Battle of the lubes

[cayuga]

I was working in the gun room today and got to noticing all the different lubes I have on the shelf for the purpose of shooting roundball. So I gathered up three of them, some HOME CAST roundball .490 in size, picked out Schuetzen 2f black powder as the fuel, and along with a large chunk of pillow tick, and some swabbing patches.. decided to test the lubes in a head to head.

So looking at the rack of rifles I decided to use a factory rifle. And selected a nice .50 caliber T/C Hawken flintlock rifle as the host rifle. The factory barrel has a 1-48 twist. Making up a target and grabbing the camera and all the gear I headed outside. All shooting was done off the bench, and at 50 yards according to the range finder.

Knowing that this rifle likes 90 grains of Schuetzen black powder I decided to use that for all testing of the lubes and decided to be fair, spit swab between each different lube, but no swabbing between shots.

I only suffered one hang fire.. my fault. As I was concerned the flint was getting dirty and mistakenly wiped it off with olive oil instead of water. Needless to say, that put a damper on the shooting. That would have been the first shot of the olive oil test. While it was still in the group.. could it have been closer? Who knows.

The weather was sunny, blue sky, no wind, and about 70 degrees. Just a real nice day outside.

BABY BOTTOM LUBE (a variation of JR Lube)

4 ounces of Castor Oil * you can buy this in 4 ounce bottles at Wall Mart..

1 ounce of bees wax melted

100 grains of liquid or solid Alox * I like to cut the solid and weigh out what I need Then melt it down.

I use the cheap micro wave dishes ... Glad makes them.. and I melt the beeswax and Alox together after it has been weighed. Once it is liquid and hot.. add the liquid Castor oil and stir that together. It makes an excellent patch and conical lube.

The lube itself looks like something a baby would leave in the bottom of a diaper. I am sure this is due to the bees wax color, but more so to the dark Alox I use. I has a nice "bee" smell and is not effected by the hot sun too bad. A real nice lube for patches and conicals. And it seemed to work real good here today.

After I discovered the fresh charger batteries did not take a charge, and digging up some Duracell batteries, I then covered the shots with red duct tape and shot that group. The olive oil is a combination of olive oil and water. Semisane told me about this. I found if the oil was used straight, it did not like coming out of the pump sprayer. So I added water and that fixed that. As you can see, it did very well today.

Taking the picture to document the olive oil I discovered I'd forgotten the tape. So back to the table. Then I decided.. lets try spit. Easy to make.. put patch in mouth, saturate with spit, load and shoot. Now remember, I was swabbing with spit every three shots. So this time I used it as a lube. And I X'd out the olive oil hits for you. Not too bad at all for just plain old spit.

Remembering the camera and tape this time, I prepared the rifle for the final lube test. Now this is my favorite lube.


Moose Milk

A general purpose black powder solvent and liquid patch lube. Shake well before using

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 was spritzing all lubes at the loading table. None of the patches were dry lube.

Needless to say the first three shots had me thrilled. But again, I had a double bag rest system and was really taking my time and using the set trigger. Then I had to try #4. Oh well. Still a good group.

So what group is best? Well IMO the moose milk is still the best for me. With olive oil a close second. If you get a chance, try some of the different lubes you have and see how they compare. But it was a great day to shoot!! And the rifle behaved beautiful...

 

[oldfox]

Great report Dave! Kinda peaks my interest in tradionals...

 

[Smokin Joe]

It is very interesting to that there is a difference just using different lube methods. Great report! I did notice that you used 2F powder. Opinions vary about as much as there are shooters on this subject but do you like the 2F versus 3F? I have a .58 Cabelas Hawken flintlock and leaning towards buying some 3F for it. What's your thoughts?

Thanks,

Joe

 

[cayuga]

There is always the claims of 3f providing more velocity. Grain for grain weight, this is true. But the difference is not as great as many believe and the advantage are not as overwhelming as many think. I have shot 3f in everything from a .45 caliber (.44 caliber if you count my black powder revolver, but in the revolver it is necessary) to .62 caliber. What I discovered is, for the most part I saw no giant increase in accuracy between the two powders, also no increase in lock time. Since I never had a problem igniting 2f the claim of faster ignition in wet weather never came into play for me.

