coconut oil patch lube

[HAWKEN]

I think someone should try bacon fryings for a lube.  It may not increase your accuracy, make your gun easier to clean, or soften the fowling but it would drive everyone nuts on the shooting line trying to figure who had the bacon sandwich hid in their shooting box, LOL

[trentOH]

Now question: Is the new rage of coconut oil to fix every thing from patches, going to really work ? Kind of like snake oil !
Fred

Snake oil!!! That'd be fun to experiment with, just to be able to say I use Snake Oil. But I don't know off the top of my head where to obtain some. Maybe from a snake oil salesman?
Boy howdy, that would be interesting.

[Gun_Nut_73]

I think someone should try bacon fryings for a lube.  It may not increase your accuracy, make your gun easier to clean, or soften the fowling but it would drive everyone nuts on the shooting line trying to figure who had the bacon sandwich hid in their shooting box, LOL

I have used bacon grease many times.  Good for fall through spring shooting, but a bit messy during the summer months.  I used to keep it in an aluminum 35mm film can.

[smylee grouch]

I have all my guns on a low salt diet. 

[Daryl]

OK, I'm going to be the heretic here. 

Over my 50 years of muzzleloading I've tried about every patch lube out there - spit, olive oil, peanut oil, mink oil, jojoba oil, Crisco/beeswax mix, etc.

For the last five years I've used nothing but Liquid Wrench Penetrating Oil for the patch lube in all of my guns, from .32 to .58 caliber. (OH, the horror! A petroleum product!) My powder of choice is GOEX.

I use precut patches, usually pillow ticking. I put a dozen or two patches in a stack - squirt the stack with enough LW to wet the patches pretty well - massage the stack with my fingers to distribute the oil evenly - wrap the stack in a paper towel and squeeze it so the towel absorbs the excess oil.

The patches will feel almost dry and are pleasant to handle. I get excellent accuracy. No ugly fouling build up. Clean-up is just as easy as any other lube I've used. And as a bonus, no rust worries if I don't get around to cleaning the gun until the next day.

Don't hate me because I'm Semisane.    Try it, you might like it.

In all your guns, from .32 to .58, you can shoot all day without wiping when using LW, with 0 fouling buildup?

[Semisane]

No. Sorry, I didn't mean to imply no fouling build up. The fouling with LW is no worse than the fouling with "natural" lubes such as olive oil, mink oil or moose milk (as opposed to the belief that any petroleum product will produce horrible and unusual fouling).

This "almost dry" patch method with LW a real winner for me. Test it yourself with five or ten shots. You can't lose anylthing by doing so, and I suspect you will really like it.

[redheart]

OK, I'm going to be the heretic here. 

Over my 50 years of muzzleloading I've tried about every patch lube out there - spit, olive oil, peanut oil, mink oil, jojoba oil, Crisco/beeswax mix, etc.

For the last five years I've used nothing but Liquid Wrench Penetrating Oil for the patch lube in all of my guns, from .32 to .58 caliber. (OH, the horror! A petroleum product!) My powder of choice is GOEX.

I use precut patches, usually pillow ticking. I put a dozen or two patches in a stack - squirt the stack with enough LW to wet the patches pretty well - massage the stack with my fingers to distribute the oil evenly - wrap the stack in a paper towel and squeeze it so the towel absorbs the excess oil.

The patches will feel almost dry and are pleasant to handle. I get excellent accuracy. No ugly fouling build up. Clean-up is just as easy as any other lube I've used. And as a bonus, no rust worries if I don't get around to cleaning the gun until the next day.

Don't hate me because I'm Semisane.    Try it, you might like it.

The only problem with that stuff is that it's "penetrating" your skin for sure.

[Daryl]

No. Sorry, I didn't mean to imply no fouling build up. The fouling with LW is no worse than the fouling with "natural" lubes such as olive oil, mink oil or moose milk (as opposed to the belief that any petroleum product will produce horrible and unusual fouling).

This "almost dry" patch method with LW a real winner for me. Test it yourself with five or ten shots. You can't lose anylthing by doing so, and I suspect you will really like it.

You didn't answer my question, Semisane.

[Semisane]

You didn't answer my question, Semisane.

In all your guns, from .32 to .58, you can shoot all day without wiping when using LW, with 0 fouling buildup?

Sorry . I wasn't trying to duck your question. I thought my statement that "the fouling with LW is no worse than the fouling with natural lubes such as olive oil, mink oil or moose milk" covered it. Perhaps I should have said "no worse and no better"  than the fouling with other lubes.

No. I can not shoot all day without wiping. My guns normally require a swab after 3/4/5 shots depending on the gun and powder charge, though it is my habit to wipe after each shot anyway. I'm an accuracy nut and do a lot of paper shooting from the bench. All of my patch & ball loads are tight enough to require a palm whack on the short starter.

