A Trip To Bizarro World

[Semisane]

Grab yourself a drink. This is a weird one, and I have a hard time believing it myself. But it makes for a good story.

Way back in October of last year I bought an abused Remington 700ML to play with. The breech plug and nipple were frozen and I could not budge either one. So I put a liberal amount of Liquid Wrench down the bore and let it sit for a couple of days. After a two-day soak I was amazed at how easily the plug came out - hardly any resistance at all.

Now here's where the weird begins.

That night I had a vivid dream of using Liquid Wrench as a patch lube for patched balls. I don't know what gun I was using in that dream, but I clearly saw myself applying Liquid Wrench to the patches with that little 4 oz. bottle.

Well, over the last year every now and then I would remember that dream and laugh. We all know you don't use petroleum products for a patch lube - right? It will create a tar and foul the bore badly.

But that dream just kept preying on my mind. So Sunday morning I decided to give it a try for grins and giggles. I used the .54 GM/TC Renegade for the experiment. She's the big bore in the Sinful Sisters lineup.

Throughout the shooting session I used 95 grains of GOEX FFg and .018 pillow tick patching. I swabbed the bore with two sides of one alcohol patch between all shots and fully cleaned the bore between each five-shot target.

First up, I set a target at 50 yards and took five shots with my standard olive oil patch lube. Here's that target.

Pretty decent. Some days it shoots better (or I shoot better), but never any worse than that.

Then I cleaned the bore and took five shots with Liquid Wrench on the patches. Here's what I got.

HoooWheeee! What's going on here? I've gotten a few groups like that before with olive oil lube, but not real often.

In wiping the bore between shots with two sides of an alcohol patch I could see no difference in fouling when compared to olive oil. Cleaning the bore after the 5-shot string was about the same also.

OK. Let's put a target out at 75 yards and see what happens.

Here are five 75 yard shots with olive oil lube.

Again, not too shabby.

Here are the next five at 75 yards shots with Liquid Wrench.

Maybe I'm still dreaming. But it's a mighty fine dream!

Dare I try 100 yards? You betcha!

Olive oil at 100.

Liquid Wrench at 100.

Man, I'd sure like to get that 100 yard group down to three inches or less. I just can't understand how a load that shot a one-inch group at 75 yards can open up to four and a quarter inches at 100. I really don't think it was my shooting. Maybe a little more powder will keep it together at longer ranges. Well, that's something for the next range session.

One thing for sure. That bottle of liquid wrench is going to get a test with the .58 GM/TC Hawken, the .54 Great Plains flinter and probably even the .32 Pedersoli Frontier flinter - and you can bet I'm not just dreaming about that.

 

[cayuga]

I am looking at a bottle of the stuff now. Too bad I can not get to the range for a while. Nice shooting there.

 

[Semisane]

Well, now you have a project for you next session. Get too it!

I'll be interested in seeing your results, especially what you think of the fouling difference between Liquid Wrench and traditional lubes.

 

[flounder]

Semi,
Those groups are sure nice. Were you able to retrieve any of the patches to see what they look like?

 

[Semisane]

Patches from both the olive oil and Liquid Wrench looked fine Flounder. Just a slightly scorched circle under the ball. I probably would not have been able to tell them apart if I hadn't picked the up after the first and second targets.

 

[GM54-120]

That is really something!!!!

Ive always been taught to avoid petroleum based lubes too with black powder or subs. If it doesn't hurt the bluing i cant imagine it would be hurting the bore with those results.

 

[Semisane]

Ive always been taught to avoid petroleum based lubes too with black powder or subs.

As have we all GM54. On a few occasions when I've shot a sidelock with GOEX and forgot to wipe out the RemOil I put in there after the last cleaning I got a horrible black gooey patch after the first shot.

But Liquid Wrench isn't like a gun oil or regular light oil like 3-in-1. It's very light, almost watery.

This is what the contents list says.

Soybean Oil Esters (proprietary),
Lubricating Oil,
Glycol Either,
Corrosion Inhibitors (proprietary), and
PTFE/BN colloid (Whatever the heck that is?)
And it says "Shake Well"

 

[GM54-120]

RemOil is pretty thin too but the Teflon in it seems to make the goo even worse. Plus it seems to harden if not removed fast.

PTFE/BN colloid (Whatever the heck that is?) is actually a kind of Teflon IIRC and the other is kinda like graphite. Maybe its because its in a type of soybean oil and the particles are very small and in small quantities.
http://rydol.com/techdetails.html

The performance of petroleum and polyol and organic fluids can be nearly doubled when BORON NITRIDE and PTFE is introduced.

Might try straight Soybean oil?

 

[Hornet22savage]

Those are some awsome groups. How do you have those scopes mounted? Barrel drilled and tapped?

 

[Semisane]

How do you have those scopes mounted? Barrel drilled and tapped?

The scope bases use the two screw holes from the original TC sight (which are the same on Green Mountain replacement barrels) plus one hole in the breech plug. Some TC barrels already have the breech plug hole with a filler screw in it. Some do not, and need to be drilled and tapped. All of the GM replacement barrels have the breech plug hole with a filler screw.

Hey Hornet22savage, I have a Savage Model 40 22 Hornet that may be the most accurate rifle I've ever shot. All of my cartridge rifles are single shots. That Model 40 is a really nice gun.

 

[Hornet22savage]

Mine is a model 342 bolt gun. I love it it has taken the live of many woodchucks.