Homebrewed lube mix w/tallow

Carbon 6 said:

I would not recommend doing it on the stove or in the house or with your wife's good pans.

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Double boiler for Gatofeo’s lube. All of those things except her pot can’t get marred. Do these others smell foul?

Yes, I used my wife's good pans and yes, I waited until she was gone for a few hours before I started the project.... my Gato feo mix did not smell very bad at all. The wife never suspected anything!
YMMV!!!!

Good luck and God bless,
Rodd

If you have an accident outside you won't have to sleep in the dog house.

Cleaning wax off of a stove is not a fun job.

If you have a fire out side it's not a big deal, but a grease fire in the kitchen and your house will stink for months, That's if you don't accidentally burn it down.

Had some old Hornady 410 grn Plains bullets. The lube was old and dry flaking off. In my infinite wisdom i said boil the bullets and the lube will melt off and float to to top. It worked but while boiling it splattered wax out on the stove. I now do all my stuff outside on the side grill burner. The little lady was not pleased. My first and last mistake. I lubed, dip lubed, with 45% beeswax 45% lamb tallow 10% olive oil. A good lube. Not too soft, not to hard, has a little greasy feel but not bad. Laid out to dry. Will try in my 1-32 twist Traditions rifle or my TC Hawken 1-48 twist barrel.
DL

Frontier's said:

Beeswax and paraffin wax are...well they should be imo.... a thing of the past. I never understood the reason behind using something as nasty as wax in your bore.

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That's nothing. I ignite the charge with a chip of rock. Beeswax has some very nice properties. Paraffin - not so much.

What is the difference between dry wads with homemade lube on them and Cabelas lubed wads.

You know the lubricant used to soak the wads. In practice, not much difference.

You also know how old the lubed patches/wads are.

Adding beeswax will only stiffen the tallow and could be an issue when cold. Mutton tallow is fine by itself and would be good in colder temperatures when hunting. Bear grease or lard would also be good straight up. Deer tallow or beef tallow need something to thin it out such as olive oil. Just my two cents.

I carry a just-ripe avocado with me every trip in the field!

Ok, I made that up. But I did make up a batch of "Windini Lube." It started out 50/50 (by "visual weight," i.e. half the weighed packages) of beeswax & lamb tallow. On cooling, it was pretty stiff and crumbly (at 70F or so), and wasn't well-suited to either pressing into revolver cylinders or impregnating rifle patches. So remelted it & eyeballed another 15% of tallow; didn't perceptibly change workability. So I re-remelted it & added olive oil, eyeballing about 20% by volume, figuring I could always stiffen it up with a bit more beeswax if it got too loose.

In the end, that last mix turned out to be pretty versatile, and I had quite a bit more than I intended! I'd gotten some 3" diameter flattish cannisters with screw-on lids (3-4oz each?), and now have 6 of those. I also have a good supply of beeswax, a little less than half my tallow, and I've always got olive oil on hand. I b'leve I'm lubed for a long while.

Briefly - which I am not good at! - I found DIY lube effective, but not a precise process at first. I'd recommend getting a small supply of wax, animal/vegetable lard, and oil commonly available near you, and just messing around with it till you hit a consistency that works for you.

And my melter was a $5 crockpot from Goodwill. It was pretty big, so I later got a little potpoeriaee?? good-smell releaser/warm dip mini crock for $3, and it's just the right size.

Ive bought all the pans and utensils needed for lube and candle making from garage sales and keep them in a box. I do not use the "good" pans as I enjoy my peace and quiet too much.

Smart man