To simplify things and to have a 'warmer' than ice cold water - wet patch, Taylor shot an entire winter with his .40 Kuntz using neetsfoot oil only for a patch lube. I'm pretty sure his load was with 67gr. of 3F GOEX powder, so it wasn't a poky load. He had no difficulty shooting the trail which could be anywhere from 45 shots on a quick day, to 80 shots on a 4 hour day, without every wiping the bore. He used, as normal, a thicker than .020" patch and a .395" ball - fairly wet with oil.
Many of us use a concoction of winter windshield washer fluid for trail walks in the winter, so the patches won't freeze, and in the summer just because it's convenient. Blue Thunder windshield washer fluid is about the cheapest at $3.95 or $4.00 per gallon and doesn't have any special soaps or teflon in it like some do - it does have blue die. I pour about 6 to 8 ounces of Neetsfoot oil or something else, like Murphy's (to help slow down the evapouration in the summer) into that gallon of washer fluid. I then give it a shake, and pour some into a smaller container - about a pint or quart size for convenience. Before putting it on my patches, I shake the bottle, then pour it onto the patches which are in a "sucrets tin" and let them soak up as much as possible - then gently squeeze out the excess back into the pint bottle. The patches are WET, but tipping the tin up on edge causes no dripping- in time, it probably would drip due to gravity. When the patched ball is squeezed in the muzzle with the stud on the starter knob, there will be a visible ring of moisture around the top circumference and after pushing down the load, you can see the bore is slighlty damp.
The reason I pour Neetsfoot oil into my WWWF, is because there are no chemicals in the oil and I can trust it not to hurt my bore. Some soaps have caustic chemicals in them, which I don't want in my bore - so far, what I am using, does not hurt my bores so I'm happy with them. Taylor tried straight Ballistol as a rust preventative while at hunting camp. In 2 days sitting after oiling, his bore has rust in it. I do not trust it, however in all honesty, lots of guys do trust Ballistol. We don't.
Spit shoots just as accurately, BTW, or maybe even more accurately than any other concoction. Some people cannot muster up the requisite amount of spit to shoot an 80 shot course of fire -therefore, they use prepared concoctions. They use prepared concoctions because they are handy, easy, not because they produce miraculous accuracy.
No wet solution, including water, Neetsfoot oil, Mink Oil, our WWWFluid mix or spit, causes the bore to require wiping before loading the next one - ever- as long as the ball and patch combination's measurement is from .002" to .008" larger than the groove to groove diameter.
There is very little 'felt' difference when loading with different lubes, but some oils do feel easier, like the super slick ones. The ability to load again without having to wipe, is not due only to the lube being used, it is due to the fit of the ball and thick enough patch which can carry enough lube to do it's job well. A ptch .018" or thicker can hold enough lube, if the ball is large enough to make that thickness patch fit to the bottom of the grooves.
The lube is secondary to the fit combination and as far as I can see, is not there to actually lubricate anything, it is there to soften the fouling only. Plain water also loads easily, so the slipperyness isn't really necessary. The softened fouling will allow loading the next shot, without you having to wipe the bore. If the ball and patch combination is too weak or too loose to wipe the bore clean as it's loaded, fouling will build up from shot to shot and the lube and patch cannot do it's job. Thus, after 1, 3 5 or wahtever shots made, the bore must be wiped as loading is getting more difficult the more shots are fired. Thus, the condition of the bore is changing therefore the rifle cannot deliver it's best accuracy due to the changing environment within.
Yes- some lubes are slippery - like Hoppe's #9 Plus, LHV, and Shenendoah lube- to similar exent, Neetsfoot oil and Mink oil as well. What I have found, is that the slippery lubes require more powder to get them to shoot with the same accuracy as a 'water' based lube that isn't slippery. My .40 and .45 require another 10gr. of 3F powder to shoot as well and 20gr. of 2F to match previous water solution wet accuracy. The slippery lubes usually do not shoot to the same point of impact as a non-slippery lube eitehr, so a hunting lube, which must be an oil or grease, may not and probably will not shoot to the same poi as a water based, target shooting lube. Re-sighting may be necessary. Hopefully, only the elevation is changed, however due to barrel vibrations, sometimes there is a windage element as well.
If you want nothing to change - then use Neetsfool oil or Track's Mink Oil for all your shooting. If you test your loads, you will find a load that shoots well at 50 to 100yards with either Mink or Neetsfoot oil, is already what could be deemed as a hunting load. Thus, you will always be practising with your hunting load. It does not get any better than that, if hunting is a main function of your rifle or smoothbore ball shooting.
