Mink Oil VS Bear Grease

[exMember]

Got out today and decided that 100 yards bored me. I took it out to my 150 yard table and got all set up. First shot Thrilled me to death! Shots 2 and 3 with bear grease was an unacceptable 150 yard group. Luckily I always bring a couple tins with an assortment of patches and on the next 3 shots I used TOW Mink Oil lubed patches.

90gr Olde Eynsford 2fg
.020" patch material
.570" home cast round balls
Mink Oil & Bear Grease patch lubes

Bear grease #1 shot on clean bore.

Added one more shot with TOW mink oil!

 

[Buck Conner1]

Thank you Jonathan, have told some of the members several times there are better choices than bear lard.  Just because you read Davy Crockett used it doesn't make it good, that's probably all he had at the time.  

Just because the old boys used leaves to wipe on doesn't mean you should do the same ....   :Questuon:

 

[exMember]

ttt

 

[Fyrstyk]

What was your aiming point for the 150 yards? How is your gun sighted in, and what is the twist of your barrel? Just curious, cause I have two Bobby Hoyt re-bored rifles in .58 with 1:66" twists and they are great shooters, but require heftier loads than you are using to get the best accuracy. Most of my shots are within 80 yards or less, so I sight in for 50 yards and usually about 1.5" low at 75 yards. At 100 yards I aim at the top of a 3" bull to hit center of target with about a 3.5" group on average from the bench.

 

[Renegadehunter]

Great shooting!
Curious how much bear and mink you applied to the patches? Melt and dip, hand rubbed on...?
I'd love to see the result with your patch lube with everything else the same (darn, just gave you a reason to go shoot again). I got great results with yours on my one and only outing with it (so far).
I like mink oil quite a bit but have to be very careful when applying it...the TC renegade I'm using doesn't care for very much of it on the patch. If I put much more mink oil on than just one or two swipes across the lube with what I'd call medium thumb pressure (and rubbed out to the edges) I will see some flyers here and there. Kind of a pain, as it is hard to really tell if I truly have a lubed patch all the way out to the edges since there is so little on it. My assumption is that the patch gets too slick and does some skipping through the shallow TC rifling if I try to "fill the weave". But when I get "just enough" of it I get some groups that can't be ignored. My next time shooting I think I'll try to demonstrate how much I can effect group size by simply changing the lube amount on the patch.
Your lube isn't as slick and thus seems to be much less finicky with how much I apply, yet I got a great group out of it and recovered patches looked good. I lubed the patches with the same method as the above mink oil example, but was able to use enough that I could ensure I got enough on the patch for 100% coverage.

 

[Hanshi]

Mink oil is my favorite for hunting. The barrels sport rifling from .010" to .016". Only one rifle comes in under that at .006". Mink oil along with Hoppes BP Lube does well in all of them.

 

[Idaholewis1]

I have had really good luck with Bear Fat That i Harvested, and Rendered down, Skunk Fat works Darn good to



5 Shot Group

 

[Hanshi]

That is some fine shooting, Lewis, well beyond my current abilities. Considering both mink & bear oil, with both being rough to extract, I'd still feel much, much safer squeezing a mink than squeezing a bear. :coffee:

But SKUNK?!! Are you sh&%%#*@ me!?