T/C 1000+ Replacement?

[CzarJL]

Bore butter+ pyrodex+ improper cleaning = rusty pitted bore.

You can get away with a lot of less than ideal lubes and powders, but if you don't clean it well* that is were the rust monster gets a foot hold. * I consider a good cleaning to include some type of corrosion prevention applied to the bore.

 

[Hurricane]

A light swab of straight Ballistol for final cleaning followed by a light coat of Hoppes gun oil has been working well for keeping the bores of my ML's rust/corrision free.

 

[Mwal]

When I ran out of Bore butter years ago I switched to TOTW mink lube. I have never regretted the change.

Mal

 

[Loyalist Dave]

So the old T/C 1000+ (Bore Butter) is gone and I am about. What do you suggest as a substitute for patches and bore seasoning?

I like 60% lard or sweet oil, and 40% beeswax. IF you'd like to come closer, add some wintergreen oil to the mixture. IF you find it too stiff, increase the lard and decrease the wax.

LD

 

[rp77469]

Bear grease or bear oil depending on the bear I rendered and how hot the day is.

 

[palonghunter]

A lot of the ‘stuff’ marketed as Mink Oil has very little Mink Oil in the secret recipe. The Sofsole for example has 5% - 15% in it if their data sheet is to be believed. Mostly Bleached Tallow, whatever that may be.
View attachment 284312

Tallow is animal fat. It’ll probably work fine. Mutton tallow is used in a lot of patch lube recipes.

 

[Spikebuck]

I am currently using Tracks Mink oil, and it is ok for a patch lube....ok. it is very stiff, and in cold weather (near freezing and below) stiff as a board, and results in cut patches.

Always interesting how different people have different results.

Been hunting with Tracks Mink Oil for many years in Minnesota cold of WELL below freezing, including below zero. No issues with it being stiff or causing cut patches.

My experience was that Bore Butter was much, much stiffer in really cold weather...virtually unusable.

 

[TreeMan]

Bore seasoning posts make my head hurt.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Something I have seen from many of the shooters that make the claim that they have successfully seasoned their bore with Bore Butter is that they have fully cleaned the bore to remove all fouling and the burned Bore Butter. Then the bore is coated with Bore Butter as the rust inhibiting lubricant. Before returning to the next shooting session, the bore is often cleaned with alcohol or wiped. The bore is smooth and as more shooting is done, loading is easy because of their "seasoned" bore.

Now I am not about to tell them that any "seasoning" is gone as a result of the thorough cleaning. The smoothing is a result of the micro polishing of the bore. Allegedly proof of the benefit of "seasoning". Not.

We never hear much from those who make a few cleaning swipes then slather the bore with bore Butter. We hear of the nice looking rifles with roached bores that get sent to Bobby Hoyt to get restored. Probably seasoned by the previous owner.

 

[Daveboone]

Always interesting how different people have different results.

Been hunting with Tracks Mink Oil for many years in Minnesota cold of WELL below freezing, including below zero. No issues with it being stiff or causing cut patches.

My experience was that Bore Butter was much, much stiffer in really cold weather...virtually unusable.

Even at room temp., Mink Oil is solid...I nuke it to prelube my patches. BB I can just dab on my fingers.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

A light swab of straight Ballistol for final cleaning followed by a light coat of Hoppes gun oil has been working well for keeping the bores of my ML's rust/corrision free.

No and NO
Petroleum oils turn the black powder to sludge. No one wants sludge.

Barrel seasoning is a thing. Back in the day you would take your barrel into the shower and get it so hot and scrub it with soap and water.
After you are done you "season" the bore with butter to keep the raw metal from rusting.

I did this all the way until I found T/C products. Zero water has been in there since then.
Now I use T/C No.13 bore cleaner. Then at the end of the year, bore butter for storage.
Then I clean it out before shooting in the spring.

 

[Howard Pippin]

As the owner of some 25 cast iron fry pans, I can testify how to clean cast iron. I have seen grandma's frying pan that was so thick with grease that you couldn't tell where it was made and it weighed probably a pound heavier, and all you do is you have to burn them. You can burn all the grease out, which will clean the pan, recoat with something to keep it from sticking and from then on it's a good pan till the grease cooks through it again. Cast iron is a good cook item, it's hard to find the nice light pans like Griswold made many years ago. There's a few out there but most of them like Lodge, are darn heavy and they're also too rough in the bottom. I have smoothed many of them for other people that wanted to use one and discovered that it seem to stick all the time: with a die grinder and a fine grade Emery cloth and made them so that they were easy to seal up and easy to use. Most of them that I clean anymore, rather than use a big propane torch, I put them in the bottom of my BBQ grill and turn it up on high for about an hour and that seems to burn all the grease out, then you gotta remember to be sure and scrub it out real good before you recoat it with perhaps Crisco. That was the recommended grease to use years ago, it does work, though there's other ones I understand that work just as good, coat it nice and even inside and out, place it in your BBQ grill up on top of the cooking grate and cook for about an hour at about 350 and it will have a nice even coating. Be sure and turn it upside down when you do it. This can be done in your regular oven, but it has a tendency to kind of smell the house up. It's even fine to wash it with real hot water, as long as you don't use any soap. They make a special chain link scrubber for cast iron fry pans, I own one and they work quite well, but it's not necessary. As a rule, hot water and a wash rag will clean it real fine
Squint

 

[Howard Pippin]

Something I have seen from many of the shooters that make the claim that they have successfully seasoned their bore with Bore Butter is that they have fully cleaned the bore to remove all fouling and the burned Bore Butter. Then the bore is coated with Bore Butter as the rust inhibiting lubricant. Before returning to the next shooting session, the bore is often cleaned with alcohol or wiped. The bore is smooth and as more shooting is done, loading is easy because of their "seasoned" bore.

Now I am not about to tell them that any "seasoning" is gone as a result of the thorough cleaning. The smoothing is a result of the micro polishing of the bore. Allegedly proof of the benefit of "seasoning". Not.

We never hear much from those who make a few cleaning swipes then slather the bore with bore Butter. We hear of the nice looking rifles with roached bores that get sent to Bobby Hoyt to get restored. Probably seasoned by the previous owner.

I'm curious, did they have those rifles adequately cleaned before they tried storing? It also might make a difference where they live, here in Montana, it's darn dry 90% of the time, but I do make darn sure that the bore is clean before I coat it with anything. I can think of the years that I used unmentionables , and never cleaned the bore after using for maybe a year, and yet they never rusted and partially that's due, I think, because it was very dry.

 

[longcruise]

@Howard Pippin good treatise on use and care of cast iron.

Only thing I add is the removal of built up "seasoning" can also be done by cycling it through a self cleaning oven.

 

[Howard Pippin]

@Howard Pippin good treatise on use and care of cast iron.

Only thing I add is the removal of built up "seasoning" can also be done by cycling it through a self cleaning oven.

I will guarantee that would clean it, but if you don't have a good fan system I would say it would get pretty strong and smelly with smoke. It's hard to believe the amount of grease that can accumulate cast iron. We have a couple of those and they are very effective as far as cleaning the oven. I've never put anything else in there so I don't know how it would clean anything else it's all metal but I know they get very hot.

 

[longcruise]

I've cleaned several very built up cast items that I bought cheap in.the self cleaning oven with no issues but who knows what to expect from yours or anybody else's. In fact, I just got a new stove and don't know how it will work. I have three cast items on a shelf in the garage that I've not worked on yet so I'll be finding out.