Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders WonderLube 1000

Swampgeek and Smokepole,
Sorry if I seem to come off arrogant in my remarks. I have called Smokepole a "Doubting Thomas" at one point -- about this same topic. Maybe it's me. I haven't seen this rust issue personally in the 30 years I've been using it, or in any of the ML shooters I've been around over that same time period.

In all the years I've been using this product, I've never seen the problem you are describing. No one has ever complained to me about the rust issue, so yes, I have to assume when someone has an issue with the product that they've done something wrong in the process. Can you see my point. At the same time, I can understand your reason for not finishing the testing. I certainly wouldn't let my bore continue rusting. And petroleum products are easier to work with anyway. They just foul the bore faster, and make longer shooting sessions a cleaning chore.

That's MY experience, you are certainly welcome to yours.

William, can you please explain how a light application of Barricade, removed with a patch before shooting, fouls the bore faster?

There are no universal panaceas when it comes to bore protection. It behooves the individual to do his own testing and select a system that works for him. There are too many variables, including, but not limited to, climate, type of propellant, cleaning procedure, rate of usage, etc., to be able to say that one product is better than another. Take advice that's offered, sift through the options and chart a course that works for you. As for looking through the computer screen to see over the shoulder of the guy who's using XXX product and critiquing his technique, good luck with that.

Smokepole,
Gnoahh said it better than I can. I've never used Barracade before. I'll just have to see you at the range sometime and compare.

William, the reason I ask is that I'm always a little skeptical of claims like this that are made by the purveyors of a product because they are almost never objective or un-biased.

So when such a claim is made, I always like to hear the rationale or science behind it. If no one can explain it, I remain a skeptic.




No doubt. But there are some rust inhibitors that penetrate steel and prevent rust better than others, and standard test methods established. I'd like to see an objective test of bore butter/wonder lube against some of the better petroleum-based rust protectants. I'd wager it'd be eye-opening.

Well stated, gnoahhh. If the below isn't working for you, then the individual must determine why, or find a method and system that does work for your needs. And then adapt, when changing anything relating to your method.

I deleted Mr. Clunie's personal info at the bottom of article.______________________________________



Advancements in the Care &
Cleaning of Muzzleloading Arms
by William Clunie BACK TO ESSAYS


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Rob�s Renegade

My shooting partner, Rob, loaded his .54 caliber Renegade rifle and handed it overto me. Pulling the trigger on the muzzleloader set off the blackpowder charge andsurrounded me in a thick cloud of blue and gray smoke. The acrid smell of the burnedblackpowder seemed to transport me back to another era. A time when mountain menwore buckskins and depended on their rifles to bring home food for survival.Rob�s Renegade, made by Thompson/Center Arms, was a joy to shoot, but the clean-up operation required after each shooting session was messy, smelly, and time-consuming. Usually an outdoor affair, hot and soapy water had to be plunged in and out of the barrel to remove any fouling in the bore. Foamy gray water sprayed up out of the barrel like a fountain. Blackpowder contains sulfur, so this dirty foam left an odor of rotten eggs on your clothes, the floor, and whatever else it came in contact with. Rob used the most technically advanced lubricants available (petroleum based) to swab the bore and coat the outer metal surfaces of his rifle. These modern lubricants eliminated rust, but the next time the muzzleloader was fired, the black, sticky fouling clogged up the bore. The fouling was so bad that it was necessary to swab out the bore every four to five shots to retain accuracy and facilitate smooth loading. A patch, moistened with a cleaning solvent, was pushed down the barrel, and followed by a dry one. Then a priming cap was fired to clean the fire chamber, the rifle was reloaded, and our shooting continued.

The clean-up chore was more than I was willing to take on, so any thoughts of purchasing a muzzleloader of my own were put on the back burner. Then an extended December muzzleloading deer season opened up in Maine. Visions of precision-crafted blued steel and hand-rubbed walnut appeared to me in dreams, both day and night.

Hawken Replica

The overwhelming desire to hunt late-season whitetails lead to the purchase of my own muzzleloader; T/C�s Hawken caplock in .54 caliber. The messy clean up and time-consuming shooting process that comes with owning a muzzleloader would just have to be tolerated - or would it? Reading the T/C instruction manual that came with the Hawken opened my eyes to a "new" (new to me) way of cleaning and lubricating muzzleloading arms. The booklet came with an insert titled, "How to Season the Bore of Your Muzzleloader Right From the Start."

