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Rediscovering the virtues of mutton tallow

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Tom A Hawk

Tom A Hawk

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Way back in the early 70's, when I was first getting into muzzle loading, my best source of how to information was my maternal grandfather. He was born in 1900 and knew how things were done in the old days. Back then, I don't think we had much in the way of commercial patch grease and remember using Crisco. I asked Grandad one day what the old timers used for patch lube and without hesitation he said "mutton tallow". Since there was no internet available at that time and nobody I knew slaughtered sheep I was unable to pursue that bit of trivia - until now.

Recently, I have been testing patches lubed with mutton tallow with exciting results. It is a bit stiffer and feels greasier than other lubes I have tried and I'm getting great accuracy.
upload_2019-11-15_12-48-28.png


The shot on the left was off-hand at about 40 yards and the one on the right was "off-tree" at about 80 yards. Tomorrow is the start of our deer season and I will do my best to put it to practical application.
 
I'm going to try this on my .32 flintlock Tennessee Mtn. rifle. I filled up the grease hole in the stock with a 50-50 mix of mutton tallow and bees wax, but I'll give straight mutton tallow on my patching strip a try. Thanks for the post!
 
Tom A Hawk said:
Way back in the early 70's, when I was first getting into muzzle loading, my best source of how to information was my maternal grandfather. He was born in 1900 and knew how things were done in the old days. Back then, I don't think we had much in the way of commercial patch grease and remember using Crisco. I asked Grandad one day what the old timers used for patch lube and without hesitation he said "mutton tallow". Since there was no internet available at that time and nobody I knew slaughtered sheep I was unable to pursue that bit of trivia - until now.

Recently, I have been testing patches lubed with mutton tallow with exciting results. It is a bit stiffer and feels greasier than other lubes I have tried and I'm getting great accuracy.
View attachment 18514

The shot on the left was off-hand at about 40 yards and the one on the right was "off-tree" at about 80 yards. Tomorrow is the start of our deer season and I will do my best to put it to practical application.
Click to expand...
That is excellent shooting. I have been purchasing a lube from Dixie Gun Works for years called "Old Zip". It is a mixture of mutton tallow with a little bees wax. It comes in a round shoe polish style tin. I have always had good results with it. It can be used year round without issues. It stays firm in the Summer and pliable enough to use in the Winter.
 
Enfield1 said:
That is excellent shooting. I have been purchasing a lube from Dixie Gun Works for years called "Old Zip". It is a mixture of mutton tallow with a little bees wax. It comes in a round shoe polish style tin. I have always had good results with it. It can be used year round without issues. It stays firm in the Summer and pliable enough to use in the Winter.
Click to expand...
I don't think Dixie carries it anymore.
 
Ask a butcher for kidney fat (suet) and render that. If clean it will just melt and can then be stored for use. Mutton tallow will render to a harder tallow which will keep better but lamb as above will work just as well but it may be as well to keep it in a jar in the fridge if you will not be using it up soon.
 
Boy, didn't know there was a learning curve on this too? I may be inept, but hopefully my misadventure will help someone out...

I cut up a bunch of 3/4" patching material into square patches, and 3/4" strip, tossed them into a ziplock bag, put in a couple spoonfuls of mutton tallow, and then put it into a microwave "science oven for about a minute. Some of the patching scorched, and a hole melted through the bag... I threw out the scorched patches and tried to massage the mutton tallow into the rest of the patching. I'm thinking I'll just heat some up in a double boiler on the stove and pour it into an unused cap tin and wipe it onto the patching before I shoot?
 
I went ahead and rubbed some tallow into the patches by hand. I'll let it sit for a bit, and then I'll use a knife edge or something similar to scrape off any excess from the patches. I'll keep them for use in an old cap tin.
 

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