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over ball lubricant recommendation

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The only down side so far that I have found in using lubed felt wads is the bit less powder capacity which is about 3-5 grains as I see it.
Not enough to make any real difference in anything one wants to do.
All I can say is to try them and see for yourself if you like lubed wads.
I'm pretty well sold on them personally.
I made my own press mounted wad punches just like the Fred Leath commercial ones sold.
My current lube is Mathews black powder lube, Neats foot oil, Murphys oil soap and Bees wax.
The lube will not melt in hot weather!
 
Back in the day I used a section of decommissioned steel golf club shaft; cut it til I found the right diameter, sharpened and cut flet. A dowel shoved down the shaft pushed out the felt.
 
I use the 7/16 punch from Harbor Freight to make wads. I opened up the inside diameter to around .452 and it works good. I used a demel. $8.99 for the set.
 
but does it even touch the bore when the powder goes off? If you put a 452 wad down in the chamber on top of the powder and then seat the ball, the wad wraps partially to the curve of the ball. When it does so, it only covers about one third of the ball, leaving a band around the bore that is not even touched or wiped by the wad. To wrap around one half of the ball, the wad would need to be .708 in diameter.
 
My wads are larger than the chamber and when fingered in after being impregnated with my lube are very stiff and rigid.
I can assure you they seal the chamber completely under the seated ball.
Wonder wads are sold commercially, work perfectly and are dry lubed under the ball.
Each chamber gets the same amount of lube for more consistency than happens with lubing over the ball.
It is far less messy and seems to be plenty accurate although I have yet to do the actual testing between the two methods to prove my consensus of equal accuracy.
The lube is dispensed from the wad by hydraulic and centrifuge action. As soon as the light comes on lube is being squeezed out after seating the ball on it starts the action.
The front of the powder column under the ball does not actually burn until well up the barrel past the cylinder gap and acts as part of the wad until it does ignite.
There is no danger of chain fire from the front if the balls fit correctly.
 
One more point. If your worried about the wad being seated flat on the powder than simply seat the wad with the rammer before seating the ball in the chamber.
 
On ignition when the powder ignites and with great pressure forces the wad up against the curvature of the ball, the wad wraps around the curvature and leaves an exposed ring all the way around the ball. Any protection and bore lube is completely by accident if the wad comes off center. It is an easy geometrical concept to follow. Now, some lube may be melted and splattered out to the corners of where the ball meets the bore. But a wad only does so if extremely deformed by the pressure. I have seen wonder wads laying in front of the firing line. with no such deformation. A wonder wad does nothing for the bore unless you might be shooting flat bottom conicals.
 
Yeah,I too have thought about the wad around the ball curve scenario how ever the theorized effect does not appear to hold true as wads, dry or waxed work just fine and lube the bore just as effectively as does the over ball lubing.
Give it a fair comparative trial then draw conclusions bases on trial instead of theory.
 
What I think is happening, at least with the lubed felt wads I make, is that the mouth of the chamber is lubed when the wad is inserted and the ball is then pressed into the pre-lubed chamber mouth.
This bit of lube is just enough to grease the first ball up the clean bore and the wad behind does mop up of all preceding shots.
I still need to run a definitive accuracy test between the two methods ,as stated before, but so far it looks promising.
Be good if several of us test and posted our individual findings.
 
I don't over think what the wad does. I put powder in the chamber and place the lubed wad above the powder. I don't rush loading, so seat the lubed wad on top of the powder and then load the ball and seat it. The wads are a tight fit and well lubed. My primary concern is to prevent chain fires and provide some lube to the barrel. I find lube wads to be much cleaner than over the ball lube.

Now the theoretical. Wouldn't the pressure of the powder igniting create pressure that would expand the wad to fill both the chamber and the barrel as it exits behind the ball? It may curve around the base of the ball, but I would bet there is still lubed wool touching the chamber and barrel sides. Also, the heat of the powder would tend to soften or melt the lube too and allow it to lube the walls.
 
Isn't the lubed wad behaving as a lube cookie?
As if to say, that burning plasma of molten salt peter and sulfur displaces some lube and it gets into the bore deposits.

For those that haven't experimented with mixing the ingredients of black powder (I was in 5th grade, now I don't), those components do melt. They form an amazing reactive molten bubbling mess that will propel itself through any opportunity to spread around. I figger that the felt gets some of its lube moved into the mix.
 
M.D. said:
The only down side so far that I have found in using lubed felt wads is the bit less powder capacity which is about 3-5 grains as I see it.
Not enough to make any real difference in anything one wants to do.

In March of 2014, I posted the results on this forum, at the conclusion of a days shooting tests, which showed that my Pietta 1858 with the 8" slow twist barrel shot significantly more accurately (1.98" vs .88" groups) with a lubed felt wad compared with lube over the ball.

In addition, we proved that our guns are more accurate with more powder, even using 15 grains of black powder and cream of wheat to get the ball seated near the chamber mouth, using 35 grain charges was more accurate.

In the case of our 1858 Belt Model, .36 caliber, it too shoots more accurately when using 24 grain charges versus anything less.
 
Get a sheet or two of 1/8" felt from Duro-Felt in Little Rock, AR, a wad punch ( size not overly important-close is close enough ), make your own lube and shoot.
You will know you have enough lube in the wads when you get a good " lube star " around the muzzle by the first or second shot.
BTW, square wads ( Blasphemy!! ) work just as well as round ones.
Having fired thousands of wads in various shapes and sizes, I know firsthand.
 
M.D. said:
I have switched to a lubed felt wad under the ball after 40 years of lubing over the ball.
To soon old , to late smart! :rotf:

This what I've gone to. No more lube at the front of the cylinder. GW
 
Several here have indicated that chain fires do not originate at the front of the cylinder. Samuel Colt believed that chain fires could occur from either front or rear of the cylinder. He therefore devised and documented solutions for both. He says so on pages 9 and 10 of the document:

"On the application of machinery to the manufacture of rotating chambered-breech fire-arms and their peculiarities" - by Samuel Colt.

If you want to read Samuel Colt's words on chain fires, then go to books.google.com and enter the title above: "On the application of machinery to the manufacture of rotating chambered-breech fire-arms and their peculiarities" (include the quotation marks). Then scroll down to pages 9 and 10. Most of his explanation and a diagram is on page 10.

Those are Samuel Colt's words, but likely not the last words on this topic :haha:
 
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Another "over ball lubricant" technique is to put a drop of engine oil (e.g., 40 weight) atop the loaded balls in the revolver and allow it to flow down to the cylinder wall. This supposedly inhibits crossfire by reducing the flammability of any powder wedged between the ball and the cylinder wall.

Most any eye-dropper bottle will do and application doesn't leave fingers (as) greasy.
 
Mate I use a lubed felt wad over powder, keeps the bore clean and no mess from smearing lube over the chamber mouths. I use my minnie lube, 5 parts by volume beeswax to 1 part lard. Soak the felt before punching.
 
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chain fire?? who say anything about chain fire??
 

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