T/C compares this "seasoning process" to that of curing cast-iron cookware. It states that use of their non-petroleum lubricants and cleaning agents, "season the bore with repeated use, much like a cast iron skillet can be seasoned."

The Cleaning

The new muzzleloader owner is instructed to thoroughly clean the bore of the rifle in the traditional manner by placing the breech-end of the barrel in a pot of hot, soapy water, and running a wet patch on a cleaning rod in and out of the barrel. The pumping action pulls the hot solution up into the bore and actually heats up the metal of the barrel. The hotter-the better, as this heat enables the barrel to dry quickly before it can rust. Once dried, the bore is swabbed with a patch that has been lubed with T/C�s Natural Lube 1000 Plus Bore Butter (non-petroleum base). The exterior metal surfaces are also covered with a light coating of this same natural lube. The fire channel is then swiped with a pipe cleaner, and the muzzleloader is ready for storage until the next shooting session.In the instruction manual, T/C emphasizes that using modern petroleum-based products will cause more fouling and corrosion, inhibit accuracy, and make the loading process more difficult. After reading the manual several times, there was still one burning question in my mind, "Following the initial traditional cleaning, if only non-petroleum products were used, would the hot, soapy water treatment be eliminated?"One phone call to T/C�s technical support line (1-603-332-2333) cleared things up, and settled my nit-picking mind. The technician at extension #740 explained it this way, "If you shoot your muzzleloader and might not shoot it again for a week, you should do the hot soapy water treatment, then swab it with bore butter after it is dry. The main thing is to make sure the water is very hot, so it can dry out completely."T/C�s technician said that one of the biggest benefits of using the natural cleaning products is the elimination of the need to swab the bore between shots. This sure would make shooting at the range less cumbersome. There would be no reason to take cleaning supplies. The helpful technical expert also said that T/C�s cleaning products were made by Ox-Yoke Originals, Inc., and further technical and testing information could be obtained there. A call to Ox-Yoke�s office in Milo, Maine (1-800-231-8313) put me in contact with their vice president, Scott Lee.Ox-Yoke�s vice president briefly detailed the technical research done by their company comparing petroleum to non-petroleum lubricants and cleaning products. Lee said, "When you lube a muzzleloader with a petroleum product and fire it, you are heating up that petroleum. Heat and pressure, plus petroleum equals tar, just like the asphalt used in paving roads. Black, sticky tar (fouling) creates all sorts of trouble in the bore of a muzzleloader."The knowledgeable vice president also sent me an article that outlined the research, and a photo of the T/C New Englander muzzleloading rifle used in the research. Looking at the article and photo, and listening to Lee�s explanation almost had me convinced that the natural products were superior to the modern, high-tech products.

The photo in the article showed the New Englander after firing 1000 consecutive rounds without cleaning between shots. Both bore and patches used in this shooting test were lubed with Ox-Yoke Wonder Lube 1000 Plus (T/C calls it Natural Lube 1000 +). The article states that accuracy remained consistent through out the 1000-round test, and loading was uninhibited. As a matter of fact, the last four of the 1000 shots fired formed an impressive one and a half-inch group at 50 yards.

The Range

A trip to the range to test these "new" natural, non-petroleum cleaning and lubing products was in order. Filling my possibles bag for a morning of shooting, my thoughts turned to how this search for a better cleaning process had come full-circle. Hunting for a modern, high-tech product that might eliminate the messy clean-up process brought me right back to a non-petroleum product similar to one used by the original muzzleloaders. Rendered bear fat, in lard form, was a lube often used by mountain men many years ago. This non-petroleum substance worked well for them, and still works today if a supply of bear fat can be obtained. This shooting session would give me an opportunity to try out the natural cleaning and lubricating supplies made by Ox-Yoke Originals, Inc. The Hawken was prepared as T/C instructed in their manual, then cleaned and lubricated with the non-petroleum products. Bullets used in this test were T/C�s 360 grain Maxi-Hunter�s, pre-lubed with Natural Lube 1000 Plus Bore Butter.Ten rounds were fired with 90 grains of Pyrodex at 50 yards to sight-in the new rifle. After a few sight adjustments, I could keep them all in a pie plate at 50 yards. The usual build up of fouling associated with a modern (advanced) petroleum product was absent and loading the 360 grain bullets remained smooth, but pie-plate accuracy at this range was less than expected.The next 20 rounds were loaded with 110 grains of "good old" FFG blackpowder. I thought the blackpowder would burn "dirty" and cause more fouling than the modern (advanced) Pyrodex. Wrong. No fouling, or difficulty in seating the big lead bullets on top of a charge. Accuracy actually improved with the blackpowder.I used various combinations of: patched balls, conical bullets, light or heavy charges of powder, as well as light or heavy projectiles. As long as I used the non-petroleum lube, bore-clogging fouling was not a problem. Instead of halting to clean between shots, loading and shooting became a rhythmic pleasure.

