Crisco?

[Hawg]

Olive oil and beeswax works.

[ZVP]

Yea, prices for Pistol wads JUMPED up TWO Dollars per 100 in this current catalog!
I guess that we are all going to "go primitive" to hold shooting costs down!
I'm a relative newbe and I got into BP because it was less expensive than Smokeless but the prices today are ruining that idea!
The saving grace is that I am still a slow and meticolous loader and I still save with BP and still have shootin fun!
ZVP

[Doc Hoy]

.....That since I don't shoot a lot, I find that a visit to Bass Proshop for bullets or to the Gun Show for caps is about as efficient I can get.

So, instead of buying Harnady bullets for 15 bucks a box, casting bullets brings the price down to a copla cents wirth of electricity. Caps at the gun show are 4.50 if I buy five tins. Powder is typically 22.00.

Home made lube is about half the price of Thompsons (Okay I won't open that discussion again)

Wads from a felt hat using home brew lube can be made at a rate of about 500 per hour.

I find that making the stuff I use is a lot of fun in addition to saving a flock of dough. I might add that I can make bullets that are of a more consistent size than I get from a box of Hornadys.

I reckon I am spending about eight or nine cents per shot.

[Lee McNelly]

THERE IS SOMEBODY IN EVERY CROWD THAT HAS TO PUT KETCHUP MAYO CHILI SAUCE CHIPTOLE NOW ITS CRISCO ON EVERYTHING

USE A WAD OR OVERSIZED PROJECTILE

CUT THE GREASE SAVE A HOG LESS FILLING

[briandg]

No vegetable oils. They oxidize and gum up, and become impossible to remove. Unless you can be absolutely certain that it will get clean. Do you want crisco that migrated to your internal parts turning to varnish?

Petroleum based products only.

Beeswax is one of the only biological lubes I know of that maintains integrity.

[zullo74]

I don't know where you came up with no vegetable oils only petroleum. The fact is it is just opposite what you are saying!

[Model-P]

No vegetable oils. They oxidize and gum up, and become impossible to remove.

I've found this to be true about olive oil. Not from shooting, but just from sitting a few days after lubing it. I'll never use olive oil again.

However, briandg, I've NEVER had crisco set up on me like that, whether from sitting or from firing.

[Hawg]

No vegetable oils. They oxidize and gum up, and become impossible to remove. Unless you can be absolutely certain that it will get clean. Do you want crisco that migrated to your internal parts turning to varnish?

Petroleum based products only.

Beeswax is one of the only biological lubes I know of that maintains integrity.

That's ridiculous.

[briandg]

No, it is not ridiculous. Vegetable oils go rancid, and as they do, they oxidize and gum up. Do you cook? have you never felt the crud on the outside of a bottle of oil, on the hood of your range, your pans, or elsewhere?

If crisco works for you, use it. If you get that stuff buried in your works, it WILL oxidize into gummy varnish, just like linseed oil will. It may or may not cause trouble.

Don't dispute the facts. If you haven't experienced problems with it, go ahead. Plenty of people have used it for years, but i kind of doubt that you will find vegetable oils in any current commercial gun lubes.

[Hawg]

I Used Crisco for years as an over ball lube and never had a problem and will still use it in a pinch. One thing I have had a problem with was using petroleum based lubes as an over ball lube. Talk about a gummed up mess to have to clean out. Now I do use petroleum based lubes in the action but not anywhere bp fouling can interact with it.

[Doc Hoy]

...Brian is relating things about as realistically as possible when he says, use what works for you.

I have kept my shortening (I can't really use the term "Crisco" any longer since I am using a cheaper generic substitutes) based lube for long periods of time ( a year or more) in my shooting box with no evidense that is it changing its chemical composition or physical properties. I think that may be due to the possibilty that mixing it with toilet donuts may stabilize the organic stuff. Pure shortening may go rancid but I could never get pure shortening to work anyway. Too runny in hot wx.

I don't see an accumulation of goop on the revolvers because I am pretty fastidious when it comes to cleaning.

I might add that along with the Cattleman I bought used yesterday was an almost full container of Thompson's Bore Butter. This pistol had not been handled in about ten years. All of the supplies that came with it had price tags that revealed that they were purchased a long time ago. (Hornady bullets for under ten bucks.)

Anyway, this bore butter has set up over this long period to the point where it is just about the same consistency as the bore lube I cook up myself. It is not like what I have purchased more recently which is like snot.

It still smells like a brothel but it might actually work.

Why in the name of heaven do they put perfume in Bore Butter?!

[briandg]

To overcome that natural stink of black powder that we all know and love so well?

It's a delightful and nostalgic burst of olfactory joy to myself. My wife says that it's like the ultimate fart.

Do you seriously use shortning and urinal cakes?

I love reading about all of the old creative ideas, and this one has got to be the most truly out there I've ever read. If it works, what the heck. I'd have been afraid to use it, concerned about salt, bleach, borax, etc, some ionic cleanser/disinfectant that might be added to it.

One of the craziest/most creative ideas I ever read was using wax dictaphone cylinders as bullet lube. the shooter was a writer/researcher, and he would keep his 1920s era dictaphone on hand rather than taking notes. He'd melt down the used cylinders for bullet lube. Did it work? Must have.

[Doc Hoy]

....Not urinal cakes....

I am talking about the wax rings (which I affectionately call "toilet donuts") from under toilets.

About two of these rings combined with a standard size can of all vegetable shortening makes enough bore lube to fill three of the little plastic soup tubs that I get from the Chinese joint down the street. I love them. They are virtually indestructable. The lid goes on and seals like Fort Knox. It is completely waterproof. And the soup is good too.


