Bear Oil VS Mink patch lube

[FrontierMuzzleloading]

From 2014 when I was playing around with some bear oil lube I bought from rendezvous.

Got out today and decided that 100 yards bored me. I took it out to my 150 yard table and got all set up. First shot Thrilled me to death!

Shots 2 and 3 with bear grease was an unacceptable 150 yard group. Luckily I always bring a couple tins with an assortment of patches and on the next 3 shots I used TOW Mink Oil lubed patches.

90gr Olde Eynsford 2fg
.020" patch material
.570" home cast round balls
Mink Oil & Bear Grease patch lubes

One more with TOW mink oil

In the end I got rid of both as the bear oil flat out sucked and the TOW mink oil stunk like BO. :haha:

 

[BrownBear]

In the end I got rid of both as the bear oil flat out sucked and the TOW mink oil stunk like BO. :haha:

So what do you use instead, and how are the groups with it?

I have a lot of bear oil, and I have about 5 years now on TOW mink tallow. I've also messed around making my own lubes.

Here are a few things I've learned with my guns, whether or not it means bodiddly in your guns:

It's really, really easy to get too much bear oil on a patch. And too much drives accuracy south. Best is for it to barely dampen the patch, to the point you start wondering if it's not enough.

Easier to use and get right is a "grease" (a light smear) rather than a straight oil. I started mixing bear oil and deer tallow, getting really good results like you're showing with TOW mink. Problem was, it is really subject to ambient temperature, either too hard or too soft depending on the temp. I ended up with 3 different mixes, and my temp range is only from about 15 degrees most winters to 75 degrees on a hot summer.

Switched to TOW mink because it keeps good consistency throughout that temp range and accuracy results are virtually identical.

I'm not nearly so bothered by the BO of the TOW mink as some of the colognes, deodorants and aftershaves some of my hunting pards wear. I don't have the greatest nose, but I can usually smell them before I see them.

 

[hanshi]

I use mink oil and like it for hunting. At the range I use Hoppes. The main advantage mink oil has over bear oil is that I don't know of anyone ever being mauled by a mink. :rotf:

 

[BrownBear]

The main advantage mink oil has over bear oil is that I don't know of anyone ever being mauled by a mink. :rotf:

I do!!!!

Bud of mine was floating down a small river in a canoe and spotted a mink laid out on a log. Figured it was dead and wanted it for fly tying, so he reached out and grabbed it.

Heck of a way to wake up from a nap, especially for a mink.

Like to ate my buddy alive on its way into the bottom of the canoe. Then got its bearing and attitude and chewed on him twice more before departing the battlefield.

My buddy was so beat up he needed stitches on one hand and arm, one thigh and his belly. He's sure smarter now! :rotf:

 

[azmntman]

a video woulda been a sure million dollar winner! :rotf:

 

[Patocazador]

Weasels are mean. A mink is just a bigger weasel as are martens, fishers, otters, and wolverines.

I would hate to see someone who was attacked by a wolverine. :shocked2:

 

[BrownBear]

I would hate to see someone who was attacked by a wolverine. :shocked2:

I was on a moose hunt out on the Alaska Peninsula years back. Started up this little draw leading up onto a plateau. Met a wolverine coming down the draw.

Whooeee. No bear charge has ever rattled me so badly. That thing put on a show and kept coming. Ever had the experience of feeling a rifle shrink your hands? I have! :rotf:

I scrambled up one side of the draw and it stopped to look me over before continuing on its merry way. Don't want to do that again. :td:

 

[AZbpBurner]

After using a 200 year old patch lube recipe of beeswax and tallow for several decades myself, I decided to go an entirely different direction. Someone has already mentioned the possibility of using too much lube on a patch, and that is the key.

Dutch Schoulz advocates dry patches, so I tried making my own. I settled on a mix of 1 part castor oil to 5 parts denatured alcohol. Soak the patches, then let the solvent evaporate. They work great on rifles and also smoothbore wads.

as soon as I get around to it, I'll find out what olive oil dissolves in, and try it.

No reason you couldn't dissolve mink or bear grease in a suitable solvent, and make dry patches with it.

When you have enough lubricant in a patch, it will load easy and not leave behind a coating of grease in the bore that will build up fouling as quickly as heavier lube ap0lications folks have been brainwashed into believing is necessary to "keep fouling soft".

