Gatofeo #1

[BobJ]

I am going to mix some wad lube. I got felt from Durofelt, drilled wads with a cartridge case as outlined on this forum, and want to make some Gatofeo lube. I only approximated in the past, but even then, my 7-1/2" bore was totally shiny after long shooting sessions.


Anyway, it is 1 part mutton tallow, 1 part paraffin, 1/2 part beeswax BY WEIGHT. Since I have no scale access, can I approximate this by VOLUME?

[AtlLaw]

I doubt that the density of the three is the same...     I 'spose you could guesstamate the weight by hand and that really should be close enough, or maybe you could make a balance scale with a couple of sticks... 
 
Or, I'll be heading down to the man cave soon and I could weigh out all 3 and see if the volumn approximates the weight of each... 
 
But I know you wouldn't want me to go to all that rouble when you could just buy a $2 kitchen scale next time you went to the store!      
 
But I'll do it if you want me to... 

[BobJ]

I think I'll postpone mixing till next WE, and check for cheap scale this week. You're right, AtlLaw, I don't need lab quality instrumentation here, do I?


Neither of my C&Bs work right now, no hurry!

[AtlLaw]

I don't need lab quality instrumentation here, do I?

 

[Gatofeo]

I use an expensive kitchen scale I bought at Gat-Mart for about $8. I also use it for cooking. Handy to have a scale in the kitchen that goes up to 4 pounds.
I doubt very much you'd get the same mix by using volume. The original 19th century recipe called for 10 pounds of paraffin, 10 pounds of tallow and 5 pounds of beeswax. When I began posting the recipe that was soon named Gatofeo No. 1 Lubricant, I simply reduced the weight of the ingredients but not their ratio.
I've substituted various tallows, old candles, synthetic beeswax, Crisco, etc. in experimentation. None have worked as well as mutton tallow, canning paraffin and real beeswax in the 10/10/5 ratio.

[BobJ]

I sprang for a scale at Gat-mart, my favorite place ever, for $5.95. By weight, the volumes were radically different than I could have imagined. Duro Felt. Gatofeo #1. Shooting heaven.
 
Last week at the range I kept all shots on a pie plate-sized bull at 50 yd, bore was shiny afterwards. Surely that must freak out the guys with the black pistols that can barely hit a silhouette at 25? Anyway, with my new lube and wads the gun just seemed to be more accurate and shoot better. Thanks to all for your help.

[Gatofeo]

Some years ago, at the local gravel pit, I met some soldiers shooting a Beretta 92 on their day off. They had 9mm holes in a 10" group at about 20 yards. I had my Uberti-made Remington 1858 with me, a cap and ball revolver that is amazingly accurate.
So, I loaded up the beast and began shooting my own target at 25 yards, from a benchrest. The two soldiers looked over and were amazed to see a group that could almost be covered with a silver dollar. They tried my benchrest: 4" groups at the same 25 yards.
Those soldiers couldn't believe that such an "old gun" could be so accurate. They assumed it had a smooth bore until I showed them the rifling down the bore. Through the years, I've surprised a number of shooters with the accuracy of a good cap and ball revolver, with a good load.
The late gun writer Elmer Keith wrote that he had an 1851 Navy around the time of World War I that would put its balls into a cloverleaf pattern at 20 yards, even though it had a pitted bore. He swapped it for a .38 Special and always regretted it, as the .38 he got wasn't as accurate as the 1851 Navy.
Yep, I've tried a variety of different lubricants through the years, soaked into felt wads, but the recipe that was later named after me -- Gatofeo No. 1 Lubricant -- is the best I've found. With a hard felt wad, it will keep the bore clear of fouling the entire length. Other lubricants will keep the bore free of fouling for 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up the bore, then leave a thick layer of fouling in the last portion. It's as if the lubricant runs out or loses its effectiveness.
Not so with the Gatofeo No. 1 home-brew mix. I use it for all black powder applications: bullets in black powder cartridges, patches for my .50 muzzleloading rifle, shotgun wads, Minie' balls in my .58-caliber Enfield, etc. It simplifies things to make one lubricant and use it for all black powder applications.
Some years ago I even lubricated some .38 semiwadcutters with it and seated them over a middling load of Bullseye. Worked fine. I've never tried it in high-velocity smokeless loads, but I suspect it wouldn't fare nearly as well in this application.
Glad you had an enjoyable experience. The 1851 Navy is one of my favorite cap and ball models.

[Charcoal]

Gatofeo No. 1 Lubricant  is muy bueno!! I also use it for all my BP needs. Duro-Felt sells great felt products at reasonable prices.I'm glad DGW has mutton tallow back,great stuff.

[AtlLaw]

yup yup and yup!   
 
Darn shame I ain't tried that Bambi Tallow yet...     

[Cornbelt]

  Bambi tallow:  Speaking of which, could it be used as a good substitute for mutton tallow?
 Not too many muttons around here, but have plenty of the other, and keep bees, so plenty bees wax.
 
  And, by the way, is it kidney fat (hard), or belly fat (soft)?

[Gatofeo]

No, you cannot approximate by volume. It won't give the same ratios.
The old original recipe, once used by factories for outside lubricated bullets, called for 10 pounds of tallow, 10 pounds of paraffin and 5 pounds of beeswax. After finding that old recipe in a 1943 publication (and it was an old recipe when published back then), I used the same ratios but decided to use the finest ingredients available.
Thus, I used mutton tallow, canning paraffin (for its purity) and beeswax.
GatMart has small, inexpensive kitchen scales that will work for weighing ingredients. Typically, these run about $10 or a little less. It's easier to measure if you use metrics. I measure 200/200/100 grams of canning paraffin, mutton tallow and beeswax, respectively.
Weigh the ingredients. You'll get a more accurate measure and a better result.

[Rojelio]

Gatofeo, did you ever experiment with hog lard in the place of mutton tallow? I know DGW sells the mutton tallow, but, around here hog lard would be way easier and cheaper to get. Thanks

[powderman]

Gatofeo, did you ever experiment with hog lard in the place of mutton tallow? I know DGW sells the mutton tallow, but, around here hog lard would be way easier and cheaper to get. Thanks

 
I used the lard instead of tallow and it worked great, I went by volume, not weight.  Good clean shooting. POWDERMAN. 

[Rojelio]

In my local grocery store you can buy lard from a 1 lb. block to a 5 gal. container. I bought 1 lb. to try. It was $1.29.

[capnballer]

Use Gatofeo#1 great stuff we use lard but also a waxed 90# paper wad on top of powder charge to keep from contaminating the charge.Works wonderfull.Can shoot over 100 charges and no fouling to speak of.Clean up a breeze.

[Gatofeo]

Yep, I've used beef lard and pig tallow in the Gatofeo No. 1 Lubricant recipe. Not as good, but works okay.
The British specified mutton tallow in their bullet lubricant recipes for black powder, clear back to the 1850s. Now, it may have been to avoid having their Hindu and Muslim troops near sacred beef (Hindu belief) or unclean pig (Muslim and Jewish belief) grease, but there is something in mutton tallow that really works to reduce black powder fouling.
Some folks claim it's the lanolin, but others claim that the glands that produce lanolin are nowhere near the fat used to render into tallow. I dunno. But I do know that mutton tallow works the best of all the tallows I've tried: bacon grease, deer, turkey, chicken, bear, lard of unknown content and beef lard. Haven't tried moose or elk tallow.
My great-great-great-not so great- great Grandpa Gato swore by Dodo Bird tallow, mixed with Passenger Pigeon grease. Kinda hard to find those ingredients today.