After noting one tight little clover-leaf group, the smell of burning black powder changed from an awful rotten-egg stink, to the savory aroma of sizzling venison, fried over an open fire by mountain men in buckskins, from a time long ago.

William Clunie


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bore butter if not removed from the barrel prior to loading and shooting will give you the same sticky fouling that a petro oil will leave behind if not removed.

BigBlock,
Why would two different substances produce the "same sticky fouling" when burned?

Smokepole,
Mr. Lee, OxYoke's old VP, explains that petroleum products turn to a tarry substance when heated--kind of like asphalt (a heated petroleum product). Bear fat/lard, and other natural products (WonderLube) are not petroleum based and produce less fouling.
I'm sure there are better rust preventatives, but so far I haven't found a modern product that allows me shot to shot accuracy and ease of repeated loading like WonderLube. Maybe BigBlock will come up with some test data and I'll give the new stuff a try. Maybe I'll have to try some Barricade. Does it allow you to shoot twenty or thirty shots without cleaning, and still remain accurate? I'd like to give it a shot.

No matter what I use to protect the bore on any gun, I swab it out with a solvent such as mineral spirits or denatured alcohol, then dry with clean white virgin flannel patches. In the case of ML's I try to do this the night before a shoot or hunting trip. Then before leaving the house, I'll snap a couple of caps to make sure everything is clear and dry (to deny the animals knowledge of my presence, ha ha. As if my gimpy "sneaking around" in the dry leaves won't do that anyway!).

As far as cleaning goes, if the barrel is easily de-mountable I just take into the hot shower with me along with a cleaning rod and patches, and "away go troubles down the drain"!

i dont oil my barrels anymore so i cant help you much on why they turn sticky.

My guess would be that when theres ANY lube left in the barrel, all the fouling get mixed in and trapped, creating the sticky like tar.

You always want to load up on a clean bore, never an oiled barrel. For accuracy sake anyway. Some shoot lower on an oil fresh bore " a dry patch doesnt remove the oil - lube" and then the next shot forward hit directly where they need to be.

William, this sounds like folklore to me. Asphalt is the heavy fraction of petroleum; solvents and rust inhibitors are the lighter fractions. Heating the light fractions doesn't transform them into the heavy fractions. Plus, I'm not as thorough as gnoahhh but I swab out even the little bit of Barricade in the bore before firing so there is no build up from it.



I have no idea, I've never tried that. Shooting twenty or thirty shots between cleaning is not something that's important to me, not nearly as important as knowing I have a superior rust preventative in the bore for storage. When I'm at the range I always run a single spit patch between shots because that's how I get the best accuracy in my T/C rifles with the bullets I use. And when I hunt, I fire a fouler, followed by a single spit patch before I re-load my "money" round.

if you want to shoot 20-30 shots without having issues with crud in the bore, check out the dyna tek bore coat.

How's that compare to UBC?

its the same thing, they just make it under a different name.

Well, I use it but I'm still nowhere close to 20-30 rounds between swabbing.

i dont have any trouble unless i use a hot primer with a sub powder like pyrodex or T7. Its greatly reduces my crud rings with those powders. I think with a 777 primer the T7 crud ring would be zero. Just finding those primers is the hard part around here.

I think I have a sh**load of 777 primers and I don't use it very much any more, if you ever get up near Denver, let me know.

Sounds good!

I have been using bore butter and goex 3f blackpowder for years.Havent had any problems.I have seen others using substitue powder and petroleum based lubes have troubles,though.

I don't doubt it. When you say petroleum-based lubes, are you talking bullet/patch lubes, or rust inhibitors for the bore during storage?