Moose Milk

Could someone post some formulas for making moose milk with easy to find ingredients

http://www.frfrogspad.com/homemade.htm

Go to this page and you will find all sorts of home made gun cleaning and lubing products. Scroll down the page to the Black Powder section for a moose milk type solution.

LIQUID MOOSE MILK

#1 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

if you want to use cutting oil.

Second way to make it.

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.

this is an easy to make lube. All the components can be found in a pharmacy. Its a very good (and the one I use) patch lube.

The napa cutting oil was reformulated a while back so i no longer use it , i switched to ballistol instead .
The formula i use is fir moosemilk
1 part ballistol
1 part pinesol
20 parts water .


And for patch lube i use 1 part ballistol 7 parts water
Let patches dry flat

Everything is different from those old recipes. Crisco has a new formula, Toilet bowl rings are no longer pure beeswax, yadda yadda..

Squeeze said:

Everything is different from those old recipes. Crisco has a new formula, Toilet bowl rings are no longer pure beeswax, yadda yadda..

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Exactly . Thats the problem with many of the old recipes . Ballistol has remained the same for over 100 years . At least i think so . But either way it works quite well for me . I have even got to where i like the smell . Kind of a manly perfume

that's way #9 smells to me - wife hates it - complains when I use it - I still haven't got use to balistol

I guess you don;t know what the smell of strong solvent is-then. There's absolutely nothing perfumey in Hoppes #9. Do your wife and kids a favor and spare them your love affair with Hoppes. There's plenty of gun solvents that clean just as well - less or non-toxic and don't smell ghastly like it.

No way man! Hoppes is the scent of a gun! been that way for generations. I love the stuff, have even used it with beeswax as a lube. :wink:

I use Cayuga's #2 formula for patches and swabbing at the range. Works well enough I never changed. If I did change, I would try the Ballistol recipe since I have it on hand and it works very well as a lube and preservative. Seems way less toxic than hoppes or other such.

Just balistol and water. About 1:7 ratio.

Hate the smell of pinesol so never use it.

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Do you guys use "Moose Milk" to clean barrels after Blackhorn....or a different propellant?

Sorry.....I got onto this thread via Search....and didn't realize it was in the Traditional section. So propellants wouldn't be BH209, obviously. My bad.

magnus said:

Do you guys use "Moose Milk" to clean barrels after Blackhorn....or a different propellant?

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No. Because of the water in it, I would never use it to swab or clean any rifle with BlackHorn 209. I actually use either a good solvent or straight isopropyl alcohol.

Squeeze said:

No way man! Hoppes is the scent of a gun! been that way for generations. I love the stuff, have even used it with beeswax as a lube. :wink:

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I have to agree with you squeeze. The smell of Hoppe's #9 brings back gun memories as far back as I can remember. I also remember my mother telling my Dad she did not care for the smell of it. And my father just ignored her as he always did. My ex wife didn't like the smell either, but when she smelt Ballistol the first time ... suddenly Hoppe's was not so bad. Also remember, years ago the brands of solvent was very limited. Dad even used denatured alcohol once in a while to clean his shotgun barrel. He'd take the barrel off that Browning Auto 12 (called a light 12 shotgun ... nothing light about it) and go in the garage and scrub it good. He claimed it was to get the plastic out of the barrel. I just would stand there in awe of the gun and watch (no speaking ... remember when kids were made to do that).

I have five sisters, two daughter and a wife that would rather smell mediciny Ballistol over chemicalized Hoppes #9.

Do yourself and family a health favor and toss it. In 2016, there's little need for gun cleaners that will take the breath right out of you. Plenty out there that work just as good or better than Hoppes - do not smell and are non toxic/lethal.

Edited for content.

forrest-hunter said:

that's way #9 smells to me - wife hates it - complains when I use it - I still haven't got use to balistol

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Yep! Gotta start using garage when using #9!

Hoppes #9 is THE classic nitro solvent. It HAS changed over the years in that it is now sold in plastic containers as compared to the older formulations sold in GLASS exclusively. I lucked into a few old bottles at a gunshow that pre-date zip codes, so early 1960s at the latest. I compared that to some later, glass bottled stuff, there is a slight difference in aroma. My wife has a sensitive sniffer, and she noticed a difference, but she still likes the smell of #9.

When I shot BPCRS competitively, I bought #9 in quart jars, and usually a couple at a time. It cleaned BP just fine, and I never had any rust issues. These days I reserve it for smokeless cleaning including BH209.

I've used other nitro solvents, and those with ammonia were the most offensive to me. I've since made my own "Ed's Red", so won't be purchasing more off the shelf stuff.

Back on (BP)topic, I still read lots of positive comments about Hoppes #9 Plus as a BP patch lube and cleaner. I've not used any since the early 1980s, so don't know how it compares. I don't recall it smelling badly.

Speaking of bad smells, one of the worst that I encountered between relays at a BPCRS match. Several guys were under the pavillion cleaning, and I detected this disgusting odor from the direction of one of the guys. I asked him (seriously) if he crapped himself. It was Chuck, and he was cleaning with Ballistol. :shock: I will NEVER use that stuff.

I have some of the water soluable cutting oil, may have some Murphy's Oil Soap, need to get some Pinesol, and have a source of high percentage alcohol, so may try to emulate the Lehigh Valley and Mr Flintlocks that has been working so well for me. My preference would be to omit the water listed in previous recipes if possible.

For serious cleaning I use Dawn dishwashing detergent and water. :yeah:

let's not over think this bp cleaning business and keep it simple. cleaning bp firearms in the 18th century was successfully accomplished without any of the specialized stuff we have available today. (in the same vein, neither were short ball starters or 4F pan powder used because neither existed).

black powder residue just needs to be first softened, and then flushed out and away from metals. if done fairly shortly after a firing session, then good ol' plain tepid water works the best, bar none. there is no need for hot water, which was never used and rarely available in the 18th and 19th centuries. a bit of water soluble oil (i.e. - ballistol) in the water can help but is not necessary. there is no need for hydrogen peroxide or hoppes or soaps or any other chemical additives - we just want to flush out the softened bp residue. plug the touch hole with a round toothpick and pour in the water and allow it to sit a few minutes. then pull out the toothpick and push a jagged patch down the tube to push the water out the touch hole. when patches come out reasonably clean, drying patches are used and then a patch sent down the tube with a little bit of oil will help preserve - wipe down the barrel and lock as well (actually, the flint lock should have been removed, washed in water, patted dry and lightly oiled). some folks like to send down a patch wet with WD40, and leave that patched rod stored in the barrel.

IF the residue was not cared for during the shooting process, subsequent shots will have "baked" in the residue to a hard crud that's both outside and inside the pores of the metal. this will typically require some serious elbow grease (and *maybe* chemicals) to hasten its initial removal, then the above steps can be accomplished.

IF your muzzleloader has a patent breech plug (and most "modern" trad ml replicas will have one), bore sized jags will never fully clean out the patent plug channel and a .22cal brush (or brush and thin patch) should be used to loosen and flush out bp residue from the patent breech channel. this goes for flintlocks as well as caplocks.