Patch Lube?

[hudson]

Range 20/80% Ballistol/Water, Hunting coconut oil.

[MuskratMike]

I have always wondered? Why do people use different lubes for range shooting and hunting? If you lube for hunting gives fine results why not use it all the time? Practice like you play was a term we used in the fire service.

[Tilefish]

I have been using mink oil for years and it works well but tends to turn to liquid in the Florida summers. I recently tried Frontiers patch lube with bear oil. The stuff is slippery as eel $%$!. And loads very easy with a tight patch. Also does not turn to liquid in the heat. I do not get any better accuracy from it. But loading is noticeably easier.

[Hungry Horse]

 The truth of the matter is any lube that comes pre-bottled with a label doesn’t have to adhere to their formula by law. So basically you don’t know what your using when you buy multi ingredient lubes. Its like pillow ticking, almost nobody uses feathers in pillows anymore, so ticking doesn’t have to be tight enough to hold them. Don’t operate on what was true in the sixties, use what frontiersmen used grease, and linen.

 Hungry Horse

[hanshi]

I use mink oil for hunting because the gun can be left loaded if not fired.  But for day to day I use Hoppes BP Lube or their Bore Cleaner.  The Hoppes goes further than the mink oil and that's the $$ advantage IMHO.  I do sometimes use mink oil at the range but not that often.

[Jeff Murray]

I've used Hoppes for lube and Windex to swab between shots on the range. That combo has produced a consistent bore and muzzle velocities over a chronograph, particularly when I used to shoot in low humidity in Arizona. It also more closely duplicates the first shot out of a clean barrel when hunting.  Any more for target shooting I need all the help I can get.  Have also used Hoppes when hunting - I soak the patches in the loading block and sometimes carry that in a plastic bag to keep them moist.  Usually dump my loads at night and clean with Hoppes.  With a flintlock I like to start fresh and dry in the morning. 

[WadePatton]

I've used Hoppes for lube and Windex to swab between shots ...  Usually dump my loads at night and clean with Hoppes.  With a flintlock I like to start fresh and dry in the morning.

Mine stays loaded from opening day until I shoot at game usually.  Sometimes that means it's loaded for weeks and has gone months before being fired.

Goes off like a rifle with a prick of the charge and a fresh pan. Every time in my experience.  I'm not arguing with your way, just illustrating that success can be had other ways. Greased patches or oiled--the gun speaks right up and is on target every time I've checked.

[Daryl]

Same here, Wade. The longest I've had a rifle loaded, was 3 months. Got out once and didn't see anything. After the season was over, I "repaired" to the range, set up a target at 100 meters
and fired 3 shots with the same patch and lube, the first one, being there for 3 months. It started a 1 1/2", 3 shot group at 100meters. The was 15 years ago, maybe 17? Dang, I wish I could still shoot that rifle, like that.

[Paul from KY]

Olive oil or canola oil works for me.

[WadePatton]

Hey something else I noticed (as I perused the patch lube threads of the last dozen years here) is that somewhere someone equated sheep tallow with lanolin.

Those are not the same thing, They may shoot the same (I've ne'er tried either) but lanolin is the oily/waxy secretions that, in part, make wool such a wonderful and useful fabric. Tallow-as I know it, only comes from rendering out the fat from the carcass of the animals. Tallow comes from dead animals, lanolin is extracted from raw wool-something that wool sheep produce over and over again. I have not found any fatty acids breakdown of either

Consider that in your formulations and experimentations and when deciphering old recipes.

On that note, I have some "lanolin oil" in front of me that's begging to be soaked into a patch or three. It's a liquid lanolin that I thought might be good for my skin, but I don't find it useful there (found it on Ebay a few years back, and it's "pure organic"). I use pure waxy, thick, normal lanolin for that (finding nothing better for my hands and working outdoors every day).  And now I have this 4oz of lanolin oil to dispose of.  May as well shoot it. 

Could be a "new" recipe forthcoming! 


But wait there's more (for those interested in lanolin history and chemistry):  https://lanolin.com/about-lanolin/

From there I see that lanolin "lacks the glycerol content found in body fat". Good or bad, there it is.

Tallow is primarily triglycerides. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallow)
 
Knowledgeable chemists might know even more about how these compare and what makes either a preferred substance for shooters.

Or we just shoot and see. 

[hanshi]

Having used a lot of different patch lubes over the decades I came to a logical (for me) conclusion about them in general.  If I have to shoot a bear or butcher a sheep for my lube it's not worth my time.  Also, if I have to work and sweat over a boiling cauldron on a stove while my squeeze keeps complaining about the smell, I won't go there either.  And as for mixing stuff together - maybe only two liquids in a bottle is a possibility - that's unnecessary as well.

What I will do is buy good lubes (Hoppes, TOW mink oil, DGW's Black Solve for example) that I've found works for me.  Just not a natural experimenter I guess.

[MuskratMike]

Hanshi: You are a wise man. I either use T.O.T.W. mink or T.O.T.W mink and pure neat's-foot oil melted together in a 50/50 mix. either or both work equally well. Shoot this lube year round target, trail walk or hunting.

[Bassdog1]

Hanshi when you run out of Hoppes hit me up I still have a lifetime supply

[mushka]

I use totw mink oil exclusively because it is easy.  I've made lubes and found it too work and time inclusive and was no better than the mink oil.

[Mule Brain]

40 dawn/60 water

Just shot match for five days straight and never cleaned

[WadePatton]

40 dawn/60 water

Just shot match for five days straight and never cleaned

Did you win any prizes? Wipe or no?

