Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Lube for patches

Yep crisco always worked well.

"Dry Patch"- - - - - -Machinists' water soluble cutting oil mixed in a 4:1 ratio with water. 4 parts water to 1 part oil. Add a few drops of dishwashing liquid to help the water and oil mix well. Soak cotton denim in the solution, then dry it on a flat cookie sheet in bright sunlight. The water evaporates out and leaves the denim infused with the oil. Don't tilt the drying pan or the oil will run to the lower end. The ladies at a fabric store give me the stink eye when I whip out a dial caliper and start measuring the thickness of their denim material, but a thousandth or two difference in patch thickness makes a huge dirfference in the group size on my chunk gun. Be sure to launder the denim to wash the sizing out of it before soaking it in the water/oil mixture.

^^^Dutch will sell you a pdf copy of this method spelled out in great detail. If he is still around.

Why do I need to pay somebody for something I already know how to do? I've been making these patches for over 10 years. Who is "Dutch" anyway?

Dutch Schoultz? I think. He sells (or used to sell) a manual detailing that method of dry patching. But in much greater depth; almost too much depth. Complete with the dial calipers at the fabric store, but maybe pillow ticking, different ratios of oil to water, drying on a flat sheet, etc. I started down that road but decided I can't shoot good enough for it to matter so gave up. I just wet the patches with moose milk and blast away.

I have read Dutch's Black Powder Accuracy. Lots of good information in there.

I have shot flintlocks in competition for 35+ years. At one point, Maine won the New England Flintlock team championship something like 11 times in 12 years. I was a part of that stretch. I use a homemade combination bore solvent and patch lube that works great, with simple cotton strip patching and cotton flannel cleaning patches cut from a yard of flannel from the local fabric store.

The cleaning/lube formula was in Muzzleblasts (mag of the NMLRA) back in the 1980s. They called it " 1-1-1 lube/bore cleaner" because it used equal volumes of:

Murphy's Oil Soap (or generic),
rubbing alcohol (isopropyl)
"brown bottle" (3% over the counter) hydrogen peroxide .

I use it as my bore solvent when line shooting (damp patch after each shot, followed by a dry patch), and as my patch lube. After adding powder to my barrel, I have a strip of patching material ( maybe 1.5" wide by ~18" long) of whatever thickness work best (sometimes 0.010" or up to 0 .018" thick, depending on ball diameter). I have a little spray bottle (for line shooting) and spritz the general area of the strip material, center my ball, and use the short starter to push the ball just below the muzzle. I don't use pre-cut patching. Then I cut the patching strip flush with the muzzle with my patching knife, then use the long starter to push the ball down 5" or so, then seat the ball on top of the powder with my ram rod.

The lube works great, provides consistent accuracy, and is low cost. Even though peroxide is a strong oxidizer, I have NEVER had an issue with corrosion on or in my barrel or on the lock. I am leary of this, and sometimes cut the peroxide down in half- but never had a corrosion issue. Both the peroxide and alcohol cut the black powder residue quickly, and thoroughly. I also use a damp patch of the solution to clean up my frizzen/fence, flint and flash pan/touch hole throughout the shoot. It also cleans your hands at the end of the day ( then rise with water) to go home with c!ean hands.

If I am shooting in a woodswalk competition or hinting, I have a small plastic "eye drop" style bottle of the solvent/patch lube (and a strip of patching material threaded through the strap of my possibles bag, and have 15 or so cleaning patches ( depending how many shots in the woodswalk) tied on a thread with a knot on the end, so I can pull one patch off the string as I need it ( use a needle to push through the thread-or dental floss- through each patch. Then tie one side to your possibles bag strap -or near your patch knife, and tie a knot on the other end, so they don't fall off. This way they are easy to pull off the string as needed- over the knot.

At the end of a match, I run wet patches in the bore until the come out clean, then run a couple of patches soaked just with alcohol to dry the bore, (and clean the lock/fence/frizzen, barrel exterior
particularly around the touch hole). I then wipe inside / outside of metal ( barrel / lock) with a patch of Marvel Mystery Oil. Again, never saw a hint of corrosion doing this.

I shoot a Cabin Creek ( by Brad Emig) .50 caliber flinter ( 39" 15/16ths xflats Green Mountain barrel, large Siler match grade lock by Jim Chambers, Davis set triggers). ...in short, "quality components" that I don't want to damage by corrosion-and they remain in fine condition today using this solvent/patch lube.

The brew is water soluble, which is a big benefit for maintaining a steady-state bore condition throughout a day or weekend match ( damp cleaning patch followed by dry patch after each shot- even on a woodswalk). I don't like using petro /vegetable mineral oils or wax as a patch lube, as that creates a hard-to-clean gummy mess with real black powder (I use about 65-70 grains 3F black powder with my 0.495" ball). I have used "soluble oil". Worked ok as a patch lube, but not as a bore cleaner. Have not used it since using tbe "1-1-1" cleaning/patch solution.

Not sure how it works on non-blackpowder propellants ( ie Pyrodex, Triple 7, etc).. Never used them.

Keep things simple.

"1-1-1 Lube/solvent". ("1-1-1" meaning equal volumes ( 1 part) of each)

Murphy's Oil Liquid Soap ( or generic)
Isopropyl alcohol ( "rubbing alcohol)
hydrogen peroxide ( 3%, OTC brown bottle)