Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Lube for patches

Can't find my prelubed patches. Have some dry patches by TC but no lube. Any idea on home concocted or something a normally well stocked shooter/reoader might have laying around?

GSSP, good old olive oil in a ziplock bag for the win, i cut pillow ticking in two inch wide strips two feet long, Wife gave me a restaurant type mustard/ketchup squirt bottle, works perfect for laying lines of olive oil on the strips, then rolling them up and storing in shooting bag ready to be twisted up tight and cut with a patch knife on a short started round ball.

I have also found olive oil wont weaken the fibers of the patch material breaking them down [rot] to tear easily, i simply rehydrate any leftover patch material for the next shooting session or hunting season, i see no reason the oil wouldn't soak into a roll of patches placed in a bag.

Crisco

I've used SnoSeal for round-ball patches, I was using patches to SnoSeal some boots so It wasn't a big scientific discovery...

Just about anything will work, from spit, vaseline, crisco, lithium grease, chapstick, you name it, But for best accuracy and consistency I use Ballistol diluted with water in a 3-1 mix. You need to experiment but somewhere between 3-1 and 8-1 will be the most accurate depending on the humidity in your location.

One of the nicest muzzleloading bucks I ever took I was hunting with a spitpatched round ball. That was about 1979. Maybe not necessarily a good habit but it worked.

Frontiers Anti Rust and Patch lube is the best stuff I've ever used. It truly is great stuff.

Todd

i will also vote for Frontiers blend. especially the blend with bear grease. i shoot rifles from .28 to 54 and they all work fine with his lube. and i slather it on as a finish seal when browning my barrels.

5:4 or so olive oil and bees wax

Do an internet search for "Gatofeo" blackpowder lube. If you can get the proper ingredients, you can make it at home. Ive found it works very well for patch lube for round ball, felt lube for cap and ball revolvers, even bullet lube for greased bullets in blackpowder cartridges.

Regards,
Manny

I've used spit for about 50 years now. No muss no fuss, and if there's a loss in accuracy I've yet to detect it. For hunting when the ball will be down the pipe all day, I use a patch infused with bear grease.

You can "lube" patches with a 6 parts water to 1 part balistrol. Let the patches dry, and the infused balistrol is the lube.
I just but oxyoke prelubed.

Spit. Unless you are cleaning of course

For targets and impromptu shooting spit works well. Every rifle is different so try em all. One of mine really likes plain ole unsalted lard, another likes deer and mutton tallow. Whatever works!

I’m betting Davy Crockett and ole Daniel Boone would have approved! 🤠

I always used patches lightly saturated in the oil I used on the gun. Always worked for me.

I've always used Ox-Yoke patches prelubed with Wonderlube.

Before the introduction of 1000+, I melted Crisco, placed the dry patches in a 35mm film canister, and then added the melted Crisco enough to saturate them.