Grease hole

[Gaeckle]

What grease goes into a grease hole.....what type that is....lard, Crisco, a blend of lard/beeswax, oe some sort of tallow? What do you folks use (those that have a grease holein a rifle)

[jamesthomas]

 If I was to actually use the grease hole for something I would make something with quite a bit of beeswax. I wouldn't want the Lard, Crisco, Tallow, etc, to melt out and get all over my clothes, or the stock of the rifle.

[Dennis Glazener]

What grease goes into a grease hole.....what type that is....lard, Crisco, a blend of lard/beeswax, oe some sort of tallow? What do you folks use (those that have a grease holein a rifle)

I have used several different blends of grease in grease holes i.e. bear grease mixed with beeswax (which I like the best), also Crisco mixed with beeswax and even white candle wax mixed with beeswax but this was for looks only.

The bear grease/beeswax works good for me as a patch lube but I still prefer to use Lehigh Valley spray lube when at the range.

Dennis

[smylee grouch]

one told me they were for small snickers bars. 

[David Rase]

one told me they were for small snickers bars. 

Hershey's Kisses? 

[blunderbuss]

I restored an old rifle dated 1814 a few years ago that had a patch box on it but there was still some, what looked like lard in the box.

[James Wilson Everett]

Guys,

This is a photo of an original Southern cherry stocked flintlock rifle, I guess the date is circa 1815.  There is still some substance in the grease hole.  It is now very hard and appears to be a bees wax.  I believe if a softer tallow lubricant was used that the wood surrounding the grease hole would show a lot of stain - which it does not, as you can see.  I can surmise that the grease hole has only seen a hard lube, such as bees wax, and not a softer tallow.

Jim

[JDK]

Southern Gun?  Looks more like an 1880's Michigan gun to me.

If I recall that's where Daisy BB guns were originally built.

Enjoy, J.D.

[Bill of the 45th]

Must be a Michigun gun JD.  It looks like Troll earwax

Bill

[Levy]

There is a J. BEAN, brass mounted, walnut stocked rifle in the State of Florida's collections that has a double banana patch box on it that is full of a beeswax looking material in both ends.

James Levy   

[Bob Roller]

Jim,
Can you post a picture of the whole rifle? These are very interesting to me'

Bob Roller

[James Wilson Everett]

Bob,

Here are the photos.

Jim

[Dennis Glazener]

Bob,

Here are the photos.

Jim

James,
That's an interesting looking rifle, looks Virginia made to me. Any chance you have any history on it?
Dennis

[Bob Roller]

Jim,
Thank you for the fast reply and photos.That is my kind of rifle
with all the ornamentation of a fence post,a stark simplicity born
from need of a useful firearm.

Bob Roller

[WadePatton]

Jim,
Thank you for the fast reply and photos.That is my kind of rifle
with all the ornamentation of a fence post,a stark simplicity born
from need of a useful firearm.

Bob Roller

Now Bob, that muzzle was the fancy pants part of the deal-see those few remaining punch marks?  Might have had circles and stars and clovers too. 

[shortbarrel]

james everette wilson,sure would like to see some pictures of the whole rifle. from what i see in the but area, this makes the whole rifle very interesting. might like to duplicate this rifle if i could see some pictures.  thanks dick

[shortbarrel]

i did not scroll down before i made the above  post. thanks for the pictures. i will probably duplicate this rifle, all wrought iron.

[Levy]

After years of shooting, cleaning and ramrod wear, the punch marks were added to tighten it up.......just kidding.
James Levy

[WadePatton]

Yeah, old topic.  Hey let us beat it up again.

Now that i have a season on the grease holey gun, I'll report that I'm quite pleased with straight deer tallow.  First I beeswaxed the hole (my current supply of beeswax is super hard-takes a lot of heat), then i filled it with tallow i rendered about three years ago. It's snow-white and quite firm.

I found the tallow handy for field re-loads and for weather-proofing the pan  after priming on a wet or breezy day (or rust-proofing any ferrous metal at hand).  The tallow picked up very little crud, and never "got on everything".  It's easy enough to wipe off the crud and flick it on your hunting bro (tell him a bird flew over).  

I expect to let the supply dwindle or even wipe it out for hot-weather shooting, then renew it this coming Fall.  I may deepen the hole a speck too.  


---
Appears that, whilst i'm setting up a new workshop area,  the puppy dog found my tallow hole.  It's real doggone clean now!

[mountainman70]

shucks,Wade,I thot you were gonna say puppy made a dee posit in it.My mind is in a farrraway place it seems.DaveI like that rifle ,too.

[Hungry Horse]

 GETTING BACK TO THE SUBJECT. Venison, or mutton tallow, have a high melting point, so combining either one of them with a LITTLE BEES WAX, will make a patch lube that works well, and doesn't melt out in the summer. Too much bees wax is a bad move IMO.

          Hungry Horse

[David R. Pennington]

Is the butt on that rifle as narrow as it looks?

[WadePatton]

GETTING BACK TO THE SUBJECT. Venison, or mutton tallow, have a high melting point, so combining either one of them with a LITTLE BEES WAX, will make a patch lube that works well, and doesn't melt out in the summer. Too much bees wax is a bad move IMO.

          Hungry Horse

Yeah, if i ever add any I'm going to try to stay on the lean side (least of wax).  I'd rather have lube too runny than hard.

[Dan'l 1946]

Bob,

Here are the photos.

Jim

   In the photograph of the muzzle, it appears that the barrel sits in a round channel with no facets. It's really good to see these plain everyman's rifles have survived at least in small numbers. In the world of old guns, these rifles are the salt of the earth.