bullet lubricant

[gumboman]

Can anyone share a good bullet lubricant that is not too messy? I want to try some short conical bullets in my 50 caliber rifle that has a 56 twist. Want to make up my own batch of lubricant.

[snapper]

I use equal parts of crisco and bees wax, with a table spoon or so of olive oil.  The bees wax and crisco are about the size of my fist each part.

I heat in the microwave in a plastic one pound coffee can. 

fleener

[OldMtnMan]

TOW Mink Oil with a little extra beeswax.

[hanshi]

Snapper's formula worked great for me decades ago when I fired a lot of minies.

[Don Steele]

I've gotten great results lubing BP conicals with a homemade lube I found somewhere on the internet called " Emmert's Lube".
50% Beeswax
40% salt free shortening
10% Anhydrous Lanolin
Pan lube and shoot " as cast" has worked best.

[thelongrifle]

2 parts sheep tallow to 1 part beeswax.

[Daryl]

TOW Mink Oil with a little extra beeswax.

Besides this one, perhaps the easiest would be 50:50, or 40:60 Beeswax/Vaseline mixed by weight.  To make it stiffer, more beeswax, thinner, more Vaseline.

Yes - Vaseline is a petroleum product -  BUT YES - it is as GOOD as any - ANY commercial black powder lubricant for ML or BP Ctg use- maybe better,

especially for muzzleloader bullets.  I used it with REAL bullets in my .45 60" twist.  They (220gr.) shot well to 50yards, if you call 1" each for 2 - 5 shot groups shooting well, using 75gr. 2F IIRC,

 and they shot to the sights, which surprised me.

I shot 10 of them (2-5shto groups), then went back to using my regular tightly patched round balls. I did not have to wipe the bore before switching to patched balls & I was loading with my rifle's hickory rod.

[Clark Badgett]

Daryl, how well did the Vaseline clean up afterwards? Asking because I'm still on my patch lube journey. I've read from more than one knowledgeable source that the whole petro based lube and BP problem is largely a myth.

I know for fact that I cleaned my old P.53 Enfield more than once with modern military issue CLP, because I was a young warrior and had a free issued gallon jug of the stuff at the time. Don't recall any problem with it. But that was some years ago.

[Daryl]

I have never had any residual grease that was difficult to clean. Slightly damp fouling, that is given a chance, will dry and harden - thus, guys who shoot the accuracy games, with 5 or 10 minutes

 between shots, clean after every shot. We don't and we clean with water.  I clean my BP ctg. rifle(s) with plain water and it works perfectly.


I think folks envision problems where non exist, or perhaps just overthink many situations where there is a simple fix.

As to Petroleum and black powder fouling, the two do not mix., as in Lee's Liquid Alox is not a good BP lube: try it.  Petroleum products, like normal Hoppes #9, or Butches Bore Shine will not

dissolve BP fouling either - but water does that, without an needed additional chemicals.

Vaseline, might be be a petroleum "product", but like many synthesized petroleum products, it's chemistry has been changed. When mixed by way of heat and with beeswax, then subject to

 intense heat of the fire from burning powder, it becomes one of the best black powder lubricants I have seen.  For me, it has been the equal to Lyman's BP Gold and Steven Paul Garbe's SPG lube

 that many BP ctg. rifle shooters use today.  I have used it as a bullet lube in grooved lubricated bullets as well as a wipe on a paper patched bullet, with a slug of it beneath that PP bullet as a

 lube ball. 60:40 is my mix and it continues to work well for me.

[OldMtnMan]

Does anybody know what the lube comes on the Hornady Great Plains bullet? I've fooled around with that conical and the lube does a good job of keeping fouling soft and leading to a minimum.

[Daryl]

That is some sort of dry wax-like substance. Lee's cartridge case lubricant (wax), once dry, looks very similar.
Would Lee's stuff work, I do not know.
I do not know what Hornady actually uses.

[Flint62Smoothie]

I use equal parts of crisco and bees wax, with a table spoon or so of olive oil.

I just got into shooting minies in a replica Zouave and spent days reviewing various Civil War firearm and the North-South Skirmish shooting forums. The contention there, from many participants in the No-So Skirmish Association ... is that Crisco leads to cook-offs when used as a BP lube.

I use 2-parts olive oil to 1-part beeswax. More oil if colder out ... going to 3-to-1 for late Fall/Winter use.

Petroleum products, like normal Hoppes #9, or Butches Bore Shine will not dissolve BP fouling either - but water does that, without an needed additional chemicals.

"Regular" Hoppe's #9 or Butch's Bore Shine cleaners ... no ... but you should be aware that BOTH products are made in a black powder cleaning solvent formula.

FWIW I have used Butch's BP solvent and it is indeed the BEST cleaner I've ever used. Personally I just use water, but I ave tested Butch's against other's people's cleaning agents/method and it never fails to pull out more 'crud' ... when they think it'll just come out as a clean white patch. Dayum good it is, again the best! ... but I shoot my guns sooooooo much that a good water cleaning between sessions is all I need.

[Pukka Bundook]

Cook -offs with  Crisco?   

I'll just shake my head and leave  it at that Flintsmoothie.

[gumboman]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I have some mink oil. Will try blending with beeswax and give that a go.

[Flint62Smoothie]

Cook -offs with  Crisco?   

I'll just shake my head and leave  it at that Flintsmoothie.

I can assure you that I didn’t make it up ... and yes, there could very well be some other reason, but about half a dozen guys in almost 200 pages of No-So Skirmish shootings posts reported ‘cook offs’ when using Crisco as lube ... and that they went away when they changed their lube away from Crisco. Note that they are speed shooting!

It’s not the 1st place I’ve read that, as have also heard the same from Bess shooters and there’s a YouTube video of it happening posted on-line (also speed shooting).

So there, I report ... you decide, haha ! ... maybe you don’t shoot fast enough?

... kidding

[Daryl]

I am well aware that both Hoppe's and Butches have BP solvents - I did not mention them as they are not the same formula as the ones I did mention.

Hornady also makes or sells a BP solvent. - Again, it is not the same as normal (smokeless) powder solvents.

Mink Oil and BW will likely work just fine, but need lots of the oil compared to wax as the lube might be too hard if too high in BW content.