? Source for Mutton Tallow - 5# Containers or Less

[John Boy]

Only retailer - Dixie is out of mutton tallow and no date identified to resupply
Know of any other source for mutton tallow?

[357maximum]

I have seen zero practical use difference betwen sheep tallow and properly rendered deer tallow. Seeing as how deer are always falling dead around me I use that instead. I have more deer tallow than I can use, if you would like some of it just let me know.

[cajun shooter]

The one big difference 357maximum is that mutton tallow will not go rancid as all the other game type will. Even beef which is very easy to buy will not stay good long. I have yet found a replacement for the mutton tallow that myself and John Boy and many others use in the making of a good BP lube. Dixie has been out for months and will not say what is going on. I'm begining to think that they have a problem with the source they have used for a very long time. The other answer is that they have decided not to carry it any more. The longer they stay without it the more I think it is #2. Later David

[semtav]

I looked for quite a while and found a couple real high price small volume sources.
finally got a good supply of sheep fat from the local slaughter house and made my own.

[Ohio Rusty]

True mutton tallow is different than regular rendered fat. The really good tallow comes from the fat globules around the kidneys. That tallow is different, more waxy feeling is a partial description. The fats that are rendered down that comes from under the skin are also tallow, but not the same consistency. It wiil all work the same though for lube work.
Ohio Rusty ><>

[357maximum]

I guess I am a lucky person as I have never seen my deer tallow go rancid. It just sits there on the shelf in airtight containers with no other special attention and it is still just fine. The stuff I rendered from around the kidneys is a bit harder/waxy but all of it has survived storage in a warm place just fine. YMMV obviously.

[Silent]

Aug 19, 2010

From Dixie Gun Works

We are sorry but we do not know when or if we will have mutton tallow. We do not have a supplier and at this time have found no other sources. Please check back with us in 3 to 4 months for an update.
Thank you,
Shirley

---

I've switched over to felt wads home lubed with Old Zip for my BP revolvers, and it keeps the buildup at bay rather nicely.

[cajun shooter]

Thanks Silent, That confirms my thoughts were dead on. You can find it on the wire but it is in 1000 lb and up containers. If I thought that I was going to live to the age of 300 I might try for a buy.

[alamogunr]

I tried Dixie also and got the same answer a few weeks ago. I found some on Amazon. Small one oz containers. I bought 5 for about $10 incl. shipping. This will last me a long time since I don't shoot muzzle loaders much. I assume you can buy direct also. The company name and address is on the container. If anyone is interested, PM me and I will go to the shop in the morning and get the address, etc.

[Old Goat Keeper]

If tallow goes rancid it was NOT rendered properly! After rendering you need to "wash" it atleast 2 times also. Tallow is what the Indians used to make pemican and they have found caches of that which are over 100 years old and still eddible!

Tom

[Rockydog]

OGK, I tend to agree with you on the rendering part. When I was a kid my mother rendered lard from the hog butchering. It sat unrefrigerated in a crock and never went rancid. We had a neighbor that made beef lard the same way and it never got rancid either. As to it's suitability for boolits I've not a clue.

[Changeling]

Only retailer - Dixie is out of mutton tallow and no date identified to resupply
Know of any other source for mutton tallow?

John Boy others have asked this same question, a search will help.


Also, there are local butchers almost where everyone lives and a heck of a lot of them butcher "Lamb". They have literally no use for the tallow and would probably give it to you are even for a small fee.

You could also buy a couple lambs at a local local livestock auction, 4HClub, Farmer and butcher them your self. They are easy to butcher and cut up, sort of like a very big rabbit. I would say off hand it will take you a couple hours to cut up and freezer wrap a lamb at the most. If you have a place set up for butchering, if not make one its not hard and if you hunt you will need one anyway!

Lamb is priced VERY high and if you like it, could put some TOP eating in your freezer very quick.

If you don't like it and put out the word you will be able to sell it fairly easy! You will find out what I mean if you go to a supermarket and price lamb chops/leg of lamb/whatever.

I do not know how to render the tallow but it must be fairly easy because a heck of a lot of people do it in home butchering. None of this is Rocket Science, so don't let it scare you in the least!;)

Just give it a little thought and I'm sure you will come up with more ideas.

