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what oil to use?

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If you have used a coating of wet petroleum oil, just wipe the surface dry with a clean rag and then load your gun and have fun shooting it. :)
One reason for the alcohol flood and wipe before loading, particularly with wet petroleum products, was to remove the wet oil from the small crevices and corners where a wipe with a dry patch may not reach. That black tar like stuff always seemed to form in the crevices and corners of the bore. Another reason was that the wet oil always collected in the fire channel and breech area (bigger concern with patent type breech), especially with guns not stored muzzle down. The ‘traditional’ fix with cap locks was to fire off a cap or two before loading. Always considered this a workaround for a dirty (oily) breech area.

A lot of different bore protectants have been and are still in use and yet no one would recommend our application. What does Lyman put in their gun bores? Or have you ever cleaned up a milsurp gun? Cosmoline, the ultimate sticky mess since about 1900.

Go with what works for your gun.
 
I rarely if ever use oil in the bore since I discovered "Barricade" years ago. Barricade dries in the bore and it makes no difference if it is swabbed out or left alone. For locks I'll use most any quality oil.
 
Thanks Zonie that's good info, I wasn't sure if the residual film left behind
from the dried Barricade would be an issue or not .

I didn't want another "Bore Butter Event" from the late 70's.

Supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread, only later to find out that
bore butter coupled with Pyrodex was not a good combination.
 
You got me curious, what does Pyrodex and Bore Butter do?
They can put your barrel out of commission, by themselves, or as a team. Pyrodex has some nasty stuff in it that takes more than water to clean up, although, if cleaned up properly it is not a problem. It was supposed to be cleaner than BP. It was suggested with Bore Butter that you season your barrel and never really clean or scrub to back to bare metal. Bore Butter eventually built into a brown crust (aka, seasoning), ruining accuracy. If you were lucky, it could be cleaned out, restoring accuracy to a ‘ruined’ barrel.
 
I've never used Bore Butter so I cant really say too much on that subject.And I've never had any problems with Pyrodex..
 
They can put your barrel out of commission, by themselves, or as a team. Pyrodex has some nasty stuff in it that takes more than water to clean up, although, if cleaned up properly it is not a problem. It was supposed to be cleaner than BP. It was suggested with Bore Butter that you season your barrel and never really clean or scrub to back to bare metal. Bore Butter eventually built into a brown crust (aka, seasoning), ruining accuracy. If you were lucky, it could be cleaned out, restoring accuracy to a ‘ruined’ barrel.

SDS, You nailed it! I couldn't have said it any better myself. Thanks

My experience with it was it formed a hard carbon like fouling in the bore which was virtually impossible too remove, Hot soapy water wouldn't touch it.
Eventually this fouling would build up in the rifling causing issues with accuracy.
 
After reading all the bad posts about Bore Butter, I threw mine away since my Mink Oil tallow arrived from track o' the wolf. The mink oil tallow sure smells better than that stinkin' Bore Butter. As much as I used of the Bore Butter, it never did do anything to season the bore of my rifle. I guess I cleaned it too well for any "seasoning" to build up in my bore. I wasn't satisfied unless my patches came out completely clean after a cleaning session.
 
I tried bore butter and wasn't happy with it. Blue and Gray grease too messey . I tried mixing mink tallow and bees wax. didn't like it. tried straight mink tallow and liked it. This got me to thinking so I ordered and tried lambs tallow. Liked it even better. Now thinking is a dangerous thing. I started thing anyway. Now lamb tallow cost a bit to order. I take a few deer every year and most of the time through the skin and fat away. Last season I saved the fat and rendered tallow. It looked and felt just like lambs tallow. It shot just like lambs tallow. There is a deer processing place close by and I talked to them and they gave me a lot of deer fat. I rendered this down to tallow and now I have enough to last a long long long time. When I'm not target shooting or hunting I keep it in the freezer. Oh and after shooting it cleans up pretty good. Just a thought. Live dangerously
 
But... but..Zonie... don’t you live in ARIZONA? The anti humidity capitol of the United States... ;)
Yah, I do. :)
But, on average the humidity runs about 35-45 % inside my house for most of the year. The only time it's less than that is for about 3 months when I have the refrigeration unit running.
 
Bore butter is the ONLY lube (so far) that I have found to use with a .36 CVA bobcat that will shoot worth a dang. I was close to having it bored out to .40 but on a whim tried a THIN (ridiculously) patch and ALOT of pine scented bore butter and it grouped. NOTHING else I tried worked and were talking 15-20 years (I am patient ain't I).
 
I tried bore butter and wasn't happy with it. Blue and Gray grease too messey . I tried mixing mink tallow and bees wax. didn't like it. tried straight mink tallow and liked it. This got me to thinking so I ordered and tried lambs tallow. Liked it even better. Now thinking is a dangerous thing. I started thing anyway. Now lamb tallow cost a bit to order. I take a few deer every year and most of the time through the skin and fat away. Last season I saved the fat and rendered tallow. It looked and felt just like lambs tallow. It shot just like lambs tallow. There is a deer processing place close by and I talked to them and they gave me a lot of deer fat. I rendered this down to tallow and now I have enough to last a long long long time. When I'm not target shooting or hunting I keep it in the freezer. Oh and after shooting it cleans up pretty good. Just a thought. Live dangerously
I’ve used rendered deer tallow in, and on, my muzzleloaders for years. I rendered it from a large fat mule deer and got several jars of clean tallow. My ex-wife hated it, especially when I used it as lard in my cast iron, and cooked breakfast. Might partially explain the ex part?? All I have ever used was olive oil or deer tallow on my ML’s. I guess I was one who listened to the TC manual when I bought my first so many years ago regarding seasoning. Didn’t know I was doing it wrong until I joined this site and started reading, lol. Today I opened a can of mink oil from Track for the first time. My first thought... man this is exactly the same as my deer tallow, just smells better.
Walk
 
Flagstaff is near the top highest cost of living in the US! Gas @ $3.29 now. Two bedroom apt $1650.00 MO, make sure its a GOOD job before ya come up here
 

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