Bore Butter Buildup

[Idaholewis]

extolling the wonders of Bore Butter, or just stick to yelling at the neighborhood kids to get off your lawn.

 

[short_start]

See?

Yep

 

[jcnull2305]

Yep

What is it you see, @short_start? If there's confusion, let me elucidate the picture for you:

You asked a question about cleaning a certain substance out of your bore. You apparently did research about said substance prior to asking the question, and knew what the general consensus would be, but you asked anyway. You were given advice by forum members here - very well respected forum members - some of which included that maybe you would like to avoid the used of said substance, but which also largely included some good advice about the removal you requested.

Then @shiner200gr chimed in, not with advice, but with a preemptive insult to forum members, making a declarative statement that "trolls" would "call you names." A statement for which shiner was taken to task - still, no names were called, and you were never denigrated by anyone.

Now, you have read said advice, and the various and sundry explanations for said advice, and you argued the point, albeit, respectfully, and retorts were provided - again, respectfully. If you don't like it, disregard it. Simple.

Instead, your response is simply, "Yep," citing the one person who is driving any discord on this thread.

Now, I freely admit, I don't know much about Muzzleloading. That's the reason I joined this forum. There are, however, a lot of people here for whom I hold a great deal of respect. Many of the people I hold such respect for have openly responded to your query with advice, freely given, and insult free.

So go ahead and disregard what your being given here. That's fine. No one's going to kick rocks, of get all butt-hurt, or send Lefty and Frankie Five Fingers to your house to lean on you. However, keep piling on with the nay sayers, and you might find yourself alone in your queries. Go figure out how to scrape that crud out of your barrel on your own.

That's my view.

 

[Squint]

I've been reading some old posts and see this mentioned a few times. I've actually had very good luck with Bore Butter as both a patch lube and a barrel preservative and would like to keep using it.

Is there any reason a patch or two moistened with MEK, Gun Scrubber, or brake cleaner wouldn't clean out any build-up?

When I started muzzleloader shooting over 30 years ago, I had a TC left hand percussion and the only thing I knew To use was bore butter as it came with the rifle Kit. It worked fine with me for some years, I didn't use it a lot, did get a couple of deer. Accuracy seemed favorable and cleanup didn't seem that hard. Then a change of jobs made it very difficult to hunt with doing shift work so I really didn't Muzzleloader hunt till 2005 I bought a flintlock. I tried bore butter and it didn't seem as accurate In my new Lyman flintlock so I started experimenting with other patch lubes, And I'm still experimenting. But I can't knock bore butter as it worked fine in that TC Percussion. I should probably mention all I knew to start with was pyrodex And it did seem to work okay. Since then I've moved on to the black but mainly in the flint lock. 777 seems to work real fine in my percussions. Research had told me that Flintlock's would really only work with black. Clean up wasn't all that hard with any of them, just hot water, a good scrubbing with some patches and reclean the next day.
Squint

 

[Renegadehunter]

I used to use BB and/or Natural Loob, used them for the first couple of years after I inherited my Renegade and started shooting it. I can also say that BB was all that was used in the rifle before I got it, and it was used as a preservative in it as well. Pyrodex was the powder used too. I have always used Goex or Schuetzen since I got it.

When I started shooting it (never shot one before) I found that groups with store bought prelubed TC patches were okay, by okay I mean "minute of deer" accurate by my standards. I also found that after cleaning with hot water with dish soap I could then put the barrel in a holder and run a wet patch, nylon brush, and then dry patch until the cows came home and still never get a nice clean white patch out of the bore. It always came out with a bit of a gray color on it. I finally decided that it was the BB cooking to a hard crust that was hard to get all of it to release, so went completely away from using it. I started hand lubing my own patches with either mink oil from TOTW, my own olive oil / bees wax mix, Castor oil / denatured alcohol (Dutch Schultz style), or with Frontier's anti rust and patch lube. I tried all sorts of things. I currently prefer mink oil or the Frontier's.
After multiple range sessions not using BB anymore I gradually saw that the patches coming out with some color on them slowly went away. I finally got all of the hard cooked on BB out of it.

So, I do believe it gets cooked into a hard crust that can be difficult to remove, but will also say that a bore light shows a pretty shiny barrel in my 1982 model. Not a bore scope I realize, but it looks fine with a bore light and seems to shoot just fine for me. It was always stored with a very liberal amount of BB slathered into the bore before I got it and I think that the hot water method removed all the corrosive salts, they (my uncle who first owned it and then my dad who bought it from him) got it good and dry, and then the liberal application of BB kept any oxygen or moisture from getting to the steel.
Works, but I personally find there are other things that work better for me and are easier to use. I store with Barricade these days.
The flyers I got from using prelubed store bought patches were unacceptable to me. One pack would be pretty consistent and the next would throw some 5" out of the group (50 yards bench). I really believe this is from them sitting too long and the lube starts to break down the weave of the patch. One pack I wouldn't be afraid to shoot a coyote at 100 yards, another I wouldn't want to shoot a deer at 50 yards.


