Lube

[doc623]

Was discussing on another board and thought that I would post here to get some opinions.
The subject is - lube.
I use pure deer tallow - that I have rendered - or a 50/50 mixture of deer tallow and bees wax.
I use the lube for the patches and the sides of the fiber wads that I use.
This lube with a .50 cal patched round ball with 80 gr. of black powder and a lubed fiber wad worked just fine on this fine on my last deer at 50-60 yards quartering away up hill  to take out both lungs and the lower part of one vertebrae. Dropped in his tracks.
Thrashed a couple of times and that was that. The drag was down hill on snow covered ground.
So what do you use for a lube?

[AtlLaw]

I've been using Bore Butter ever since it came out I guess.  Ever since I got all caught up in the substitute propellant craze anyway.   

Now that I've decided to return to "Holy Black" I think I'll go to whichever combination of beeswax, mutton/deer tallow, crisco or parafin that we were talking about in the other thread that I end up liking best!   

[flintlock]

I make my own out of bees wax, Murphy's Oil Soap and castor oil...

I used SnoSeal for about 25 years before switching...

[Winter Hawk]

Flintlock, NO!  Tell me that was a misprint.!  I just got some SnoSeal precisely because your other posts recommended it.  Well, I guess I can still use it on my boots.  I'm going back to olive oil on the patches....

-Winter Hawk-

[necchi]

lube for what?
Patch,,wad,,bullet? there ain't no magic 1 dose cures all mix,,
Well there is 1, it's a secret blend of toad sweat, cat snot, possum squeezins and oil of naugha. Ya add alchohol for the winter and bee's wax for summer,,but I ain't gonna tell ya how many parts of each,,uh-uh,, no way! It's a secret!

[coyotejoe]

About anything that's slippery can be used for a patch lube. For target shooting where the load won't stay long in the barrel and where you'll fire many shots in a day, plain ol spit is hard to beat. Spit patch cleans the bore every time you load so you can fire many shots without loss of accuracy. For hunting you need something that won't cause rust and won't migrate into the powder, thus tallow is very good. Also for conical bullets you need a stiff lube which will remain in the lube grooves of the bullet, tallow is also very good for that. In very cold weather tallow becomes stiff and brittle, so thinning with a bit of olive oil will make it more usable or you could just use straight olive oil for a patch lube, though not for bullets.
 Sooner or later someone will come up with a "multi-viscosity" lube which won't harden in cold and won't run with a hot sun on the rifle barrel. Sooner or later but don't hold your breath. So for now we need a "winter lube" and a "summer lube".

[necchi]

 OK I take it back. There are a ton of guy's that use just one type of lube for several applications. Not to single out atlaw but just an example of borebutter being used for everything.
Usually the multi purpose stuff is some kind of paste rubbed on patches or cooked in, then rubbed on a bullet or packed in the grooves.
 The arguement is generally based on what is satisfactory accuracy for the individual, the kill zone on a deer is huge, you can go from breaking shoulders or spine all they way down to the taking out the bottom of the heart. And any dead deer can give the shooter bragging rights to his personal best shot placement. Put the same guy and gun on a 100 yard range and he might have a hard time hitting a piece of printer paper consistanly and call a shot an 1" off paper "close enough" for minute of deer, git mad at ya for proving it and walk away.
 I use the Dutch Schoultz method for PRB, it takes time and study for each individual to learn this system, as it's based solely on scientific isolation of several variables. It does however give me 1 hole accuracy as far as my eyes can see, consistantly. Once learned, the process can be transfered to all your guns. And Yes there is a specific LUBE perscribed in this system for PRB.
http://www.blackpowderrifleaccuracy.com/
The lube is not applicable to Bullet. I know of 1 lube for bullet that has been developed "in the kitchen" that is used successfully by many, but like coyotejoe said it has seasonal application and variables.
 

[jager]

I started out using "Crisco" to lube my patches until a friend put me on to "Bore Butter". Can't say I can tell the difference except when I'm "frying up the liver"

[flintlock]

Winter, nothing wrong with the SnoSeal, I just kept reading about mixing your own over on the Traditional Muzzleloading website and wanted to try something new...

A few years back, I tried 5-6 different lubes on my patches and really didn't notice a huge difference in group size...What I did notice is that the sight in was different and some lubes did seem to give a few more shots before cleaning...I take care of second shots by either taking the time to run a spit patch down the bore (not a bad practice after shooting anyway) or by simply going to a thinner patch on the second ball...When I shot in competition I noticed my groups would open up unless I cleaned so that's my usual practice anyway...

Dang near everything has been tried for lube, I even know a guy that just uses plan old axle grease, that stuff is too messy for me, but he has won a ton of events, even at Friendship...