All I really discovered is each rifle has their own likes and dislikes. For the most part 2f makes my rifles work just fine. I do shoot 3f when shooting conical bullets, unless shooting Triple Seven. Then again, my Whites like the 2f powder better, at least accuracy speaking. So all you can do is try the different powders in your rifles and judge for yourself.

The old rule of thumb used to be... .45 caliber and under, use 3f. 50 caliber and larger was 2f. 62 and larger was 1f even in some cases (although I never found that to be the case). Then as people experimented, the found that 3f worked well in 50 calibers. I agree. Some of my 50 caliber rifles shoot very well with 3f. But I can make then shoot just as well with 2f. Its a matter of adjusting the grains load in most cases.

Also the claim that 3f cleans easier. Well that's just not founded in my experiences. A traditional rifle with a traditional water bath. Usually three wet soaks and scrubs will clean 2 or 3F powders just the same and just as well. Then its a matter of drying the barrel. As for fouling differences.. again, depends on the rifle. But I also find it depends on the environmental factors I am shooting in. On a humid damp kind of day, the 3f does leave less fouling. But the difference is not enough to constitute a chance from 2f. Also since I swab most of the time between shots, that little extra fouling makes no difference. Also the kind of powder you shoot, makes a difference in fouling. I shoot black powder a great deal of the time. Why... because it works, and its cheap.

For instance, the Hawken I was shooting ... I could have shot many more then 3 simple rounds without swabbing. Even with the black powder. But to be fair in the testing of the lubes, I swabbed. In fact when I was shooting the spit patches I noted very little to no fouling what so ever when loading. The patched ball slid easy down the barrel and onto the powder charge. The one where I felt fouling was with olive oil and the solid lube the most. But again, nothing drastic.

In a caliber as large as your .58 I would definitely use the 2f powder. That large bore will give the powder plenty of opportunity to burn out. In my .58 caliber I shoot 110 grains of 2f and a .570 ball with a .018-.020 patch and moosemilk lube. The accuracy is amazing to say the least. And anything that ball hits will be devastated.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Thank you very much Cayuga!!

Joe

 

[Smokin Joe]

After seeing your "Moose Milk" groups I have to give it a try. My wife was doing a little shopping in town so I asked her if she would mind picking me up the ingredients for moose milk. Of course, I then had to explain what moose milk was. After my in-depth detailed explanation, she rolled eyes and shook her head but she got me the stuff. I've only been to the range once so far with my .58 flinter but I am using Trapper's pure mink oil for patch lube. No complaints with it. Have you ever tried it? I got it from Track of the Wolf.

Joe

 

[cayuga]

I have never tired "Trappers Brand Pure Mink Oil" but I used to shoot Pure Mink Oil that came as a past, I think it was for waterproofing leather actually. I purchased it at Track of the Wolf. And it did work very well. But I noted in hot weather on the range it almost turned to a liquid in the can and I did not like that aspect of it. Also the smell. My labrador loved the smell of it though and would run out after the range clear sign.. and attempt to eat the patches he could find. Needless to say we put a stop to that. It just messed him up something terrible. Of course he was a strange dog. When I chewed Copenhagen.. he used to wait for me to throw out the plug and .. yep.. he ate that to. Never had worms though.

I originally made the moosemilk using NAPA water soluble oil.

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

And believe it or not that is a very good patch lube. I still keep some of that around the house too. But then another person I spoke to in muzzleloading forums told me of using Castor Oil instead of NAPA oil. So I tried that and liked it very much.

 

[Nimrod]

Hi Cayuga is there a proper way to mix the Moose Milk or just throw it all into a bottle and shake the obama out of it ?


TIA Nimrod

 

[cayuga]

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.

 

[Dwayne]

Great topic. . .

Did you ever try Wonder Lube? or Bore butter?

 

[cayuga]

Great topic. . .

Did you ever try Wonder Lube? or Bore butter?

When this old timer first introduced me to muzzleloader shooting we used Mink Oil. And then one day we found T/C Bore Butter and so of course we tried it. We treated out rifles with it. And really thought we had the snake by the tail. And I will admit, that when the rifle was new, we shot real good with bore butter and round-balls. Even with conicals. But as that bore butter built up in the bore of the rifle, the accuracy went bad very fast.

I still have a tube of Bore Butter at the house. And will occasionally lube conical bullets with them. But no more patches for round ball. The moosemilk works so much better for me.