This is basically how a lamb/deer/baby lamb/ Rabbit is cut up of course the cutting of the various pieces on a "Rabbit" wouldn't be done because of "size"!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekek1VIeo6Y&feature=related



Good Luck.

[randyrat]

You fellows using Tallow for Black Powder lube? Or is it in the mix of your BP lube?

[alamogunr]

I got a recipe on Handloads.com for a BP wad lube. Consists of 2 parts mutton tallow, 2 parts paraffin and 1 part beeswax. Haven't tried it yet.

John
W.TN

[cajun shooter]

I mix it with your beeswax Randy. Mutton tallow is a very good BP lube for MZ loading . When you add some other things it becomes one of the best BP lubes I use. I have used it in my 34inch barrel 1874 Sharps and have that lube Star at the end of the barrel, the same as using SPG which is much more expensive.

[Silent]

You fellows using Tallow for Black Powder lube? Or is it in the mix of your BP lube?

I've been looking for the mutton tallow to make wad lube for my cap and ball revolvers. I could see the same lube being beneficial to cast rounds as well. Basically it's beeswax, mutton tallow and paraffin mix.

[randyrat]

What is the consistency of it? Is it soft enough to spread on your lead by hand?

[cajun shooter]

Straight mutton tallow is about like solid lard. After I mix it with Beeswax and others it is about like Lars's BAC. I have put it on my 45-70's by hand, but my Star or pan lubing is better. For large bullets like the 535 gr Postell I prefer pan lubing over the Star.

[randyrat]

OK now that i hijacked johnboy's thread, lets see if we can find him some mutton tallow.

[Old Goat Keeper]

IF you can't get mutton/lamb tallow pure hog lard (watch the stuff in the stores for citric acid and salt addidtions) will make a good BP lube mixed with bees wax. Now mixed at the same ratio as mutton tallow the lube will be softer. You just adjust the amount of bees wax until the lube meets your needs....softer for cold weather and harder for warmer weather.

Beef tallow is NOT as "slick" as mutton tallow or hog lard. Use the hog lard that is in the cooler section of the store and not what is on the shelves. And no matter what critter the "tallow" comes from the best slickest stuff is made from the "leaf fat" which is next to the kidneys as someone else pointed out.

Tom

[357maximum]

You could just raise a couple of sheep in your back yard. I am sure your buddies would not rib you too hard about it. :p

Personally I find it alot easier just to kill a deer and use it's tallow myself, but my buddies are know to be cruel.

[semtav]

If tallow goes rancid it was NOT rendered properly! After rendering you need to "wash" it atleast 2 times also. Tallow is what the Indians used to make pemican and they have found caches of that which are over 100 years old and still eddible!

Tom



OGK

Clue us in on what you mean by washing it at least 2 times.

I was going along fat dumb and happy rendering my mutton tallow in the crock pot and suddenly nothing was working right. came up with a batch that had dark swirls in it, and some was yellower that the rest.
I still get a lot that is good hard and white when done, but what am I doing wrong with the other?

One batch wouldn't even harden. felt like hog lard.

Do you suppose they slipped some hog fat in on me?

Thanks
Brian

[John Boy]

How to Mke Tallow Wax (http://www.ehow.com/how_2311979_make-tallow-wax.html)

[DIRT Farmer]

To render clean tallow, it needs to be rendered on water. cut up the tallow in small chunks and simmer out the fat. The quanities needed for a pot of lube proably there is no need to press it. After rendering it and it is cooled, simmer it in a pot half full of water which will leach out some of the natural salt and other impurities. After cooling cut the tallow from the top, in a fresh pot bring it to a simmer, just enough to remove the water. While hot pour in jars and seal with a lid.
The last time I did this was about 15 years ago and I am on my last pint, it is not rancid. I get my mutton tallow from the local B'cue joints.

[semtav]

OK

Just trying to analyse why some of mine turned bad.
I did have a litttle meat on some of the scraps, and taking some of the liquid out early may have let the meat burn and spoil the rest.

[357maximum]

A little meat on the scraps will NOT hurt anything in the rendering process. Not getting all the water out of the finished tallow will kill it for long term storage however. Water is what allows the bacteria and such to keep working on your tallow and make a stink sooner than later.

This is how I do it with whitetail tallow, right wrong or otherwise......it works for me.