I've found most guns require an occasional wipe regardless of the lube used. I suppose one might shoot all day with a looser ball/patch combination than what I use. (Depending on how many shots constitute "shooting all day".  )

Do you have a gun/load you can shoot all day with 0 fouling buildup? If so, I'd be interested in the particulars.

[smylee grouch]

I have several guns that I can and do shoot all day with out wiping unless I sit out of a couple of relays then I need to run a patch down. For me it depends on the lube and ball/patch combo. A tighter fit will shoot cleaner in my guns than one with too much windage.

[Hungry Horse]

My gun club has an annual event called the family fun shoot ( I know there is one advertised in Muzzleblasts, but ours is ten years older than theirs). The event is open to the public, and is totally free, including lunch. Last year at the muzzleloading station my old poor boy shot seventy four consecutive shots without swabbing once, using venison tallow with a little bear grease saturated patches. The day was hot,and dry, as August always is here, and we never even saw a smoking patch. In fact many of these patches could have been reused.

 Hungry Horse

[Daryl]

Smylee and HH- I am in total agreement - it is a fairly tight combination with wet patches that allows shooting all day without having to wipe.

I find the fouling left by the last shot does dry out on a hot/dry day as at Hefley Creek Rendezvous oft times, but when loading the next one, it is only a bit crunchy & when that happens,

I touch off that shot on something other than the next target, so I can load afresh for the next scoring target. Usually the next target is larger and the change in bore condition does not

injure accuracy enough to matter.  If shooting paper, I keep a cadence, shot to shot that keeps a consistent bore condition.

[Hungry Horse]

At the event mentioned accuracy is not much of an issue. The majority of the participants have never shot a muzzleloader before. The targets are big clangers at no more than a hundred yards, and the favorite is the top 1/3 of an old oxygen cylinder that rings like a church bell, that is at fifty yards.
 The point of this whole thing is, if you’re swabbing ever few shots because loading is getting hard, your doing something wrong. And, if you keep getting a build up of crud, at the breech, you have the wrong patch lube. I make a point of not using anything for patch lube that I don’t know what is in it. Or, for that matter how it will react to extreme heat and pressure.

   Hungry Horse

[DLJ6]

If you are out on a trek...or lost... I suppose it would be good to have a lube in which you could fry up a critter. But of course to do that you would need a pan. In what type of period correct flask should we tote our coconut oil?

[sqrldog]

 Probably the one you once carried your sperm whale oil in.

[Skychief]

I've raided the kitchen and come away with an unopened container of coconut oil.  If I can brave the sweltering heat, I'll shoot with it today.

I'm anxious to see not only if it's accurate, which trumps all to me, but also will be anxious to see how easily it cleans up for me.

The particular flinter I've been shooting lately is very accurate with my moose milk concoction, but is kind of a bear to  clean after shooting with this patch lube.

Will report back if I make any smoke, Skychief

[Skychief]

Chores prevented any shooting today.

I did try a little experiment though.

As a hunter, I'm concerned with what a possible lube will do below freezing.

I placed dollops of the coconut oil, mutton tallow, and Crisco in my freezer.

The coconut oil came out hard as a rock.

The mutton tallow was nearly as hard as the coconut oil.

The Crisco didn't freeze nearly as hard as the others.  In fact it had a consistency that seemed to me would work as a patch lube should even below freezing.

I know one can add olive oil or such to any of the above to thin it for colder weather, or harden them with bees wax or such for high temps.  I'm looking for a straight grease that will work without adding anything, no matter the season.

I've fooled around with vegetable shortening (Crisco) some previously.  It shot accurately, kept fouling soft and cleaned up easy.  Now that it's passed this sub freezing test, I'm going to look at trying it out more on the future.

Just reporting in.

Best regards, Skychief

[Darkhorse]

When I started shooting blackpowder in the mid-70's Crisco was the recommended lube. That and spit. I used it for over 10 years along with many others at events I attended. Flashpoint may be a problem in Death Valley but I don't live there and it has never been a problem here. So as far as I'm concerned that's a non issue.
Crisco makes a good hunting load.
Crisco can be a very accurate lube. I placed at the SE Regionals in the 50 yard offhand using Crisco and Pillow ticking. My process was to shoot 3 consecutive shots while chewing a cleaning patch, then clean with that patch and shoot the next 2 shots. It was just as accurate as anything else I've used. It wasn't much for cleaning though.
Now, years later, after trying many other lubes I'm back to the vegetable oils. I did some shooting with Canola oil earlier in the year with promising results. But a lot more shooting must be done before I decide if I like it or not. Canola oil is a wetter lube than Crisco and a little too much is really too much. But I learned how to prelube strips and get them just right. I suppose it's like coconut oil in that respect.
Even when one has found the perfect lube for them I still think it's a good idea to  continue testing different lubes and patches, you always have your perfect lube just waiting for you and you just might find something better.

[EC121]

I don't know if it will freeze at low temps, but there is a non-hardening coconut oil available.  I use it to soften Track's mink oil.

[Vomitus]

How do you get sperm whale oil?  Naaah, you couldn't be thinking like me!