe than sorry.

[Outpost75]

Don't know how lard is processed down in Oz, but in the USA and Canada the great majority of ordinary grocery store lard does contain salt. When shooting black powder and promptly cleaning with water, the salt is not an issue. 50-50 hog lard and beeswax is referred to here as Confederate Army lube, because hogs were the primary source of common fat and lard oil used in steam driven machinery in our southern states.

The Union Army used beef tallow, the British Army mutton tallow, the Italian army olive oil. They all work.

[GregLaROCHE]

I normally use bee’s wax and rendered lamb fat with a small amount of lanolin. For my last batch I didn’t have any lambs fat, so used rendered pig fat and didn’t notice a difference. A lot of people use Crisco for the fat part. Some add vegetable oils or even ATF if they want it a bit softer.

[Hellgate]

Ever since my brother shot a big barren doe with about 2" of fat on her back I have been using 50/50 beeswax/deer tallow for both my black powder lube and my smokeless lube. We ate a lot of venison growing up in Montana and always had a smudge of "chapstick" on our dinner plates as a lip gloss to prevent chapped lips in the winter. Prior to that I used beeswax/olive oil (which was softer and seemed to "sweat" the oil upon standing) or 50/50 beeswax/lard (1 buck for a pound in the Mexican food section of the grocery store). I would recommend beeswax and either deer, lamb, or beef tallow as a bullet lube.
Crisco resembles lard until it is melted but never sets up like it comes out of the can. After melting it is a mushy oil I don't care for.