MM,
I have been using bear grease and bees wax for my patch lube for over 10 years. It does a great job! I take about 3 parts bear grease and 1 part bees wax, by volume, but them in a tin can and slowly warm them until they melt together. I stir the mixture to make sure that it is well mixed. I then dip a pre-cut patch into the mix and put it down on a piece of aluminum foil. The next patch is plain, unlubed. Then I add a lubed patch, making a stack of patches like a stack of coins with alternating lubed and unlubed patches. The lube will flow into the unlubed patches and everything evens out in the stack before the lube has cooled enough to solidify. This gives me enough lube in the patch without being too messy at loading.
This lube shoots the same whether the barrel is clean our fouled. Some times if the air is really dry and I have done a lot of shooting already it helps to lay the patch on my tongue while fetching another ball. That little bit of saliva is all that is needed to cut any resistance to loading. I rarely if ever wipe my rifle while shooting. I have shot 50 rounds in 1 afternoon without ever wiping the bore.
Since you already have the grease you know how to make grease from the raw fat. For those that do not know, this is how we do it. My brother has a large steel kettle, about 20 inches across. We cut the fat up into small chunks about the size of an ice cube and fill the kettle about 3/4ths full. To get nice white grease you need to prevent scorching of the fat that is in the bottom of the kettle. To do this pour water into the kettle up to the level of the fat. Do this BEFORE you put the kettle on the fire!
Place the kettle on the fire and slowly boil off the water. As this is happening the fat is melting. By the time all the water has boiled off there should be enough melted fat in the bottom of the kettle to prevent the remaining chunks from scorching. Now just cook and cook. As the fried cracklings rise to the top skim them off, squeeze the grease from them back into the kettle and do what ever you want with them. You can use them as either food, fuel of coyote bait. Watch the grease in the kettle. When the bubbles stop rising from within the grease you are done - all of the water has been driven out of the grease.
If you want oil place the kettle outside where it is cool. The grease will begin to harden on the walls of the kettle. When this process begins stir the grease in the kettle very gently. The higher melting temperature constituents will accumulate on the kettle walls while the lower melting point constituents, the oil, will remain in the center. When the temperature of the kettle is down to room temperature or a little below pour out the oil into a suitible container. Then reheat the grease and when it is molten pour it into suitable containers. Usually we get about 10 times the volume of grease than the volume of oil.
Bear grease and bear oil is the best rust preventative I know of. That's the only rust preventative I have used on my rifles for the past 10 or so years.
Best Regards,
John Cholin
