How much lube should be on a patch?

[m1garand_man]

It turns put that I'm leaving my patches over lubed. I will take a stack of patches and soak them in molten lube until bubbles stop comming out and then gently pull the stack out and set it aside to harden up.

It seems to me that I should be pressing some of that lube put of the stack before letting it cool so they aren't over lubed. My concern is over doing that and making them too dry. How do I know when they are good?

How do you lube your patches?

[smallpatch]

With liquid lube at loading.  No solid lubes.

[Frank]

I lube when I load using spit. The only time I use Mink oil is when it is below freezing or a hunting situation. If I pre lube at all with the Mink oil, I only lube enough for a days shooting. Usually 20-30 patches. Just rub it on the patch with my fingers until there is a good coating. Never melt the stuff and soak the patches.

[L. Akers]

M1, after soaking your patches, do press as much lube out of them as is possible.  You can't make them too dry.

[Majorjoel]

I just recently started using my homemade bore cleaning solvent for patch lube.  A mix of 40% Murphy's Oil Soap and 60% alcohol.       

The stuff works great, with no swabbing between shots and the clean up after a day at the range is a breeze!!

[smylee grouch]

I have my best luck soaking the patch with tracks mink oil and bear oil 50/50 and squeeze out the excess. Never wipe between shots with the right patch thickness and the clean up is simple.

[Black Hand]

It turns put that I'm leaving my patches over lubed. I will take a stack of patches and soak them in molten lube until bubbles stop comming out and then gently pull the stack out and set it aside to harden up.

It seems to me that I should be pressing some of that lube put of the stack before letting it cool so they aren't over lubed. My concern is over doing that and making them too dry. How do I know when they are good?

How do you lube your patches?

Stop worrying and shoot. I lube stacks of patches with Bear grease (as you explain above) and make no effort to squeeze out any excess. What is over-lubed and how would anyone know?

[axelp]

The only downside of having too much lube might be powder contamination? I know some that prefer very wet, and some that use a more dry technique. My spit patches are very wet but they don't stay in the bore for an extended time. For hunting I use mink oil or my traditional bear oil and beeswax concoction. The lube is rubbed into the patch liberally.

The purpose of lube as I see it is to ease loading and to keep the after-the-shot fouling soft.

Not to mention anything non-muzzle loading,  but some black powder shooting disciplines use a relatively thick grease "cookie" between over powder cards. The grease actually creates a "starburst of grease at the muzzle after the shot... Some just use a light smear on the patch. I'd say use what works for you personally in regards to accuracy and satisfactory fouling control.

K

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I must disagree with the poster who says you can't get them too dry.  It is my opinion that you cannot get them too wet.  My liquid lubed patches are dripping when I put them on the muzzle.  The starter causes liquid to spray when I strike the ball to start it.  Greased patches too are saturated and thick with lube.  Much of it stays at the muzzle when I start a ball, and coats the bore all the way to the charge.  Different strokes...

[hanshi]

For lubing patches it's mink oil and Hoppes #9 BP Lube.  I also tend to use a lot of lube with both.  When the prb is started at the muzzle enough lube is squeezed out that I normally wipe off the excess which collects on the muzzle crown.  I don't melt the mink oil and soak the patches; just wipe them a few times across cake of lube in the tin.  With Hoppes I put several patches in an old musket cap tin and dribble the lube over them until they are nice and wet.

[Daryl]

Stop worrying and shoot. I lube stacks of patches with Bear grease (as you explain above) and make no effort to squeeze out any excess. What is over-lubed and how would anyone know?

This kinda shows too much of a greasy lube.
Powder granules stuck to the bottom of the patch that did not burn with the main charge, but can be lit and burns now.

[Iktomi]

I like a pretty juicy patch. I mostly use my tallow/beeswax blend and I goober my patches up pretty good.

[Darkhorse]

You have too much lube if your patch and ball looks like a wet T-Shirt contest. Seriously. Best description I can think of with a wet lube.
It all depends on the type lube used. With a thicker lube like Mink Oil, Wonder lube or even Crisco, I rub it into the dark side until it just starts to show through to the other side, then put the dark side down.
If using LeHigh valley I spray the patch until it feels wet but not sopping.
Lately I've been working with canola oil. I wet a strip of patching completely then lay another strip of dry patch on top and fold them over to where the wet touches the dry, then put them in a mint container with snap top for a couple of weeks. The oil will migrate to the dry patch (may need a little extra on the dry patch) and both will look translucent but won't feel oily wet to the touch.
I load a canola patch for the first shot, thereafter I spritz a little LeHigh Valley on the strip before loading. I'm doing this for a specific purpose and so far it seems to be working like I want it too.
More work remains to be done with this lube after turkey season.

[Turtle]

 I hunt with patches totally soaked in melted mink oil and not squeezed out. My gun fires after being loaded for weeks. Mink oil will not soak the powder, that is one of it's big advantages.

[m1garand_man]

It turns put that I'm leaving my patches over lubed. I will take a stack of patches and soak them in molten lube until bubbles stop comming out and then gently pull the stack out and set it aside to harden up.

It seems to me that I should be pressing some of that lube put of the stack before letting it cool so they aren't over lubed. My concern is over doing that and making them too dry. How do I know when they are good?

How do you lube your patches?

Stop worrying and shoot. I lube stacks of patches with Bear grease (as you explain above) and make no effort to squeeze out any excess. What is over-lubed and how would anyone know?

I think excessive is when you have unburned powder stuck to the bottom of your fired patches which I have been dealing with.

