Making / Experimenting with Patch Lube

[Ohio Joe]

Okay, my wife and I were at Wally World this morning and I was feeling a bit adventurous so I wondered over to the food section of the store. After loading up my arms with non-essential munchies (some of which I'm eating as I type this) I walked past the "virgin olive oil" and then stopped and started thinking,,, (of course for me, very dangerous)...

Hmmm,,, virgin olive oil as a patch lube???

Well needless to say I bought a small bottle of the virgin olive oil, along with a small bottle of Crisco Pure Vegetable Oil... Neither contain sodium. (I actually read both bottles myself.) Al, Russ, & Rondo, you'd'a been proud of me, I didn't even have to get my wife Cindy to read them to me...

Anyway, I'm thinking of a home concoction by mixing these two components together (not sure what percentage) to use as a patch lube for my patched balls in my ball boards.  Usually I just spit patch from these ball boards,,, and I still think spit is a great patch lube for target shooting,,, but I have to think a'head for small and large game hunting and I don't like getting into my shooting bag just to get a little tin of bore-butter out to lube a patch when reloading on the hunt.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Does anyone use one or the other, or both for a patch lube? And that's what I'm really looking for - the use of Olive Oil & Crisco Veg. Oil as a patch lube mix...

Thanks for any input...

[prairie dog]

I have tried every patch lube there is; including olive oil, mink oil etc..
the only ones I havent tried are sperm oil and bear oil because I cant get them.

Nothing works as well as Ballistoil and water mixed in the proper raito.

[Hank in WV]

+1. Lubes well and I never have to wipe between shots.

Nothing works as well as Ballistoil and water mixed in the proper raito.

[rollingb]

Joe,.... first let me congratulate you on yore "readin'".     

When I first started shootin' muzzleloaders in the late 1960's, Crisco was what I used for lube for the first couple'a years, and it did a pretty good job keepin' the fouling manageable. So you might get similar results with the oil.

I "think" Olive Oil has a bit higher tolerance for heat than the Vegetable Oil, and I don't "think" there would be any advantage of mixing the two oils together.

Now,.... if you mixed a bit of your Olive Oil with something like sheep tallow, I think you'd have a good lube (for hunting), that would surpass any commercial "Bore Butter" (which I've never had a likin' for).

I'm sittin' on several pounds sheep tallow,.... and if you'd like some to experiment with, just let me know.  Right now Sheep Tallow is kind'a hard to find, and Dixie isn't planning on getting any in any time soon, and ain't even doing back-orders on the stuff.

Are you planning on goin' to the Muzzleloader's Convention in Kearney next month?

[rollingb]

+1. Lubes well and I never have to wipe between shots.

Nothing works as well as Ballistoil and water mixed in the proper raito.

Joe,.... I have some Ballistol around here some place, and you can have it, if I can find it,.... I can't stand the "smell" of the stuff. 

[Ohio Joe]

Rondo, I'll send you a PM on the tallow... I'm not real interested in the Ballistoil, though I know many swear by it.

Matthew and Kourtney are coming up in January so I don't expect Cindy and I will be headed to Kearney for convention - though it does sound like good times. Are you and Beth going to convention?

Thanks! 

Joe,.... first let me congratulate you on yore "readin'".     

 

[Maven]

OJ, I've used and written about using both "grease-" and "wet-" lubes, the latter being better for warmer weather and when you don't have to wait long to take a 2nd shot.  The former is better when conditions are the reverse.  If you're asking whether the EVOO + white Crisco will work, I'm guessing it will, especially if you cut patch strips, rub the mixture into both sides of the strip, "squeegee" off the excess with your fingers, then roll it up and store it.  Btw, peanut oil also works and is much less $$$ than EVOO.  Moreover, Stumpy's Moose Snot is my grease lube of choice since it's easy to make and allows as many as 8 full power loadings before you need to swab/wipe the bore.  (You can use EVOO, Canola, or peanut oil if you can't get the specified castor oil.)

As for a wet lube, I use 1 Ballistol : 6 water and have been very happy with it, but you may want to look up Dutch Schoultz's moose milk recipe on the Traditional ML Forum as well.

One last thought:  Dutch Schoultz has maintained you get better accuracy in a ML rifle when the bore is kept in ~the same condition from shot to shot by dry swabbing it.  I recently went back to doing that and think he's correct and it may partially explain the decling accuracy I've experienced with several of my ML's.  It only takes a few seconds and a clean flannel patch each time, but it seems to help.

