Potential problem with my Emmerts improved bullet lube.

I have been using my homemade Emmerts Improved bullet lube for about 5 years.
My Emmerts recipe has been working fine:
50% beeswax, 40% Crisco shortening, 5% Olive oil, 5% Anhydrous Lanolin

That is until a few new Hornady non annealed cases got mix in with my working cases and loaded with O.E. 2fg BP, CCI 350 mag primer, topped with a cast 20:1 Lyman 452664.

I got lazy did not anneal these extra Hornady 45 Colt cases because the others in the box had been working so well for years I though they be ok.

I fired of a couple boxes of my BP hand loads in my Ruger New Vaqueros and firing and ejection worked normally. That is until I fired one of the non annealed cases.
I had to hammer those cases out of the chambers. The blow back fouling formed a black tar that glued the cases in chambers. I got 1 or 2 stuck cases by tar ever cylinder full.

When I got home I cleaned and annealed all the cases.

I don’t know which ingredient(s) in the lube recipe is turning into tar so fast under the heat and pressure of firing BP.
I would like to eliminate that ingredient just in case it might create tar in my rifle chamber during an extended shooting session.

Try leaving out the Anhydrous Lanolin .
BP lube containing Beeswax , Crisco and oilve oil have never formed "black tar glue" with any loads for me .
My go-to lube for cap & ball revolvers is 50-50 Beeswax & Crisco . No tar ever experienced .
even with just Crisco for cap & ball revolvers ... no black tar forms .

... maybe it's the olive oil ?
Gary

More information:
I waited a couple of days before I cleaned the 2 revolvers.
I was expecting to see a huge mess and I was not disappointed.

The bore was caked with fouling that was wet melted liquid when the revolvers were encased at the range.
Now cooled, I saw in the bore was white and gray with miniature white mountain peaks of lube covering the entire surface of the bore.

I scraped off some of this fouling with a flat toothpick and was surprised at how soft it was.
Rubbing a glob between thumb an finger the texture was just the same as my lube, we’ll it is my lube.

The cylinders cleaned easily with Dawn dish detergent and hot tap water.
I brushed the chambers well with a nylon brush the results were 2 perfectly clean cylinders.

Never saw any “Tar” in the chambers.

The Tar was only seen on the sides on my non annealed cartridge cases as blow back fouling.

Both revolver bores cleaned easily too, only a couple of lead streaks or smears easily removed by bronze brushing and no Tar was seen in the bores.

Visually the revolver looked a mess before cleaning but they clean up so fast and easily I was shocked.

So it looks like if I feed my revolvers BP handloads made with annealed cases the “Tar” production in the chambers is a non issue.

I use emmerts in 45-70 with blackpowder and pyrodex with no problems

Do you often wait a couple days to clean ir was it this one time? In kansas,that would sure make a big rusty mess this time of year.

I use emmerts improved in my BPCR rifles both grease groove and paper patched. Barrel lengths are from 30" to 34". I find in the hot ofio heat and a dry day I also need to blow tube 2-3 long breaths between shots to keep fouling soft and "greasy" feeling. A quick swallow of water before helps a lot also.

For the cap and ball revolvers maybe increase the oil a little

For what its worth my recipe is.
50% Beeswax
40% unsalted crisco
5% canola oil
5% anhydrous lanolin
a very small drop if murphies oil soap as an emulsifier to help blend ingredients

Whatever your problem may be, it is not the lanolin. My earliest attempt at DIY lube was Frog Guano which was/is 40% anhydrous lanolin and 10% mink oil (which is very similar to lanolin.) This is waaay more lanolin than I needed, but I had my reasons that made sense at the time. I designed it for use with smokeless powder and plain base lead bullets, which worked great, but then I decided to use it in BP cartridges and again, it worked great. Truth to tell, most times I use much less lanolin because of the cost, but like being too pretty or having too much money, I just don’t think you can put too much lanolin in bullet lube.

Froggie

Quote:

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Originally Posted by alfadan

I use emmerts in 45-70 with blackpowder and pyrodex with no problems

Do you often wait a couple days to clean ir was it this one time? In kansas,that would sure make a big rusty mess this time of year.

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Usually I clean the firearms the day after firing. After firing the lube has melted to present a wet look on the outside surfaces of the revolvers and rife. All the metal is fully slimed with melted lube.
I consider it the equivalent of an oil bath dunking fully shielding the metal from damp air.
Two days is the longest I’ve waited before cleaning the firearms after firing black powder cartridges.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Green Frog

Whatever your problem may be, it is not the lanolin. My earliest attempt at DIY lube was Frog Guano which was/is 40% anhydrous lanolin and 10% mink oil (which is very similar to lanolin.) This is waaay more lanolin than I needed, but I had my reasons that made sense at the time. I designed it for use with smokeless powder and plain base lead bullets, which worked great, but then I decided to use it in BP cartridges and again, it worked great. Truth to tell, most times I use much less lanolin because of the cost, but like being too pretty or having too much money, I just don’t think you can put too much lanolin in bullet lube. Froggie

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Thanks for the information on the high 40% anhydrous lanolin content of your lube.

My latest batch of homemade BP/smokeless lube (which I haven’t had the time to try yet) has 14.5% anhydrous lanolin.

The formula is: Beeswax 50%, Crisco 35%, Anhydrous Lanolin 14.5%, 0.5% Carnauba wax.
It is basically Emmerts but I eliminated the liquid oil component (the EVOO in this new version) and reduced the % of Crisco and added a touch of Carnauba.

The reason to make this lube variation was to make a hot weather version of Emmerts that wouldn’t be so lube purgy.

Regular Emmerts liquifies so rapidly in a sun heated barrel or a barrel hot from repeated firing and flows to the low points of the rifling and the barrel like water in a trough.

I think maybe the Old Eynsford BP isn’t supplying the usual amount of fouling crud (like GOEX did) to help hold the melted wet lube in place.

Did you switch powders to grafs? Wet tarry…