Definitive patch lube?

[Scota4570]

I am working with a fickle rife, a 32.  I just ordered three sizes of balls.  I has been using only .312 from a lee mould.  I have many thicknesses of patch material.  I have tried several lubes.

Lubes?.......Everyone has one they prefer. There are lots of opinions.  I am a bit tired of guessing.  Why re-invent the wheel?

What is the most popular patch lube one the line at Friendship? 

[Ghillie]

I have a .32 that I have shot since @ 1972.  I used a .315 ball and a light patch.  Won several matches at 100 yards and down to 25 yards.  Killed lots of squirrels with it.  Actually, my favorite muzzleloader over the years.  I used a spit patch on the range in matches and a grease patch hunting.  Mink oil lube or even a light vegetable oil and suet lube should do fine.  I added a little oil to the suet so it wouldn't be so hard.  Really, pretty much any good lube should work.  Probably the patch/ball combination is the key.  My rifle wasn't fussy.  I also have a .32 percussion rifle I built for my wife.  It does fine too.  Both are 1 in 66 twist.  My flinter has a 38" barrel and the percussion has a 28" barrel.

[Jeff Murray]

I have used Hoppes #9 plus with a .315 ball and .018 patch with excellent results.  Results similar to those noted above.

[smylee grouch]

Never been to Friendship but have shot in a lot of  other    NMLRA matches. X-stix , light bench, bench and chunk gun match shooters use a lot of Teflon coated patching. No lube at all except the sprayed on Teflon.

[B.Barker]

All the .32's I've shot liked very thin oily lube. I have also had better accuracy from barrel with wide grooves over ones with narrow grooves. The .32 seems to be more fussy than larger calibers in my experience.

[Daryl]

The same goes for any projectile launching device - the larger the bore, the more accurate they are - potentially.
My .32 had very narrow grooves, wider lands and shot into 1 1/2" at 50 yards. That was the best i could get out of it.
At the same time, I was also shooting a .40 Goodoien and .45 GM rifles and getting 1/2" groups.  What I did find with the
.32, was that it shot identically with water based lube or a slippery one like Track's Mink Oil. It shot the same with a .311"
RB from a  DC Lee mould and the .320" balls from a DC Lee .319" mould. Both sized balls also loaded about the same using
either the .021" ticking, or the .0225" denim patches I had at that time. I also shot it with the larger balls and the .0235"
mattress ticking. On several occasions, just for fun, I loaded those by just pushing them into the bore with a choked up
hickory rifle rod, then down onto the powder with the same 5/16" rod.  The Mink oil was easier loading than the water based
due to it's slippery nature. At no time, did I ever experience any fouling buildup.
This crown is the reason it loaded so easily with somewhat snug loads.
The width of grooves and lands is easily observed in the pictures.

[MuskratMike]

For what it's worth I have tried every conceivable combination on my .32 Gillespie. In the end I found a .310 round ball, a .020 cotton drill patch, a lube of half TOTW mink oil and half pure Neatsfoot oil (for both target and hunting) with 35 grains of Goex 3F. This works for me but like others have said .32's can be finicky so you will have to find what works in yours. Good luck.

[Dennis Glazener]

My Rice 32 cal barrel would easily shoot 5 shot quarter size groups at 35 yards (from a rest) using LHV Lube. I was amazed at how little fouling there was in the barrel when I cleaned it. I used 30 grains of Goex 3F with .020 pillow ticking. The balls were some hand cast soft lead a friend gave me I have forgotten what size they were. Sure wish I had more of the original LHV Lube.
Dennis

[Bassdog1]

I spend most of my range time with a 32 rifle either a Seneca or Cherokee and have use both Hoppes #9 BP Lube and Cleaner and Tracks Mink Oil. I use .315 swaged balls and .010 Patch that I buy from Eastern Maine Shooting Supply. 15-20 grains of Powder and I have used Standard Goex, Goex Olde Eynsford and Swiss 3f all with good results. I use Tracks Mink Oil exclusively while squirrel hunting.

[Marcruger]

Dennis, Bill Knight shared with me that Mr Flintlock’s formula came from the original maker of LVL. I still have half a bottle of cherished LVL, but cannot tell a difference in it versus Mr Flintlock.  Give it a try my friend, and then say “thank you” to Bill.  🙂

Mr Flintlock and LVL both remove graphite from modern BPs.  That is important to me as I found nothing else would. Mr Flintlock is also a fine wet lube.  I also do not have to worry if my cleaner will remove a concocted baked-on lube in the bore.

In my testing I found that Hoppes BLACK POWDER cleaner and lube is slipperier than LVL/Mr Flintlock by a bit.  In fact, it is amazingly slippery. That said, it doesn’t remove graphite.  Still need Mr Flintlock for cleanup. 

