Lard vs Tallow

[fourbore]

I was at Walmart today and spotted Lard. I kinda mixed up reading on this forum about tallow and purchsed the lard. A google search confirms they are both animal fat. Differnt, but similar animal. Are they both good lube?

 

[flinter1977]

I use lard and bees wax mix. Works for me. I adjust the proportions as needed .

 

[fourbore]

How about plain lard? And what is the symptom of not working?

 

[Zonie]

I think lard should work just as well as well as tallow for muzzleloading applications. The main difference is that tallow is made from beef fat and lard is made from pork fat.

The only caution I can think of is, some lard and some tallow is salted and you don't want to use either one if it has been.
If it has been salted, it will be marked on the package.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

I use lard and bees wax mix. Works for me. I adjust the proportions as needed .

I’ve found unsalted lard and beeswax to be a super minie lube. Real nice.

 

[JoJoLesh]

I hear tallow (from cows), mixed with lard (from pigs) works GREAT. The British used it for a long time.


There were some unfortunate consequences though.

 

[fourbore]

I think lard should work just as well as well as tallow for muzzleloading applications. The main difference is that tallow is made from beef fat and lard is made from pork fat.

The only caution I can think of is, some lard and some tallow is salted and you don't want to use either one if it has been.
If it has been salted, it will be marked on the package.

I got lucky on the salt, if; that is a regular ingredient. IIRC this cost $2 for 16 ounces. AMOUR brand. No refigeration required. Ingredients: Lard and Hydrogenated Lard, BHA, Propyl Gallate and Cytric Acid. I would not want to ingest the stuff, but; that is true of 90% of the Walmart food. I dont expect they sell beeswax.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

Grandma swore by a pig’s lard to produce a glorious flaked crust for pies, and as her student, I can attest most certainly custard was the most delectable.

 

[fourbore]

When I say not ingest, I am refering to : "Hydrogenated Lard, BHA, Propyl Gallate and Cytric Acid ". I am going to guess gandma probably used pure lard.

 

[dave951]

I use beeswax/lard for minie lube and it works great with some designs of minies. On the RCBS Hogdon, its great. On the Rapine Trashcan, not so much. Time to experiment and go to the range to find out if it works for you.

 

[fourbore]

I look forward to shooting again. My range is closed right now. I can go hang around Walmart all day long but I cannot take a walk in the park or shoot off benches 12 feet apart!

 

[Howard Pippin]

I use lard and bees wax mix. Works for me. I adjust the proportions as needed .

Good morning. I've been thinking about trying this too, right now I'm using MAP and it has very good results but I'm always curious about something new. A friend just gave me quite a block of beeswax and of course I buy lard for making chicken fried steak, so I would appreciate if you could tell me about how much of each you mix to make it work, and does it get rancid on you by chance? The only lard that I can get here is refrigerated and I'm concerned about it get rancid. The nearest Walmart is 120 miles away in a direction that I don't travel. In the direction I do travel for doctors, it's 240 miles.
Through the years I've experimented with many lubes, wonder lube always worked, accuracy wasn't the best. The strange thing is the lube that works the best for me for my flintlock does not work at all for my percussion. I tried that formula from Dutch and the darn patches caught on fire enough to cause grass fires so I got out of that in a hurry. I might be able to avoid that by using a wool wad in between the powder and bullet, which I do for hunting but I'm still concerned about grass fires. Sometimes when I'm out in the field it's awful dry in Montana.
Squint

 

[renegadehunter]

Hobby Lobby sells bee's wax (they sell a small block of it or a bag of "petals", I prefer the petals since they melt fast and are easy to measure out), or finding a local beekeeper will get you a supply as well if you want some to combine with your lard. Should be fine if not salted like Zonie said.
Double broiler to melt it nice and slow. I like about 30% bees wax for "hunting" type weather and 50% for hot summer. I just use olive oil when I make some.
This is for a patch lube, I haven't played around with making conical lube, I rarely shoot them.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I was at Walmart today and spotted Lard. I kinda mixed up reading on this forum about tallow and purchsed the lard. A google search confirms they are both animal fat. Differnt, but similar animal. Are they both good lube?

Lard is rendered pork fat. Works well for frying canoli's, and for making pie crusts, and frying food, and for patch lube. Sucks by itself as a lube for conicals. Melting temp is too low. As for bullet lube for patches, use "lard" which should be unsalted. Bacon grease has too much salt.
Tallow is rendered beef or sheep fat. It's good for frying food, and for mixing into wax for hand dipped candles, and for lube for patches. It also sucks for lube for conicals unless mixed with wax, again due to low melting temp.

LD

 

[Eras Gone]

Tallow is the fat from around the kidneys of sheep and cattle. It is denser and has a much higher melting point than muscle fat or hog lard. That is why it was preferred for candles and bullet lubricant in the old days. Lard will work, but it is softer and melts at a much lower temperature. Here is a little write up I did on my FB page regarding tallow.

 

[Howard Pippin]

How about plain? And what is the symptom of not working?

Very interesting discussion, had to go out to the shop, melt some leaf lard, saturate a few patches and go shooting. Well, it didn't work bad, and wasn't spectacular either. Was fairly easy to load and I use a very tight patch. I didn't mix it with anything, might have to try that for another test. The MAP solution I use did shoot a little better groups at 50 yards. Still get my share of flyers, I think I need more experimenting with perhaps heavier loads and that's going to come up down the turnpike.
Squint

 

[Carbon 6]

Cytric Acid.

Don't want that in my bore, or on my brass.

 

[n3wyu]

Rendering lard, something you don't hear any more. I remember my mother doing it when I was a kid. My My am I getting that old. ???

 

[fourbore]

"Cytric Acid" Don't want that in my bore, or on my brass.

That was listed as a preservative. I believe that is the stuff in orange juice. if I put this on a patch it would not be in the barrel for very long and shooting black powder it would get cleaned the same day as shooting. So; now that I read this, I am a little bit concerned.

I checked the cubboard and my wife uses olive oil. Only oilve oil. For a patch, is that the safe and simple route?

 

[dave951]

Very interesting discussion, had to go out to the shop, melt some leaf lard, saturate a few patches and go shooting. Well, it didn't work bad, and wasn't spectacular either. Was fairly easy to load and I use a very tight patch. I didn't mix it with anything, might have to try that for another test. The MAP solution I use did shoot a little better groups at 50 yards. Still get my share of flyers, I think I need more experimenting with perhaps heavier loads and that's going to come up down the turnpike.
Squint

I don't use it on PRB, I'm shooting minies. I tried it on my PRB guns and while it did ok, it wasn't a huge success.