[hanshi]

Hanshi when you run out of Hoppes hit me up I still have a lifetime supply

Bassdog1, thank you my friend, I'll probably do that when I get close to running out.  I'll PM you at that time.  Lifetime supply, wow!  I ordered this drum of Hoppes several years ago as it was so much cheaper than getting it in bottles.  Can't remember where I ordered it from but happily used it for years.  In our last move I had to leave it behind and it still had a little bit left in it.

[Panzerschwein]

Mink oil or spit.

[Mule Brain]

40 dawn/60 water

Just shot match for five days straight and never cleaned

Did you win any prizes? Wipe or no?

Took a couple ribbons, and zero wiping

[WadePatton]

40 dawn/60 water
Just shot match for five days straight and never cleaned

Did you win any prizes? Wipe or no?

Took a couple ribbons, and zero wiping

Good shootin'!  thanks for the reply

[Dphariss]

I tend to use beef or deer tallow, triple boiled, or Pure Neatsfoot Oil. For my chunk rifle I use water soluble oil 1:5 or 1:7 oil to water then wet the fabric and then let the water evaporate. High friction lube and it shoots very well but requires wiping. Blowing in the barrel before loading I can shoot pretty much indefinitely with the tallow or NF oil. I have left the tallow in the bore for several months after hunting season pulled the loads and no sign of any corrosion. I only used a couple of drops of the oil per patch. Just enough that the patch will be uniformly oiled after a few hours. I only put tallow on one side of the patch but rubbing the patch on the tallow.
I ringed a barrel back in the 1960s with spit and stopped using it. Water based lubes cannot be left in a fouled barrel for any length of time. And the damage is cumulative.  Of course I have another barrel from that time with no ring. But I think I used a lot of DGW “Old Zip” patch grease in that one.
Sperm Whale oil was a favorite back in the day and its higher friction than tallow or Neatsfoot. But its not really an  oil but a liquid wax and was used until about 1970 as ATF.
But people ought to use what ever makes them happy. Just make sure you get ALL the fouling out.

[Dphariss]

I tend to use beef or deer tallow, triple boiled, or Pure Neatsfoot Oil. For my chunk rifle I use water soluble oil 1:5 or 1:7 oil to water then wet the fabric and then let the water evaporate. High friction lube and it shoots very well but requires wiping. Blowing in the barrel before loading I can shoot pretty much indefinitely with the tallow or NF oil. I have left the tallow in the bore for several months after hunting season pulled the loads and no sign of any corrosion. I only used a couple of drops of the oil per patch. Just enough that the patch will be uniformly oiled after a few hours. I only put tallow on one side of the patch but rubbing the patch on the tallow.
I ringed a barrel back in the 1960s with spit and stopped using it. Water based lubes cannot be left in a fouled barrel for any length of time. And the damage is cumulative.  Of course I have another barrel from that time with no ring. But I think I used a lot of DGW “Old Zip” patch grease in that one.
Sperm Whale oil was a favorite back in the day and its higher friction than tallow or Neatsfoot. But its not really an  oil but a liquid wax and was used until about 1970 as ATF.
But people ought to use what ever makes them happy. Just make sure you get ALL the fouling out.

I should have added deer tallow too interchangeable with beef tallow made the same way.

[Dphariss]

I have always wondered? Why do people use different lubes for range shooting and hunting? If you lube for hunting gives fine results why not use it all the time? Practice like you play was a term we used in the fire service.

IMO a high friction lube gives just a little better accuracy than a slick lube. A friend has a rifle that only shoots really well with Sperm Whale oil.
While for most uses a slick lube may work well and some loads/rifles might prefer this. In string measure matches where fractions of an inch count I use the high friction WS oil mix.  And as another friend of mine stated “You don’t have to wipe every shot, but you have wipe ever shot to win”.

[Hunterdude]

I have a kibler SMR .32 ordered and it will primarily see hunting. with paper targets Only for sighting in and load testing. As a hunter I am trying to avoid water based lubes and am interested in TOTW mink vs bumblin bear but not stuck on these lubes, my only concern is it is often mentioned these lubes require a bit larger powder charge and that make sence to me if the lube is real slick, the ball will begin it's journey down the barrel before the powder charge has had a chance to make peak pressure. In a .32 the little extra powder is not a great concern $ wise but I like light loads and 35 yard shots or less as my eyes are aging. The reason I don't care for a larger charge than necessary is it seems the extra powder just makes for more fowling to clean.
   My question is: is there anything to help combat needing extra powder to hit same point of impact with mink/ bear lube as compared to a spit patch or similar? I was thinking along the lines of not going to heavy on the grease and a nice snug patch/ball combo but any other tips on shooting bear type grease would be appreciated!

[Daryl]

Hi Hunterdude. My .32 shot about the same with a water based lube, as it did with Track's Mink Oil. What I found with the mink oil, was it loaded easier for the second through 50th shot
without wiping at any time. Not needed for this rifle when hunting small game, as you will reload immediately after shooting. My load was 35gr.3F with and without mink oil. The reason for
the 35gr. was to get decent accuracy out to 50 & even 100yards as we have some long shots on our trail.  That little rifle made those with and without the Mink Oil, same load.
48" twist Bl.
For shooting only to 25yards, 20gr. of 3F put 5 into a .40 calibre hole. The hole was definitely smaller than .50 cal.  I used .018" to .0235" patches. Over that range, the rifle shot about the same.
I also used balls from .311" to .320" with those patch thickness as well. The small ball loads easily with tight loads.  It will only load hard, if your patches aren't thick enough.
The crown is quite important but easily smoothed using just the end of your thumb and some 320 grit emery or wet/dry paper.
My .32 cal. barrel's muzzle.