1. Place all hard fat and scraps in the appropriate sized pan/pot. Add about 1/2 inch of water to keep the chance of scorching down on the initial heating. Cook at high until all the oil is leached out of the cracklins. You should end up with a pot full of hot oil with cracklins floating on top. IT WILL LOOK LIKE YOU ARE DEEP FRYING fish/fries WHEN DONE.

2. Remove the now depleted large chunks/cracklins(these may look like porkrinds but I do not like the taste) :lol: with a slotted spoon and mix this in with the dog's food. I feed this mix to the hounds and they love it BTW.:bigsmyl2:

3. Strain the still hot liquid through an old bedsheet or other tightly woven cotton scrap as a filter into another clean pot.

4. Add an equal amount of water to the liquid and boil it for an hour or so. Stir occassionally. This removes any salts and foreign matter (blood, etc) from your prize.

5. Let this cool completely and then remove the now solid tallow cake off the liquid mess below. Scape the "squishy" stuff off the bottom of the cake (the dogs like this too).

6. Now you have a nice white solid mass of tallow with no impurities other than a bit of potential trapped water. Take the white mass and re-melt it in a clean container and simmer it until all signs of water are 100% gone....(NO popping sounds or bubbling)

7. Pour HOT LIQUID into jars and seal or make "ingots" in a miniloaf pan. I vaccum seal the miniloafs when cold to keep any future contaminitaion issues away.

8. PICK A RECIPE and make lube.:bigsmyl2: Or use it as is for patch lube on your frontstuffer as is.

9. Enjoy using something that most people waste.[smilie=p:

[semtav]

Thanks
DF and 357.

Starting to make sense why some of mine turned out great and some was a little off.
I'll redo the batches that aren't hard and white.

Brian

[cajun shooter]

The mutton tallow that John Boy and I both used from Dixie was a large important part of the lube recipe. It was very slick and would take quite a lot of mixing to come up with a replacement. I used 12 to 16 oz with each batch not a tablespoon full or rubbed on a patch. I thank you for your post and suggestions as I know John Boy does. Right now I will have to say that lube will not be made anymore.

[John Boy]

Right now I will have to say that lube will not be made anymore.
David, we would be back in business if a willing soul was to be the Honcho for a 1000 POUND order from Uruguay - Australia or India!:bigsmyl2: [smilie=1::Fire:

[zxcvbob]

Would grocery store lard (Armour or Hormel) work if you boiled it with water to extract the citric acid, etc, separated it, and then cooked the residual water back out?

(I've always just used the cheap shortening that's a mixture of beef fat and hydrogenated vegetable oil, but I wasn't mixing it with wax to make lube)

[Old Goat Keeper]

Sorry for it takignme so long to reply guys. My puter went down. Anyway How 357Max said is how I render my tallow. And I do the reheat the cooled rendered tallow with water thing. But I do it several times. When it is rendered and washes several times it will have very little if any smell. Other options other than lamb/mutton tallow includ any of the venison family (deer, elk, moose), buffalo/bison and good ol plentifull cow tallow. I only use the kidney or "leaf" tallow from inside the body cavity. IF you want to use lard/pig fat get the kind in the cold case. The kind that is on the shelves and don't need refrigeration has additives that you DON'T want inside of your barrel.

Tom

[alamogunr]

David, we would be back in business if a willing soul was to be the Honcho for a 1000 POUND order from Uruguay - Australia or India!:bigsmyl2: [smilie=1::Fire:

Something like this is probably the only solution for most of us. I'm not in a situation where I can obtain the fat from the kidneys of any animal, and even if I could, I'm not going to cook it down for tallow.

I would buy 5 lbs if someone had it for sale. Could tallow from Uruguay, Australia or India be trusted to be what we need?

John
W.TN

[cajun shooter]

I was thinking that a container from New Zealand would be of a fine quality. It would take some research to make a final decision. A call to Dixie management would probably be a better start as they have been importing it for years. I would think that the reason for the dry up was a money thing as I have never been there but know for a fact they did not run out of sheep.

[Shiloh]

Didn't know you could buy this. I thought this was something that had to be rendered at home.
But in reading that it was available in 1000 lb. barrels, one would think that there is not a big demand for small quantities. 1000 lb. of mutton tallow would make enough lube for all on the Cast Boolit forum.