These cups are completely indispensible to the black powder shooter.
I keep my bullets in them. I keep my cleaning patches in them. I keep my lube in them. In fact, I go out and buy stuff just to keep in them.

Any black powder shooter who does not have about half a dozen of these tubs should be horsewhipped. I can't help there because I don't have a horse.

Anyway....back to toilet donuts....

They run about a buck ninety seven at Home Depot. You have to use the ones which DO NOT have the black plastic form. That form is made of a very low density plastic which will melt at about the same temperature required to liquify the wax ring. (BTW...I know they are not wax). So two wax rings cost 3.94 plus tax. A can of shortening is about 2.39. That makes the equivalent of about three hundred bucks worth of Thompson's. I made a batch a year ago and I am not half way through it yet.

[briandg]

I see now. Yes, it's a wax. A very low grade of petroleum wax. It's a lot gunkier than beeswax, and does have pretty low melting point. You'll find it in a lot of really cheap outdoor candles, too.

After all of the toilets I've dealt with in my life, I'd rather grab a rabid rattlesnake than ever touch another of those gruesome things.

I'll bet that does make a great blend for over bullet gooping.

Have any of the people here ever used wax over powder wads in BP cartridges?

You used to be able to get sheets of wax. Warm them up a little, then press the sheet over the mouth of the cartridge, then seat your normally prepared lead bullet. Lots of people chose this method rather than conventionally lubed bullets.

[Model-P]

Enough of this.

Top this. Here's the tub of Crisco I bought in 1979 after having acquired my first gun (SS 1858 Remington). Now, over THIRTY-TWO YEARS later, it is a bit translucent with a yellowish tint, is a little tackier than the Crisco I bought last month and smells like old socks. Would I eat it? No. Would I use it in my cap-and-ball revolvers? Yes, I have as recently as last year when I ran out of new stuff. Did I experience any trouble using it whatsoever? No.

I've already drawn my own conclusion.







Now I know that canister's special purpose in life, and why I never threw it out- just for this thread in 2011

[Hawg]

I don't use wads or pills with cartridges. I use a beeswax/crisco mix in the grooves.

[Andy Griffith]

After all of the toilets I've dealt with in my life, I'd rather grab a rabid rattlesnake than ever touch another of those gruesome things.

I know that Doc isn't using used toilet rings to save money.

Now, if he was a trapshooter...

[Doc Hoy]

....I thought about taking this in a humorous direction but I think I'll just let folks use their imagination.

I like humor but sometimes I get myself in trouble because humor doesn't transmit well on this one dimensional medium.



To be square, I only use new rings.

[briandg]

model p, canned, oxygen free environment isn't the same as being a film on metalwork.

As I said, all organic oils harden, you can look at your pots and pans for proof. Look at your linseed oil cans. Saturated fats like crisco is are slower to crud up, while unsaturated fats have open points that oxidize or "gunk up" more readily.

To all the people who use crisco, more power to ya. If it works, it works. Myself, I will never suggest vegetable oils on metal because of the real risk of letting the stuff curdle on your metals. Doc has a good plan, I think, using the toilet rings to blend, as it will isolate the gunk and prevent forming a film.

Anyone of you can test this. wipe a heavy film of linseed oil on your wife's best cookie sheets, stick it in the oven on low, and wait for her to find it. Then go lube all of your firearms with melted crisco, to see if it works in long term storage.

I put this out here because it was a possible problem that I thought the OP should be aware of.

This whole issue is why Whale oil was the preferred product of gunsmiths and clock makers. Whale oil was practically immortal, and petroleum lubes are a product only perfected in the 20th century.

[briandg]

I'm ready to let this drop. I apologize for stomping on everyone's favorite product.

[rogelk]

To each his own, vegetable oil gets rancid over time.

I wouldn't put Blue Bonnet on it.

[briandg]

Lard oil used to be used by machinists. I don't think I'd use lard, either, but I'm sure that it has been used quite often.

Bill atkins, the old express rifles are sometimes loaded with either overpowder wads, or in many cases, cream of wheat. it's a lot les dense than meal, I imagine just plain wheat bran would function pretty well, too.

[Model-P]

model p, canned, oxygen free environment isn't the same as being a film on metalwork.

The lid has a big crack in it. LOL!

Anyone of you can test this. wipe a heavy film of linseed oil on your wife's best cookie sheets, stick it in the oven on low, and wait for her to find it. Then go lube all of your firearms with melted crisco, to see if it works in long term storage.

Linseed oil isn't Crisco. LOL again!!

Take a bottle cap of gasoline and put a match to it and see what happens. Then go put motor oil in the oil pans of all your cars and see how it works. What the heck does that prove? Your problem is that you are making assumptions by comparing apples with oranges. Not all vegetable-based products exhibit the same properties, just as not all petroleum-based products are the same. I've already discovered that and no longer use olive oil to lube my cap-and-ball revolving pistols.

[Hawg]

I can tell ya this for a fact. Most petroleum based lubes when used as an overball lube leaves one gummy assed mess that's tough to clean out.

[Andy Griffith]

I think I'll just start using cooked grits for overball lube and just do my shooting during breakfast...or at least before I add the butter and salt.

I guess y'all would disapprove corned beef hash, but it does have saltpeter in it.

As I said, all organic oils harden, you can look at your pots and pans for proof

Um...maybe it's just my part of the country, but that film of cooked oil on iron pans supposed to be there- for protection and a non-stick surface. Talk about an angry southern feller when I found a friend that didn't know better trying to clean it off! It's called "seasoning," and that's what I thought was good, positive and wholesome not only for iron skillets, but also for the gun and barrel.

I guess I'm the only guy that's actually tried to season a barrel the same way an iron skillet is- in the oven with lard. I can say I really didn't see a difference in the way it shot at all, but it did improve loading- as it was a flintlock pistol.