bronko22000

Guys, now that I am going to be shooting PRBs out of my Silver Hawken, I'm going to buy some pillow ticking at Walmart. What is the lube you guys use (or make).?
I used to use melted bore butter years ago.

cayugad

I use moose milk. Today I was using it right out of the bottle, spritzing a patch and loading it. What I do is have a old bug spray bottle with a pump spray on it. I pump some of the moose milk onto the strip of cloth and then roll it up and squeeze it. So when you unroll it, the patch material is slightly damp. If you're going to shoot right away, it makes a good patch.

bronko22000

Dave - What is your recipe for MM. I did a search for moose milk recipe on the web and came up witha drink with kaluha, rum and some other stuff. This stuff is better suited for other than bullet lube...

Powerfisher

I used the Moose Milk mix you mentioned Cayugad. Works great. I found your reciepes from a prvious post.

there are a couple of ways to make moose milk. Its been around for ever it seems and everyone has a little different reciepe. These are the two that I use the most.


#1

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. 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.



#2
4 ounces NAPA Auto Parts #765-1526 Soluble Cutting & Grinding Oil
1 ounce Murphy's Oil Soap
7 ounces 91% Isopropyl alcohol
16 ounces tap water

sabotloader

bronko22000

Which powder and what was your load?

The reason I ask is after doing some research on my own I did find that modern 'pillow ticking' is a 100% cotton but does have mam made fibers in that make is suseptible to heat...

This if from Track of the Wolf

and from RMC

Again from someone that really does not know much about PRB shooting...

Powerfisher

I remember sombody mentioning a round hole punch for patch cutting for the pillow ticking. What exactly is it and where do I find one? My scissors are getting dull and, well, my patches arent very round. What is the correct diameter for a .50 bore? I have been cutting them about 1 3/4" round.

bronko22000

The load I was shooting is 80 gr of Pyrodex P, 490" RB and .015" patch.
The patches are the prelubed with Natural Lube 1000 but I'm running low.

sabotloader

Powerfisher

Dave has really easy way to cut patches - ifn you are making your own. I am not old fashioned enough to do it the correct way.

Semisane

I've tried a number of home made lubes.

For quite a while I was using a mixture of 25% bees wax, 25% Crisco, and 50% olive oil (by either weight or volume - it's not that critical) for both patch lube and conicals. Justput all three components in a glass container (I use a Pyrex measuringcup) and pop it in the microwave until everything turns to liquid. Stir it up a little then pour it into a container of your choice to solidify. I use old bullet boxes and musket cap tins and just rub the patch across the lube before I load. If you want asofter mixture, just add a little more olive oil and put it back in the microwave.



Currently, I'm using the above lube only for conicals, and it's a great conical lube.

For patch lube I've switched to plain old straight olive oil and find I like it much better. I grab the approximate number of patches I figure I'll be using in arange session anddabsome oil on each one using an old Butch's Bore Shine bottle with one of those little fold out spouts witha 1/16" hole.Then I put the patches in a stack, wrap the stack in a paper towel, and squeeze the heck out of it with my fingers. This distributes the oil evenly and the towel absorbs the excess oil. I find that patches with very littleoil are giving me the best accuracy. (If I'm preparing a large number of patches the day before a shoot, I just put a heavy weight on the paper towel wrapped stack and let it sit over night.)

As far as cutting round patches, I don't do that any more. I've satisfied myself that there isn't a hair's difference in accuracy between square or round patches. I cut one-and-a-quarter inch patches and use them in both my .54 and .58. I really like pre-cut patches and have no difficulty getting them centered when loading.

cayugad

Here is how I cut my patches. I do it this way because you always without fail, get a perfect centered patch and ball.



This is a strip of cloth torn off a yard of 100% cotton pillow tick cloth. I even tired to light it on fire today and it did not want to burn. The recovered patches were in extremely good condition. As you can see in this photo, I have applied some of the liquid moose milk to the patch. I then roll that material up to distribute the liquid through the strip and reduce the amount I am going to force down the barrel.



Lay the strip of pillow tick over the muzzle and set the ball in the center of the bore. Then take your starter and drive the material and ball under the muzzle of the bore.



Here you see the ball seated under the muzzle in the bore.



Pinch the material together, and then cut that cloth off,flush to the muzzle of the rifle barrel with a knife, razor, or scissors. With your starter again, seat it further down the bore and then seat it with the ramrod.

That is how I do it. I do not pre cut patches.