campfire reloading: were the bullets lubed?

[BullRunBear]

Many of us have read how the buffalo hunters of the 1870s and 80s would reload their cartridges around the camp fire at night so their rolling block or Sharps rifles would be ready for the next day's hunting. I never read that they lubed the bullets. If they did, would they have just rubbed in the lube/grease with their fingers? Curiosity on my part.

Jeff

 

[dave951]

They were lubed. How, I haven't read that exactly. My guess is either smear it on with fingers or pan lube and use an old case to cut them out.

 

[Jim Watson]

Lots of hunters and shooters back then bought bullets. Nearly all the proprietary Sharps rounds got paper patched bullets.
But yes, if you were casting bullets - out of the ones dug out of dead buffalo, supposedly - then you would grease them by hand.

 

[BullRunBear]

Thanks for the replies. I'm sure you are correct about finger lubing their bullets if they didn't have commercial ones available. It makes sense, I just hadn't found a specific reference about the matter.

Jeff

 

[PapaG]

Tallow was popular, rubbed on. Only had to stay on a day or so. Anything to keep the fouling soft, at least till the hunter could take a leak down the barrel.

 

[Obturation]

Paper patched maybe?

 

[Gordon]

I went thru a few years of reloading out in the field with a campfire with Lee aluminum bullet molds and a Lyman 310 "knuckle Cracker" tool in .44 special and ..25-35 mostly . I was not into muzzle loading at the time. I used bacon grease and a little bees wax mixed applied to bands with fingers . Yes the loads were only kept a day or two and chilled in cold stream and wiped with a rag before loading with mostly 2400 powder.

 

[dave951]

Everything I've read on the buffalo hunters points to being frugal and careful with supplies. They were operating as a business and anything that could be used or "recycled" was. That includes recasting recovered bullets, reloading spent rounds and using rendered fat from animal carcasses for lube. Loaded rounds were shot the next day and the cycle repeated that evening.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I never read that they lubed the bullets. If they did, would they have just rubbed in the lube/grease with their fingers? Curiosity on my part.

This is pure conjecture on my part, but they could've done it the way muzzleloaders lube hand cast conicals sometimes, and the way guys shooting BP cartridges sometimes do it today.
If the bullets are not pre-lubed in a box, or if they are cast in the field, all that is needed is some lube, which could be beeswax and lard 60:40 or even 70:30.
The bullets are placed rear end down into a container. The longer the bullet the deeper the container needs to be. The lube is then melted and poured into the container and around the bullets. The bullets are removed when the lube has cooled. Voila, perfectly lubed bullets. The remaining lube is saved for the next batch, and so on.



LD