[m1garand_man]

Stop worrying and shoot. I lube stacks of patches with Bear grease (as you explain above) and make no effort to squeeze out any excess. What is over-lubed and how would anyone know?

This kinda shows too much of a greasy lube.
Powder granules stuck to the bottom of the patch that did not burn with the main charge, but can be lit and burns now.

Yep, that is a picture I originally posted of my problem. This thread was meant to be a bit of a restart / segway into a different but relate topic of how best to solve my problem.

[m1garand_man]

I like a pretty juicy patch. I mostly use my tallow/beeswax blend and I goober my patches up pretty good.

That's about what I do but with bees wax and coconut oil 50/50 or stright coconut oil. Below 70* both are fairly thick but they load easy and the bore stays fairly clean esspecially with the straight coconut oil

[rollingb]

I don't see how a few grains of powder sticking to a patch can create a problem worth worrying about.

Someone please help me out here. 

[Hungry Horse]

Bees wax, and coconut oil, IMO you have a patch lube problem. Back in the days of flint, and percussion firearms, target shooters used whale oil on their patches. But, the guys that bet their lives on being able to shoot not only several shots, but shoot them accurately as well, use some form tallow for patch lube. I know nothing about the modern craze of using coconut oil for patch lube, but I do know about bees wax. It doesn’t take very much bees wax to cause problems in patch lube. First off the bat much of the store bought bees wax comes from China, and isn’t all bees wax. We have no purity standards on bees wax, so who knows what’s in it. I used locally produced bees wax that I am quite sure was all bees wax, and even then when more that a very small amount was added,( just to give the tallow/bear oil more body) crusts would form where the ball rested on the powder.
 I probably don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ve only been shooting black powder for about forty five years.

 Hungry Horse

[smylee grouch]

I also have never had very good luck with any combination using bees wax for muzzle loader patches, same as Hungry Horse. But a tallow such as Bear lard/oil and mutton lard or deer lard and tracks mink oil has always worked in any weather or temps.

[moleeyes36]

I also have never had very good luck with any combination using bees wax for muzzle loader patches, same as Hungry Horse. But a tallow such as Bear lard/oil and mutton lard or deer lard and tracks mink oil has always worked in any weather or temps.

This thread is at risk of getting into another "what's your favorite patch lube" thread and away from the original question posted.  But like Smylee Grouch, I've tried Track's Mink Oil in temperature's from below freezing to the upper 90's and though it changes from a solid at the lower end to a semi-liquid at the higher end of that range, it always performs well for me and is my only hunting lube.  I use a liquid patch lube for nearly all target work but that's just my preference.  I've never tried bear oil or a lard, but I may do that some day.

Like Hungry Horse and Smylee Grouch, I've never been impressed with a patch lube containing bee's wax.  I've never used it with much success except as an ingredient in a lube for conical bullets in my Civil War era rifle musket.  But others may have a different experience with it.

Mole Eyes

[rollingb]

Bees wax, and coconut oil, IMO you have a patch lube problem. Back in the days of flint, and percussion firearms, target shooters used whale oil on their patches. But, the guys that bet their lives on being able to shoot not only several shots, but shoot them accurately as well, use some form tallow for patch lube. I know nothing about the modern craze of using coconut oil for patch lube, but I do know about bees wax. It doesn’t take very much bees wax to cause problems in patch lube. First off the bat much of the store bought bees wax comes from China, and isn’t all bees wax. We have no purity standards on bees wax, so who knows what’s in it. I used locally produced bees wax that I am quite sure was all bees wax, and even then when more that a very small amount was added,( just to give the tallow/bear oil more body) crusts would form where the ball rested on the powder.
 I probably don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ve only been shooting black powder for about forty five years.

 Hungry Horse

Synthetic whale oil can be found here,..... https://www.dixiegunworks.com/index/page/product/product_id/2663/product_name/LA0101+Dixie+Gun+Works+Synthetic+Sperm+Whale+Oil

[Black Hand]

I don't see how a few grains of powder sticking to a patch can create a problem worth worrying about.

Someone please help me out here. 

I'm with you on this.
If the ball goes where I point it, so what if a few grains of powder remain....?

[Daryl]

The problem m1garand_man was having, was not only the excess lube, but fliers caused by his burnt/cut patches - which were too thin combined with a grossly undersized a ball,

 in my opinion.

As with Smylee and others, I use either Track's mink oil, or Neetsfoot Oil straight-up for hunting.  I have some nice clear Bear Oil as well as a small quantity of bear grease that I

might test, then use in the future.

I have used marmot oil, but they are protected species now.  The bear grease I used back in the 70's worked very well as a hunting lube, but was even better in pie crusts- so light

and flakey.

In my opinion, beeswax is VERY useful if you make your own bullet lube for BL ctg. shooting - or for shooting slugs in a ML.  It is not a patch lube nor is it needed as a patch lube as

far as I am concerned.  I bought 25 pounds of 1st run wax from a bee keeper in Minnesota back in the 80's or 90's. I still have about 12 pounds left.  I saw some outfit on line was selling a

1 ounce block of PURE of BW for $4.95 - I laughed out loud when I saw that.  That's $79.20 per pound.  The beeswax I have remaining, at that price is worth $950.40 + LOL!  Since the

25 pounds I bought, cost me $94.00 delivered to me by the bee keeper on their way to Alaska, that would be a good markup.

Any buyers - make you a deal - only $500.00!

[hanshi]

An over powder wad of some sort will help protect those patches.  I use them fairly frequently and most always in the bush.  Best fix is a good balance of ball size, patch thickness and a good lube.