New Favorite Patch Lube

[coupe]

When I started looking at castor oil for a patch lube I remembered what it did to engine rings, Gummed them up something terrible. From what I learned the oil was not filtered and cleaned as it is in the usable stuff now. Degummed is the removal of plant fibers and extras from the squeeze process. This gives the clear liquid found on most shelves today that we smear on the patches. I tried the alcohol oil mix, worked well, but rubbing pure oil into the patch with thumb and fore finger to just dampen the patch much like what was done with whale oil. If it was to wet I put a dry patch on either side to pick up the extra oil then wet them and redo the process. The damp patch works best for my 54 loads great and shoots with out wiping but the best accuracy is wiping after the 3d shot.
coupe

[MuskratMike]

Don't know how many times we have to say this but use pure oil be it mink oil, bear oil or my favorite PURE Neatsfoot oil. Spit works great if you are going to shoot right away but these three have always worked and always will. Maybe its time to stop trying to reinvent the wheel, but each to their own right?

[Maven]

I don't want to wade into the patch lube morass, but you should ask Taylor for his liquid lube recipe: Very easy to concoct and very effective too:  No bore swabbing needed with it at all!  And best of all, it uses winter grade windshield washer fluid as the main ingredient so it's very inexpensive to make.

[Scota4570]

Anyone else have any comments on the "Degummed" vs "Non-Degummed" Castor Oil?  I'm headed to the drug store today to buy some along with a stop off at Ace to pick up some Denatured Alcohol.  Bought some castor oil awhile back to use in a different "boolit-lube" recipe that worked quite well but don't want to go into detail here since this is a topic on muzzleloaders.

Any help would be appreciated!
Newtire

Shops that cater to dirt bike riders have the correct stuff.  It is castor oil for use in engines. 

KLOTZ BENOL RACING CASTOR 2-STROKE OIL

[hanshi]

As the Muskrat said, no reason to reinvent the wheel.  I use mink oil and really like it.  But if your's works then it must be good.

[Bob McBride]

i Listen to the Beetles and Zeppelin on a 1971 Micro Seiki, wear jeans with no fancy designs on the back pockets, and use bear grease and spit. The music sounds better, my wife won’t steal my jeans, and my guns load all day without a fight. I’ll leave reinventing the wheel to Elon Musk.

[Hungry Horse]

Bear grease, or venison tallow, have a high tolerance for heat. That was well known to the early pioneers. All this other stuff may or may not tolerate high heat. In my experience bees wax in anything but small amounts creates more problems than it cures. Beef tallow is very solid and is fine for waterproofing leather, but its tolerance for high heat isn’t anywhere in the league with bear grease, venison tallow, or even mutton tallow.
 Store bought goop in a jar usually has ingredients not comparable with high heat which brings us right back around to the lubes used by the early riflemen.

  Hungry Horse

[recurve]

Mutton tallow works for me (The British army used it as lube for over 200yrs if there was a better lube  they would have used it)

[Stony]

There must be about a hundred different types of lubes and techniques for their use as well as needing swabbing between shots or not..
I have been shooting for a long time, and finally settled on a mix of Murphy's Oil soap and Windex. I carry a small spray bottle with me and a couple of squirts does the job. I shoot in a match once a month, and shoot the whole match without having to swab the barrel and have no problems with my mix doing it's job. I use the same mix to clean my barrels, and it does a good job with that too!
To each his own....but I think I've found mine...

[yulzari]

Just to widen up the subject area. The Wilde method, used in the era of the last of the spherical ball military muzzle loading rifles, loaded the patched ball dry then squirted a measured drop of water into the muzzle. Best with a linen patch which will swell and seal the charge from the water. I used it with cotton and it worked fine once I had worked out the required amount of water but it would sometimes let the water reach the charge. Kept the bore clean and loading easy.