[Ohio Joe]

I really like the spit patch, but at our annual July Rendezvous they run three (5 shot relays) and I normally have to run a jagged spit patch down my bore between those 5 shot relays after turning in my target and posting the following one to keep the residue as soft as possible in the bore... Well needless to say 15 shots on a 100 degree or hotter afternoon, I'm a running pretty low on spit. So,,, aside from a (non spit patched) hunting load as I'd prefer a lubed patch here - I'd just kind'a like to get my ball blocks loaded (that I use at Rondy) with a lubed patch / ball combo that will get me through those 15 shots - and even though I have TC Bore Butter, I just don't like it - it's just to messy IMHO and my spit patch seems to give better accuracy.  So between now and mid July I'm gonna work on a patch lube I like and one my rifle likes.

So I'm going to give that olive oil and sheep tallow a try. Who knows, it just might be the answer?

I'm probably one of the odd ones and I tried Stumpy's Moose Snot when he told us about it on the MLF way back 15/16 years ago or sometime back then - and I really didn't care for it. Some folks really like it and that's great. 

[rollingb]

Rondo, I'll send you a PM on the tallow... I'm not real interested in the Ballistoil, though I know many swear by it.

Matthew and Kourtney are coming up in January so I don't expect Cindy and I will be headed to Kearney for convention - though it does sound like good times. Are you and Beth going to convention?

Thanks! 

Joe,.... first let me congratulate you on yore "readin'".     

 

We plan on going 

[Bigsmoke]

If'n you are thinking the temperature of the barrel could be a factor on anything, y'all might want to consider using avocado oil.  Much higher temperatures  can be tolerated.

Rondo, I'm with you on the stench of Balistol.  Miserable smelling stuff.  Kind of reminds me of what the aroma of a dirty cat box and a month used jock strap would be if mixed together.  Yuck!!!  If'n anyone likes it, well, enjoy.

Years back, I shot a trail walk with a .69 caliber English Rifle.  Loaded it with 200 grains of Ffg, .015 Ox Yoke Wonder Patch, a .678 round ball and a 14 gauge lubed cushion wad.  25 shot match, never wiped the bore, and the last shot loaded as easy as the first shot.  The only magic was loading the cushion wad on top of the powder charge.  It does wonders, cleans and lubes the bore as it is pushed down the barrel, and you get a few extra fps as well.  And, if you are shooting a high charge, it keeps the patch from disintegrating.   Sounds like win-win to me.

[doggoner]

Ohio Joe

Try this site for some "home made" gun stuff. It is not all black powder stuff but you'll just have to see what you can use.

http://www.frfrogspad.com/homemade.htm

doggoner

[Riley/MN]

Nothing works as well as Ballistoil and water mixed in the proper raito.

Not sure how much shootin you do below zero on the Fahrenheit scale, but I wind up doing a fair bit. I had a spit patch freeze in the bore once! before I switched over to mink oil. I would think the water in the moose milk would freeze too, wouldn't it? Have ya had any chance to shoot it in cold weather?

[Ohio Joe]

I did a little patch / lube testing back on Dec. 29... I lubed up two patches with a 50/50 mixture of that (Olive Oil & Veg. Oil) and put those two balls in one of my ball blocks, and hung the block in my furnace room... That was 3.5 days ago as of this post... I checked them just now to see if the patch had stayed lubed and not dry out to a point where they would require some spit on them and both patches were still holding the lube just fine.

I really only need this lube for a very short period of time during the July Rendezvous shooting matches for my ball blocks - and I think from this first test of the patches holding the lube okay - the next test will be to see how they work at the Range.  I'm thinking a little lambs tallow just might be needed as well - so I will test that too. 

I'll also add that I do use the TC Bore Butter when hunting and have never had any trouble with it what-so-ever, but that may be because I melt the Bore Butter in the microwave then dip each patch and stack them - then squeeze the excess lube out of them in a stack of 20 patches...  I have also used them at shooting matches but I normally will put some spit on them before loading / and once they're gone (used up) I normally just spit patch at the shooting matches and I've never noticed any difference in performance.

I would however just like to get away from spit patching all together as most of my shooting is done in very hot weather and many a'times spit is hard to come by after a'while in the heat. Least ways for me as I get older.

[Two Steps]

Joe...the olive oil you have used to be called sweet oil (iifc) and was used for many things by the old timers that had it.  I've never tried it as a lube myself...but have read of it.  The EVOO you have has a lower smoke point (temp) than peanut oil canola etc.
As far as Ballistol goes...I really like it.  It's good for water displacement...a la WD40...and is good on wood, metal and even leather.  And as said above...it's a fine patch lube IMHO.

[doggoner]

Ohio Joe

try  http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?26524-Just-the-facts-Lube-recipes. I think they have tried almost every mixture under the sun and a few from under the moon. You may have to try www.castboolits.gunloads.com first and go to the "stickies" in the lube threads. Good luck. I've tried several and like 2 parts olive oil and 1 part bees wax by liquid volume. I live very near the gulf coast of Mississippi (read usually hot and humid). I don't have to change the ratio during the winter because, by your standards for winter, we don't have any cold weather. Again good luck in the lube search and enjoy the "hunt".

doggoner