If this is too radical of a change over what you do now, consider using your same ol' same ol' bore butter type stuff, but squeegee out the excess from your patches with a putty knife or spatula. You'll notice you keep a cleaner bore longer using less lube.

 

[AZbpBurner]

I use mink oil and like it for hunting. At the range I use Hoppes. The main advantage mink oil has over bear oil is that I don't know of anyone ever being mauled by a mink. :rotf:

Apparently the "wild" has been bred out of household pet ferrets.

On her way thru town heading west, an old GF dropped in and stayed a few days. Her little car was loaded to the windows with her household goods, and also with a pet weasel in a cage. She dropped the cage on the livingroom floor, opened the cage door, then ran off for an emergency stop in the bathroom.

She didn't stop long enough to ask about my 2 cats: Mai-Tai, the Siamese who once did heavy front end damage to a Doberman, and Hobbes, a feral cat who didn't like intruders. Together they made a successful tag team, eliminating winter field mice intrusions. They didn't appear to be fans of strange pet weasels dumped into their space.

GF said the weasel was used to cats, but didn't look too comfy at the moment, being circled by about 35# of annoyed felines.

When we returned from dinner, Mai Tai was curled up on the couch. Discovered later, the big lump he was asleep atop was the body of the ferret, who was now buried under the cushion. Ferrets are curious, and this one apparently wanted to know what was at the bottom of 2 potted plants. Cat(s) took exception the the mess on the carpeting.

Told her I'd dispose of the carcass & wrapped it up & put it in the freezer.

Once she was gone, I skinned it & rendered it down for some clean & solid mink tallow. Got a few tablespoons & don't think it worked any better mixed with beeswax than beef tallow did. It did have a musky smell when I'd fire off some on a patch.

 

[hanshi]

The main advantage mink oil has over bear oil is that I don't know of anyone ever being mauled by a mink. :rotf:

I do!!!!

Bud of mine was floating down a small river in a canoe and spotted a mink laid out on a log. Figured it was dead and wanted it for fly tying, so he reached out and grabbed it.

Heck of a way to wake up from a nap, especially for a mink.

Like to ate my buddy alive on its way into the bottom of the canoe. Then got its bearing and attitude and chewed on him twice more before departing the battlefield.

My buddy was so beat up he needed stitches on one hand and arm, one thigh and his belly. He's sure smarter now! :rotf:

I have to admit they can do serious damage if you grab one; I never will. Still, I'd rather squeeze a mink than a bear. :hmm:

 

[nhmoose]

Even harder is squeezing something into sperm oil.
Tweezers needed. I like the easy obtained from the supermarket.
https://www.bing.com/images/search...39ee1d5b4e4c037074be9db6175793f1o0&ajaxhist=0

 

[BrownBear]

I have to admit they can do serious damage if you grab one; I never will. Still, I'd rather squeeze a mink than a bear. :hmm:

Texan jokes got real popular up here during the building of the Alaska pipeline. One of many is a saw about the Texan who wanted to be a real sourdough asked how to go about it. He was told he needed to urinate in the Yukon, kill a bear and make love to a Native woman (or words to that effect :grin: ).

He set out to do just that, and no one saw him for days. One evening he came staggering into the bar covered in blood with his clothes shredded and hollered "Now all I got to is kill that woman!" :wink:

 

[hanshi]

Aaaarrgh....... That hurt!

 

[hanshi]

Lard makes the best biscuits; no contest.

 

[Heelerau]

I always thought that was how you joined the Crockett/ :haha: Boone club?

 

[Onojutta]

At 150 yards with open sites, I wouldn't say those are horrendous groups. I'm with you in that I wouldn't he happy either, but I know a lot of guys would. Heck, a lot of the guys I shoot with would he happy to be on the paper at 150 yards.

I never tried applying lube to each shot, and I wonder just how consistently the lube can be applied that way. I pre-soak strips of pillow ticking in olive oil and make them so they are "saturated surface dry", to use a geotechnical engineering term. I seem to be able to get fairly good consistency that way.

 

[coloradoclyde]

In the end I got rid of both as the bear oil flat out sucked and the TOW mink oil stunk like BO. :haha:

So what do you use instead, and how are the groups with it?

I highly doubt you will get an answer to that question.....at least not publicly...