Wanted to give a bit of preliminary findings on some experimentation that I have been doing with a natural lube on the arbor of my percussion revolvers. A while back I decided to try a mixture of deer tallow and bear oil lube out on my repros that a very good friend made up for me. The lube is intended as a patch lube for muzzleloading long guns, but so far, I am having good luck using it as a dual purpose lube.
In the past, I have been using straight bear grease, my own mixture, and TC bore butter on the arbors of my percussion revolvers. My mixture consists of bees wax and mink oil. So far, I have found that bore butter works better than both straight bear grease and my mixture. I had also planned on trying CaptainKirk's suggestion of using white lithium grease, but just never got that far.
Anyway, after using the deer tallow/bear oil lube on my linen patches for my rifle guns recently, I thought that it seemed slicker than anything that I had used in the past, so I decided to try it on my revolvers.
So far I have tried it out on my Rogers and Spencer, my '49 pocket Colt and my 1860 Colt Army.
This evening, I decided to try it again. I fired 36 rounds out of my 1861 Navy Colt with the patch lube on the arbor, and found that the cylinder still rotated just as smoothly as it did after the first six rounds. Of course it was rather cold today, (19 degrees), so I still have to try the lube out in warm and hot weather to realize it's full potential.
For now, the 1861 is setting on my load bench uncleaned. It will stay as it lays for the night. Tomorrow, I am going to load it up and continue to fire more rounds through it to see if the cylinder will still spin freely without binding.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I am thinking that this particular mixture may prove to be the ideal combo to fit my requirements as an arbor lube. So far, it has proven to be just as reliable as bore butter and better than straight bear grease as well as a mixture of mink oil and bees wax. I am taking into consideration factors such as relative humidity and temperature for now, but I have high hopes that I may have found a new lube for my revolvers with the combination of deer tallow and bear oil. Time will tell and I will post any future findings and results.
In the past, I have been using straight bear grease, my own mixture, and TC bore butter on the arbors of my percussion revolvers. My mixture consists of bees wax and mink oil. So far, I have found that bore butter works better than both straight bear grease and my mixture. I had also planned on trying CaptainKirk's suggestion of using white lithium grease, but just never got that far.
Anyway, after using the deer tallow/bear oil lube on my linen patches for my rifle guns recently, I thought that it seemed slicker than anything that I had used in the past, so I decided to try it on my revolvers.
So far I have tried it out on my Rogers and Spencer, my '49 pocket Colt and my 1860 Colt Army.
This evening, I decided to try it again. I fired 36 rounds out of my 1861 Navy Colt with the patch lube on the arbor, and found that the cylinder still rotated just as smoothly as it did after the first six rounds. Of course it was rather cold today, (19 degrees), so I still have to try the lube out in warm and hot weather to realize it's full potential.
For now, the 1861 is setting on my load bench uncleaned. It will stay as it lays for the night. Tomorrow, I am going to load it up and continue to fire more rounds through it to see if the cylinder will still spin freely without binding.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I am thinking that this particular mixture may prove to be the ideal combo to fit my requirements as an arbor lube. So far, it has proven to be just as reliable as bore butter and better than straight bear grease as well as a mixture of mink oil and bees wax. I am taking into consideration factors such as relative humidity and temperature for now, but I have high hopes that I may have found a new lube for my revolvers with the combination of deer tallow and bear oil. Time will tell and I will post any future findings and results.