For my main cleaning (80%) I use cheap blue windshield washer fluid.  For the last 20% I switch to Mr Flintlock. This simply saves quantities of Mr Flintlock.  You could clean the whole way with Mr Flintlock of course. 
God bless, Marc

[Daryl]

I also find LHV and Mr. Flintock's lube to be very similar if not identical - in use. In fact, when my bottle
 of Mt.Flintlock's lube was down to 1/4, I filled it back up with some 'bulk' LHV I have.

[Marcruger]

I wish I knew where bulk LVL could be found. 😁

[hanshi]

With my .32 flint longrifle I plan to do more testing at some point, but so far the RB swamped "A" wgt. Rice barrel really likes 20 grns of Swiss 3F, a .311" ball cast from a Lee mold and a heavy canvas patch around .023" compressed.  My favorite lube for general shooting is Hoppes, and Hoppes has never failed me.  TOW mink oil is for the woods and hunting where it excels.  I generally put lots of lube on my patches, never drippy, as any excess is squeegeed off at the muzzle.  In another .32 I could never beat 30 grains of Goex 3F with a ticking patch. 

[Darkhorse]

I concur with those who like Mr. Flintlocks lube. It's my favorite for general shooting. Years ago when I finished my turkey rifle with a premium Rice .40 caliber barrel I had the dicken's getting it to shoot over 2 shots in a row. Too much hard fouling to seat a ball and could hardly clean it. I tried to shoot it several times with the same results.
Then one day I noticed a bottle of LHV on my bench, unopened, I had never tried it but I would today.
To make a long story short that LHV did the job. I was using a .395 round ball and .0185 ticking. I dropped to .015 ticking and loaded it up. Wow did that ball seat smooth. Second shot too. I had found my load.
After shooting around 100 balls I tried other lubes and a thicker patch. All shot great.
The LHL and probably the Mr. Flintlocks I only use for practice, not hunting. As they can dry out and cause other problems.
For hunting with the small calibers I use Canola oil. This also works good for general shooting but requires more frequent cleaning.
Get you some Mr. Flintlocks lube and enjoy.

[bob in the woods]

I had a .32 and it shot consistent 3/4 in groups out to about 35 to maybe 40 yards. At 50 yards my groups opened up to over an inch with flyers out to 1 1/2 in or slightly more. I traded it off and built a .36 which was an honest 50 yard gun.  We had a fellow at our club who used his .36 out to 100 yards and won matches with it. He was loading 60 gr of 3F at that range .
For the purpose they were intended , ie hunting small game, the .32 is great but I like something bigger for target or general shooting.   

[Daryl]

Scot, when I used Track's Mink Oil for lube on our trail with the .32, I found the last load (50th or so), went down easier than the first one.
I also found no difference in accuracy between that stuff and WWF+ a tich of Neetsfoot oil, but I did increase my powder charge 5gr. with
the Mink Oil. Seems to me that day I was shooting .311" balls and the Mattress Ticking, loading a few into the muzzle just for demo using
only the peg on the short starter's knob to PUSH the patched ball in to the barrel - no hitting necessary. The muzzle crown's angles and
smooth radius makes a huge difference here. I might also have been using the .320" ball and same patch or maybe the thinner .0225" denim
I also used in that rifle.  Really did not see any increase or loss in accuracy using the larger ball and thicker Ticking patch that runs .0235" thick.
What I did find, was that while the water based WWWF+oil lube did not push down as easily as the slippery Mink Oil. This is common in all my
guns.  LHV and Mr. Flintlock's lube also load easily with tight loads.
I think the takeaway here, is that there was not much if any difference in accuracy, no matter which lube or patch/ball combo was used. The weakest
combo used today in my .36, is a .350" ball and .021" 10 ounce denim patch, spit, oil or grease lubed. Easy loading. Here's that muzzle crown.

[Marcruger]

I have to agree that it is hard to go wrong with Lehigh Valley Lube or its near clone Mr Flintlock.  Slippery, and aids in easy cleanup.  Also, it removes graphite. 

If it is going to be in the bore a while, like hunting, use Track's pure Mink Oil.  Not as slippery, but it won't foul the powder or damage a bore. 

God Bless,   Marc

[doubleset]

I have tried a variety of things.  Now, I am settled on a combination of olive oil and Simple Green.  It's miraculous.  The Simple Green seems to eliminate all the fouling that nothing else dealt with.  The function of the olive oil is to prevent the  patches from drying out.  If I just use Simple Green, it works great.  But if I lube a bunch of patches and then try to shoot with them at one session, the Simple Green dries out over that time and the dried patches don't work.  But if you want to just spritz your patch before you load, a little spray bottle of Simple Green would be all you need.  Honestly, it's like magic.  Nothing else I tried worked like this.

[JBJ]

That's quite and endorsement for Simple Green! I'll ask if no one else will, what's the ratio of olive oil to Simple Green? Thanks.
J.B.