[semtav]

I rendered up about 25 lbs this summer. Even if I sold it for $10 a lb, it wouldn't have been worth the trouble. So I gotta believe it is a monetary issue.
At least I have enough to last me a couple years.

[hangn7]

I am new here but I did find a local butcher that is saving me about 10 to 15 pounds of kidney fat from lamb. Cost at 1.00 a pound. Bear Paw Meats Chinook Montana. 406-357-3119 if anyone is interested. I believe they butcher weekly. Thank you to all for your postings. Mark

[alamogunr]

Should be some mutton tallow available somewhere in the near future.

http://tinyurl.com/3bdmrak

John
W.TN

[TCLouis]

Stole a recipe from Larry Gibson (I think that is where it came from)

5:4 beeswax to olive oil

I use this on conicals, will try it melted into patches this spring.

Another I found that I have ritten down, but not used
4 Beeswax
3 coconut oil
1 olive oil

[stubshaft]

FWIW - Dixie has been out of Mutton Tallow for at least a year and a half. I called them and spoke to a woman in their CS office that politely told me they "did not know when they would be getting anymore". There are a multitude of recipes that do not use MT but for me it is just one of the things that I had come to rely on.

[waksupi]

How about Bag Balm?

[stubshaft]

IIRC - Bag balm is a lanolin base.

[nanuk]

Mutton Tallow:

are you talking about the lard that is rendered out of the fat?

and yes the fat inside the carcass has always felt different to me. and in Beef it is sold as Suet. if you get fat from under the hide, it is not suet.

also, does it separate out like the bear oil that was mentioned in another thread?

[freedom475]

Hi I brought up this old thread because I finally found a good source for Mutton Tallow. I was going to buy from Dixie Gun Works, but from the new reviews on there product it doesn't sound too good.....and they are selling 10/12oz. jars as 1lb.

The lady is Real nice and her procuct comes out of Australia. It is 100% pure Mutton Tallow. Company has been around since 1895 and has been in her family since the 50's.

Her price is $10/lb but it is an honost lb and I think it is cosmetic grade.
Here is contact info....(no web sight yet and that is why she was so had to find).

Anita Baker
abaker@hughes.net
931-729-2697

...just wanted to share this info with you guys so now we all have a good source for our tallow. She may even get herself set up as a VS here on the sight....She's even cast a few boolits!

[dbosman]

Bird feeding suet cakes are made of rendered heart and kidney fat. Very shelf stable.

[John Allen]

I mix my mutton tallow I am glad I got a couple of pounds the last time dixie had it.

[cajun shooter]

After this posting I found a great source for the mutton tallow. The pure kidney fat and not the meat fat that so many pass off as the true tallow. The containers are about two pounds each and very cheap for what you receive. I purchased about 50 pounds and told John Boy about them.
My PC crashed from a virus and I had to scrap it after the repair shop dropped it while being repaired. They paid me and I purchased this lap top about 2 years ago. I did not retrieve my favorites from the hard drive and I can't remember the information. John Boy may still have it. I still have several pounds of the tallow as I became sick from medical problems and stopped making my lube. I now just use the NASA lube as it does the job as well. I enjoyed making my own lube as it became a little side hobby to my BP shooting. I also was using several other things that are very expensive to buy and the NASA is the best and it's ready to use. Later David

[M-Tecs]

Hopefully John Boy will post the source. I would like to purchase some.

[cajun shooter]

I just found my information on the sheep tallow. The site is uswellnessmeats.com They sell all kinds of meats; beef, lamb, rabbit, pork and so on. The tallow is sold in 1.8 containers and when you open it you can hardly smell anything. Not like the other products I 've purchased in the past. They are out but you may place a backorder. I did this with my last order and received it about 5 weeks later. they have a 800 number. Later David

[M-Tecs]

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[archangel2003]

Funny this old thread is all that comes up.
Well, uswellnessmeats.com are now grasslandbeef.com and it's only $12.99 for 2 lbs, and with shipping it comes out to only $21 but they have $75 minimum, so I guess unless I want to buy an additional $54 of either tallow, or something I don't want, I'll be looking elsewhere.

[Geezer in NH]

I'd look for bear fat first.