Using Mink Oil as patch lubricant

[bones92]

I stumbled upon a few tins of mink oil that I had ordered from Track of the Wolf, and I'm thinking about trying it as a patch lube.

So do I just rub each patch on the solid mink oil, then put the patch (lubed side down) on the muzzle and load?  Or should I melt it and add a bit of olive oil to make it more liquid?

I guess the question is about proper usage solid (congealed) patch lubricants, in general.    I could see where after a few shots a warm barrel would soften the mink oil nicely.

[EC121]

I mix it with non-hardening coconut oil. It softens it some in cooler weather. Also seems to make cleaning easier.  The mixing ratio is variable.

[smylee grouch]

A lot of shooters like the patch saturated clear through as I do. So I mix 50\50 mink oil lube with Bear oil , melt it and saturate the patch.

[HSmithTX]

All the patch will hold is the right amount. 

[MuskratMike]

Been using it for years. I however like it mixed 50/50 with pure 100% Neatsfoot oil (not the compound stuff for boots). I put the mink oil (really a grease) in a small saucepan I got from the Goodwill and add to the empty tin an equal amount of Neatsfoot oil. I then take it to the gas stove and melt it together under a very low flame. Once it has melted and combined I take the sauce pan to my shop which is in my garage and let it cool completely and solidify. I keep it in the unheated shop right in the sauce pan. When I am ready to grese some patches I precut my patches and liberally rub in the combined mixture. The 50/50 mixture seems for some reason to work better in the summer and doesn't harden up as much in the cold fall/winter months. If I was using strips and cutting at the muzzle i would consider remelting the mixture then dipping the strips in the liquid then using a pair of needle nose pliers remove the excess liquid back into the pan. i used to do this doing several long strips then rolling them up and storing them in tins until needed. I cone most of my barrels making cutting at the barrel problematic. 

[Scota4570]

I use moose milk with patch ball guns. I have no need for grease or oil as hunting with BP guns is not practical in California.   I have never produced best accuracy with grease or oil patches in my testing. 

Recently I shot my 1858 revolver in a club match.  I have used lots of greasy and soapy concoctions with it.  I tried SPG cut with Jojoba oil at that shoot.  I had hopes for it.  IT was too tacky and accuracy was poor.  If left tacky paste in the bore.  On a whim I had brought some cooking lard to try.  I used the lard over the chambers.  It shot tons better, easily holding the ten ring.  What really impressed me was that I did not need to clean and lube the cylinder pin for the whole shoot.  The lard seems to play well with BP fouling.  The bore was coated with a an oily film.  No cleaning was needed all day. 

I may try lard on patches in the future. 

[Daryl]

Shot the trail one fall or spring with my .32 SMR. Prior to that day, I melted my tin of Track's Mink Oil and dipped all my precut patches in it.
Then squeezed them in a stack, to remove the excess.
The first load was the most difficult. After that, then went down with 2 fingers - .311" ball. .0235" patch. A .320 ball would just barely sit on the muzzle, so it was likely about .319" bore.
I also used a 10 ounce denim at .021" with a .320" ball. Loading did not need a short starter, but I use one, it's faster than pressing the patched ball into the muzzle.
The lands were wider than the grooves in this barrel.
I should note (forgot to) that the 56th shot that day, loaded easier than the first. No wiping at any time from the first yo the last shot  that day or any day I shoot for that matter..

[Bob Gerard]

Yes, Mink Oil paste is what I use if I am not  using spit patch and shooting right away. Just smear it on the patch. Works fine for me.

[Leatherbark]

I lay a patch on the mink oil and rub it with my thumb 3 or 4 times and lay it down with the thumb (dry) side up.  I place the next one with the greasy side on top of the last one's dry side.   After I have a stack of 25 or so I squeeze them by laying a dumbbell on the stack.  After a few hours or overnight they are all greased through but not too much like dipping them.  I have become to like pure clear bear oil better in the last year.

Bob

[Daryl]

Interesting comment on the bear oil. I have some and tried it in my .69. It loaded OK, but I found the Track's mink oil was slicker & easier loading.
Neither needed any wiping while shooting.

[bones92]

Great info, folks.  I'm taking notes and will likely try it.   I've been using a bare-bones moose milk (Ballistol and water) for a while, and it seems to work really well.  But since I bought like 3 or 4 tins of the Mink Oil from TOTW, I figure I should at least try it out.

Plus, the Mink Oil should be good for our leather shoes and boots.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I'm a firm believer in saturated patches, no matter the lube.  To accomplish this with mink oil, I place my pre-cut patches on a smooth board, and apply the grease with my fingers massaging the grease through the patches.  These I place in a tin with a lid to carry in the field. It is necessary to use up these patches fairly quickly, as the grease seams to rot the cotton patches within a couple of months, making them useless.

[hanshi]

I no longer hunt but found TOtW mink oil about perfect for the woods back in the days before I quit.  It loads (for me) a little harder than Hoppes BP Lube but with mink oil one can leave a rifle loaded indefinitely without rust worries. 

I'm another shooter who likes patches that are well lubed.  With an open tin I would lay a patch on the cake and rub it around, then I'd turn it over and repeat.  The patch would have a lot of grease on both surfaces.  I would then rub the patch between thumb and finger to melt and soak the oil all through the patch.  I do not like lightly lubed patches and as long as they are not drippy I want them to hold as much lube as possible.

I don't shoot much nowadays and so I don't use mink oil very often.  With shooting recreationally I find Hoppes easier to apply and prefer that for casual use.

