Bore Butter?

[Oldbear63]

I like the concept of Bore Butter and I have generally had good luck using it as a patch lube. Today, after a shoot I found my later cleaning patches coming out dirty grey-brown. Not rust, but lots of residual stuff and I went through about 20-30 patches, all coming up suspicious. Even alcohol patches continued to come up dirty until I finally got down to steel. This time I finished with pure mineral oil before putting it away.

I realize I am opening a can of annelids (worms) but what are opinions on Bore Butter?

 

[deerstalkert]

i bought a tube when it first came out. 7/8th full sitting on a back shelf in the garage. i used most of what was used to pack a bicycle bearing in a pinch. bike is still rolling so there is that.

 

[Whitworth]

Brother likes it, I don't. I started using Wonder Lube. Not as messy as Bore Butter and it smells like the manure they used to put on our sprains and bruises when I played football in high school decades ago, "Cramer's Atomic Balm"

 

[Dillon W.]

I really like the idea of it as well OP. And I did like it quite a lot. Easy to use, made loading nice, smells good, kept fouling soft, all that great stuff. Until I had the same problems you are. And running a patch down the bore of my clean rifle and pulling back out this brown cruddy nightmare that was a pain in the back 40 to finally remove. Ballistol did the same thing. I just started using track of the wolfs mink oil. This stuff is amazing. Doesn’t smell good like TCs bore butter but it simply works. For lubing patches or coating your bore and everything else with it when you clean it and put it up. And it’s super cheap and a little goes a very long way

 

[EC121]

After trying it, I threw out the Bore Butter and kept the plastic container to use for other lubes.

 

[SDSmlf]

There is likely a temperature that this relabeled ‘Chapstick’ works well. Not sure what that temperature is though. Below or close to freezing it is like a rock. Approaching 85° F or so it runs like water. At least in my experience.

 

[tenngun]

Some folks like it some don’t, ive used it without any problem but I like lard and mink oil.

 

[MIOutdoorsman]

I haven’t been around black powder guns nearly as long as some on this forum, but I’ve been using bore butter for years as part of my post-clean bore and external metals rub down, as have both of my brothers and other relatives for many years longer than I, and it does what it’s supposed to do.

While I’m open to using alternative products if I think there’s a problem with it, I (we) just haven’t experienced any of the downsides that some proclaim with bore butter. Makes me wonder if it’s just one of those things that goes around and becomes “viral” for whatever reason? Or perhaps they changed the formula from that which was produced 20 years ago, and some don’t like the change? Who knows. But in my experience it’s a pretty solid product.

I do agree that when it’s cold out, the stuff really stiffens up! I store mine near the dehumidifier rod in my gun safe to avoid that in the winter and it helps, but I’ve also been known to dip the whole tube into my hot water when cleaning too! Just gotta be careful to keep that to a quick dip!!

 

[TexiKan]

Years ago I tried it when I could not get another lube. For some bizarre reason, it created a rough loading situation which surprised me. I eventually obtained my previous lube and feared trying the Bore Butter again. Other than the smell, I am not sure how it differed from the other long term lubes.

 

[tenngun]

It will oxides and turn brown. So some one runs a patch down bore and it comes out brown. As most of us our gun nuts who would sell grannies gold teeth before letting the red demon near our guns a touch of brown is the worst tragedy of the century. I THINK that accounts for some of bore butter bad rep.
And yes it does go viral. As a community we are like that old is Irish song
But even if you saw it yourself
You wouldn’t believe
And I wouldn’t trust a fellow
Like me if I was you
Sure I wasn’t there
I’m sure I have an alibi
But I heard it from a fellow
Who had a friend who knew a man who swears it’s all true

 

[dave951]

I'm not a fan. When I lube a patch, I've had good luck with pure Neetsfoot oil. Doesn't take much and cleanup is easy.

 

[flntlokr]

Ho-hum! This subject never goes away. Water based lube for general range use when a lot of shots are made. Greasy lube if the gun will remain loaded for an extended period (hunting?). Precise recipes will vary, but that is the guts of it.

 

[bigstick6017555]

My choice is Mink, Bear, Coon, Opossum oil or grease,

 

[pooch156]

I use "Old Zip" patch grease from DGW . I have 1&1/2 tins of it left. Dixie now lists it as unavailable. Tried bore butter. Too too stiff for me.

 

[TFoley]

My choice is Mink, Bear, Coon, Opossum oil or grease,

If I tried to get my hands on any of that stuff here in UK the zoo-keepers would nail me to the gatepost.

 

[dave951]

If I tried to get my hands on any of that stuff here in UK the zoo-keepers would nail me to the gatepost.

Perhaps you should "borrow" some from game lands owned by the crown?

 

[TFoley]

Perhaps you should "borrow" some from game lands owned by the crown?

To do that, Sir, would entail the use of a time machine. The 'crown' owns NO land here in UK - you are allowing your biased take on the British way of life to colour your imagination.

Please read - 'Historically, the properties now known as the Crown Estate were administered as possessions of the reigning monarch to help fund the business of governing the country. By the Civil List Act of 1760, King George III surrendered control over the Estate's revenues to the treasury, in order to relieve him from paying for the costs of the civil service, defence costs, the national debt, and his own personal debts, and, in return, to receive an annual grant known as the Civil List.'

As such, so called Crown Lands in all the colonies, including, specifically, Canada and Australasia, are similarly fall under the purview of the respective government.

The days of kings and queens sitting on thrones issuing laws and edicts here stopped on Tuesday, January 30th 1649, when King Charles I knelt in front of a crowd of his former subjects and suffered his head to be struck off.

 

[Oldbear63]

One reasoning of the Bore Butter people was that it seasoned your bore, much like the seasoning of a pan. If this is true then getting many patches of brown stuff out might just be the "seasoning" coming out, in which case this might be a feature, not a bug (to quote the tech guys).
Is there an advantage to having a "seasoning"? Stripping my barrel down to bare steel might sound nice, but if it accelerates barrel wear then it aint better.
But then getting real sciency stuff out of a bunch of old guys like us might be asking too much.

 

[ord sgt]

This thread could go on for ever. Here is my take on the matter, use whatever type of lubrication that tickles your fancy. Be it Bore Butter, saliva, Crisco, mink oil, sheep tallow , sheep dip, snot (especially the real green stuff ) , etc, etc. Once upon a long time ago, I used to chew tobacco. This gave an excellent patch lube for target shooting. Anyone who chews, you know what I mean. Then I gave up tobacco all together.
Bottom line, if it works for you, rock on with your bad self.

 

[SDSmlf]

One reasoning of the Bore Butter people was that it seasoned your bore, much like the seasoning of a pan. If this is true then getting many patches of brown stuff out might just be the "seasoning" coming out, in which case this might be a feature, not a bug (to quote the tech guys).
Is there an advantage to having a "seasoning"? Stripping my barrel down to bare steel might sound nice, but if it accelerates barrel wear then it aint better.
But then getting real sciency stuff out of a bunch of old guys like us might be asking too much.

Borebutter turns to crud if you don’t clean it out of your bore. The so-called seasoning is in my opinion, is a build up of that crud. I have obtained more that one shot out barrel that only needed a deep cleaning, to remove the Borebutter buildup from the bore to bring the barrel back to life.