shooter50

What do you all use to lube your patches when using a roundball. I was told you shouldnt use bore butter or wonder lube because it freezes solid when hunting in cold weather(used that last year). Was told by a few expericenced black powder guys that they just spray wd-40 on there patches and squeeze out the excess and use that for lube. Just curious on what ya'll use when hunting.

sproulman

i used to use bore butter patchs but when cold out, oh my, that stuff gets hard.

i use HOPPES BLACK POWDER PLUS on my patchs now in winter and a dry barrel.

i dont shoot a lot in winter but in summer, i still use bore butter patchs.

nchawkeye

http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/203261/

I make my own, Stump's Moose Snot...If you don't want to make your own, try SnoSeal, I used that for about 25 years or so before I tried this stuff out...

There have been many lubes that I've heard of through the years from Crisco to vasoline, bear grease, deer fat, groundhog fat, olive oil, balistol, even axle grease...Try several and see what your gun likes...The main thing with shooting patched balls is to look at the patches after the shot and see what they look like...If they are burning through you need a thicker patch, larger diameter ball or a better lube...

cayugad

This is another lube that Stumpkiller (from the sameforum nchawkeye posted)came up with. Its a moose milk reciepe. I used to make something very similar to this (and still do from time to time) using water soluable cutting and grinding oil and no Witch Hazel. I switched to Stumpkillers because of the ease of making it with Castor oil. This is the one I have posted many times in the past. It is a great patch lube. Its the only one I will use now. BUT like nchawkeye said, there are lots of things you can use. I even saw one person shooting hand lotion patches and they did fine. I've used a hand cleaner for a while and it also did well. The main thing is what is the condition of the patch after you shoot? Check your patches.



A general purpose black powder solvent and liquid patch lube. Shake well before using

Castor Oil 4 oz.
Murphy's Oil Soap 1 oz.
Witch Hazel 4 oz.
Isopropyl Alcohol (91%) 8 oz.
Water (non-chlorinated) 16 oz.

I dip my patching in this twice and let it dry between dipping on an old window screen. Makes a semi-dry patch material that's easy to carry & use. If you don't mind carrying a little bottle it's a GREAT liquid lube as is.

Be sure when making the Moose milk to mix the alcohol and castor oil together first. Then add the witch hazel. Add all of this to the water and shake. Finally after that mixture is all together add the Murphy’s oil soap.

shooter50

I will try that out. I was also told that the freezing of the patch in the barrel dosent matter because when you fire the gun the patch (borebutter wonderlube) heats up. Any truth to that?

cayugad

that would be true... although I often wondered how they knew the patch was frozen to the barrel down there?

HEAD0001

We used "Spit Patches" for many many years. A spit patch will work great, however you need to shoot the ball out every day or you can get a small rust ring-I did not like this idea so I switched to Bore Butter.

Any grease product is going to thicken a bit in the cold weather-that is just the nature of grease. Give it a quick rub between your fingers, or put it on the patch and rub it in(or a snuff can already greased). It would be alright to make some-but I have just never been motivated to do so. But then I am not thepurist type. If I was then I would use bear grease.Tom.

flounder33

Cayugad, I am planning to make your moose milk. After you dry out the strips of pillow ticking do you just store them in a plastic bag or something? Does this concoction have a limited shelf life? When you save the liquid in a plastic container or something does it stay in solution or seperate? I'm excited to get the GPR out when the weather shapes up a bit.
Thanks, Art

cayugad

I only make up a stip or two (remember these are three foot long)of the dry patches. I store them in a zip lock plastic bag and they seem to last a long time. Also take a small bottle with a misting cap like OFF Bug juice. When the bottle is empty, fill that with moose milk and then spritz a dry patch and use it that way in warm weather.Just dampen it. It works fine.

As for storing, it will turn clear over time in your bottle, but give it a good shake before use and it looks like milk again as it mixes easy. I've been using a quart of it up for a couple years now and it is still good to use... so the shelf life is a long time.

You can also clean your rifle at the end of the day with this mixture if you want. It will pull fowling real well out of a barrel. But I normally turn to a windex type solution or Simple Green.

sproulman

dave, i have bottle of t/c 13.

i want to use it up in summer .

i guess i would soak the strip same as you do with moosemilk and dry then just damp it at range.

is that right or wrong with t/c stuff.