Someone mentioned flash rust after using hot water. I've found that if I heat distilled water rather than tap water I don't see any flash rust anymore. I got flash rust every single time I used my city treated tap water and believe it is the chlorine they put in it. Room temp or cooler it was fine, but even just warm...flash rust. I've heard from several folks that they also see flash rust when they heat tap water from a city system, but folks on a well in the country don't.
If you've always gotten flash rust from heated water, try using some distilled water.

 

[Leadhoarder]

I regularly use brake cleaner to clean out the ignition channel and run a patch soaked in it before shooting my muzzloader. I do not like to waste a precious cap to get it ready.

 

[michiganmuzzy]

I regularly use brake cleaner to clean out the ignition channel and run a patch soaked in it before shooting my muzzloader. I do not like to waste a precious cap to get it ready.

.try out one of the lttle handheld steamers for cleaning out in there. Its amazing how much more crud it gets out.

 

[Bad Karma]

...

A lot of the fouling left behind from Bore Butter is from the cationic polymerization of the olive oil, which can leave plastic-like deposits in the barrel...

The heat exchange from the steam condensing superheats the barrel, which more effectively "liquidates" those hard deposits.

Have I told you lately, that I love it when you talk dirty??

 

[short_start]

I've been a Pyrodex user from the start. Black just wasn't available. Got some black now, but use Pyrodex for the most part. I like the smell; real black doesn't smell like muzzleloading to me.

My one foray into Bore Butter alternatives took me in the direction of pure Olive Oil. Didn't see any improvement as a patch lube; rusted a barrel when I used it as a preservative.

Like RenegadeHunter said, I normally slather the Bore Butter on after a boiling water rinse & dry, while the barrel's still way too hot to hold. It seems to do well as a preservative if I follow that regimen. If I have to protect a cold barrel, I use Barricade.

 

[Leadhoarder]

I've been a Pyrodex user from the start. Black just wasn't available. Got some black now, but use Pyrodex for the most part. I like the smell; real black doesn't smell like muzzleloading to me.

My one foray into Bore Butter alternatives took me in the direction of pure Olive Oil. Didn't see any improvement as a patch lube; rusted a barrel when I used it as a preservative.

Like RenegadeHunter said, I normally slather the Bore Butter on after a boiling water rinse & dry, while the barrel's still way too hot to hold. It seems to do well as a preservative if I follow that regimen. If I have to protect a cold barrel, I use Barricade.

 

[eekjellander]

I've been a Pyrodex user from the start. Black just wasn't available. Got some black now, but use Pyrodex for the most part. I like the smell; real black doesn't smell like muzzleloading to me.

My one foray into Bore Butter alternatives took me in the direction of pure Olive Oil. Didn't see any improvement as a patch lube; rusted a barrel when I used it as a preservative.

Like RenegadeHunter said, I normally slather the Bore Butter on after a boiling water rinse & dry, while the barrel's still way too hot to hold. It seems to do well as a preservative if I follow that regimen. If I have to protect a cold barrel, I use Barricade.

Shooting OE Black my guns get cleaned with plain water and then wiped down inside and out with bear oil , and great patch lube Being the newest trend and being a trend setter I find no smell /no refrigeration requirements /seems to last on the shelf (forever) like black powder and a great oil for baking .Top that ! /Ed

 

[rusticbob]

Shooting OE Black my guns get cleaned with plain water and then wiped down inside and out with bear oil , and great patch lube Being the newest trend and being a trend setter I find no smell /no refrigeration requirements /seems to last on the shelf (forever) like black powder and a great oil for baking .Top that ! /Ed

Wow, “ bear oil”, you are certainly a trend setter!

 

[eekjellander]

Wow, “ bear oil”, you are certainly a trend setter!

A little satire to go with the bore butter!/Ed

 

[Matthew323]

Every post that I have read says bear grease makes the best pie crust and biscuits. If I ever get the chance to hunt a nice fat black bear, rendering out the fat into pure white grease for patches, and oil for lubrication, will be at the top of the list of things to do. After, taking care of the meat.

 

[mnoland30]

Now you tell me. I shot a bear a few years ago that had 4" of fat on its back. I rendered a few quarts of bear grease, and gave it away. Silly me. I can tell you it is the best hand lotion I've ever seen. By the time we were done butchering that bear, my sandpaper hands were smooth as a baby's butt. My wife didn't care for the smell much though. That bear was some of the best meat I've ever eaten.

 

[Okie Hog]

But the question was, "What removes Bore Butter build-up"? Will MEK, Gun Scrubber, Brake Cleaner, paint stripper, or something else?

Yep, all that stuff will remove bore butter. You may need to use a bore brush too.

 

[Waxxy]

Coon fat will work as well, easier to come by. It also works good for treating leather boots.

 

[eekjellander]

Coon fat will work as well, easier to come by. It also works good for treating leather boots.

sure does but on the shelf for a while gets smelly and for making cookies bear oil is like the cats meow except don"t tell the neighbor !/Ed

 

[MrTom]

Bear lard makes outstanding fried donuts. And french fries....both white and sweet potatoes.