[Daryl]

The super slippery liquid lubes are easier to load, that is a "given".
These include the Hoppe's oil hanshi noted as well as Mr. Flintlock's lube
which is very close to the old LHValley lube. I've used both of those to VERY good effect.
In the smaller calibres, I found the slippery lubes needed more powder to get the same POI
AND accuracy as water based lubes. This is likely due to needing the heavier charges to get
the same 'barrel' friction for good powder burning conditions? The slippery lubes also produced
MUCH higher velocities. The difference was 10gr. in both .40 and .45, yet the vel. increase was
over 400fps.
Once started with the 6" starter, load was a 2-finger affair on the rod.

[Leatherbark]

Interesting comment on the bear oil. I have some and tried it in my .69. It loaded OK, but I found the Track's mink oil was slicker & easier loading.
Neither needed any wiping while shooting.

Yes, Track's mink oil does load easier.

 Although the bear oil is super slippery between the fingers, it does have friction between the bore and patch when seating the ball.  In my rifles, it seems better at keeping patch burn through in check than the Mink oil.  My patches with bear oil can be reused as they have just a brown ring with the imprint of the rifling.  The mink oil patches a similar but often have a small point of burn through making me think the mink oil might be more flammable than the bear oil.

 I have for a long time used your advice about smoothing the muzzle up and like to make them shine like a mirror with my thumb and different grades of wet/dry sandpaper and finally with crocus cloth.  I believe most shooters problems with patch burn through is the smacking of the ball/patch combo into the rifling damaging the patch fibers to where they burn easy when firing.

Bob

[Daryl]

Hi Bob. Glad you found working on the muzzle helped.
If the ball and patch actually seals the bore, there can NEVER be any burn-through, pin-hole or otherwise.
The patch is not in the bore long enough to burn, if there is no blow-by, no matter the lube used, from my experiments.
Even Crisco oil and shortening worked at patch lubes for me, back in the 70's, with perfectly re-usable patches.

[Not English]

I do as Bob Gerard does. I spit patch usually when not hunting. Lately I've been going back and forth about spit patching. I can usually shoot longer with mink oil.

[Daryl]

My rifles and smoothbore need no wiping at any time, no matter the lube I use, from water + soluble oil, spit, Mink oil,
greases or super slippery lubes like Mr. Flintlock or LHV, yes still have some.
Sealing loads do not need wiping as there is no fouling buildup. It cannot, as the fouling from the last shot is wiped down when the next one is loads.
That was just one of the lessons in "The Muzzleloading Cap Lock Rifle" by Ned Roberts, published in 1935, IIRC.

[Bob Roller]

My rifles and smoothbore need no wiping at any time, no matter the lube I use, from water + soluble oil, spit, Mink oil,
greases or super slippery lubes like Mr. Flintlock or LHV, yes still have some.
Sealing loads do not need wiping as there is no fouling buildup. It cannot, as the fouling from the last shot is wiped down when the next one is loads.
That was just one of the lessons in "The Muzzleloading Cap Lock Rifle" by Ned Roberts, published in 1935, IIRC.

Daryl,
I have a  copy of the Ned Book in the cap lock rifle that was given to NMLRA co founder E.M.Farris by Major Roberts,

Bob Roller

[Daryl]

What a treasure, Bob.

[Leatherbark]

Ned Roberts spoke about how IIRC "moist" burning powders not needing to be swabbed between shots.  I guess a certain powder was more moist burning than others back then. Also, no swabbing was needed on damp days. But then again most of those shots in them there days were at 20, 30 and 40 rods distant.

[Daryl]

They shot those longer ranges with the bullet shooting rifles, not patched round balls.
When shooting in very humid or damp days, the only patching out needed that isn't needed in dry weather  is wiping out the pan before priming.

[Flint62Smoothie]

Last time we hunted the PA flintlock season, after waking up in our canvas wall tents, it was 7° one morning, 6° the the next, and 8° the next morning. TOW’s mink oil, is all the 4 of us used. ZERO issues!

At one MZL’ding Snowshoe/Biathlon way up in VT, I had scored the last shooting station for an hour, when it was only 17° out. In the one hour that I scored, I witnessed 8 broken ramrods, 7 using Bore Butter and one with a spit patch.

One of my buddies will load his MZL’dr, using TOW mink oil, for the early deer season in VT, end of October. If he doesn’t take a deer then, or during the late season in early December, he will keep it loaded until the Manchester VT Biathlon held in mid-February.

If he does this, just for fun and for empirical research !!! I will accompany him to the practice range. He puts in fresh prime and his flintlock always goes off and he always hits the gong set out at 40-yards.

It’s almost too bad that he doesn’t spot any deer, L O L!

But otherwise - yes - it can begin to run in temps > 80!

[recurve]

any paste lube that is tallow based can be applied with a double boiler melt the lube dip patching squeeze out extra wrap tightly place in air tight container (  I add a step by mirco waving in a pill bottle)

 I use this with my mutton tallow . I wrap the lubed patching a strip 2 foot long with a an unlubed strip then microwave , in the pill container I get a very even controllable outcome.  the only problem is in very cold weather the patching freezes stiff so I keep in an inner warm pocket till needed

[MuskratMike]

Several years back I switched to T.O.T.W. Mink oil. Even though we don't get the winters many of you do I found mixing the mink oil with an equal amount of 100% pure neatsfoot oil kept the patches from freezing so solid in cold weather. When I make a batch I melt a new can of mink in an old saucepan, while it is melting I fill the empty can with the Neatsfoot oil, pour into the melting mink oil and give it a good stir.