Litheum grease or graphite

[K.A.T.]

Has anyone tried Litheum grease or graphite inside a BP revolver.I traded my used colt 1860,I'm taking a new one out of the box prepareing it to be a shooter, life on the shelve is over for it. Bad Flynch I did find the Uberti screws will fit,but not the nipples.The wedge will work,also the bolt spring will work.I think I found some nipples with Thunder Ridge that will work.They were made to shoot,lets shoot em! I'll be back in a couple days and give the results.

 

[Plink]

Inside, as in ball lube? Petroleum products don't work well as muzzleloader lube. They combine with the leftovers of combustion and form a tenacious tar that is a royal pain to clean out. If you're using it to lube the internal parts, go for it. Great gun lube! Just not a good ball or patch lube.

 

[K.A.T.]

I was wondering about using them on the internal parts like the hand,or the bolt,or hammer,not in the barell or cylinder.

 

[Plink]

It'll work fine for internal parts. There's no need for specialty lubes in most firearms. In fact, some of the specialty lubes are just repacked from other industries anyway. I don't know about graphite by itself, but any good wheelbearing grease is fine. Motor oil and transmission fluid make good gun oils too.

I admit to being somewhat of a lube junkie. I've tried most everything on the market and have even formulated a few of my own. The comical part is none of them outperform plain ol' grease or oil by a significant margin. The few things I've learned to avoid are the light "sewing machine" type oils that they often include in inexpensive cleaning kits, and WD-40. That stuff causes more problems than it solves.

 

[K.A.T.]

Thanks Plink, I will try the lithium grease,I just found an old tube of it in my tool box I don't remember what I bought it for. Might as well use it and see how it does.

 

[Bad Flynch]

Well, I'm glad that you found out about the spare parts, but lets do a little with the lithium grease thing.

Lithium automobile grease and graphite grease, which is usually lithium with graphite added (same for moly), has a bad reputation when used with black powder. It tends to really form a wretched gunk when used with black powder and gums up the works. Best bet is to use one of the heavier BP lubes, like one of the incarnations of 1000+. All of the companies that market 1000+ get it from Ox-Yoke or at least license the formula from Ox-yoke, so it does not matter which one you use. They market them as patch lubes, too. I like the stuff in a tube for lubing parts like the basepin, but I use the stuff in the jar, which is a little bit stiffer, for over the balls of a cap-and-ball revolver. This give me nearly complete satisfaction with easy clean-up.

 

[Old Dragoon]

I use nothing but Virgin Olive Oil, the cheapest I can find that ISN"T mixed with Canola or any other oils. Canola and Sesame oils turn to glue, but the Olive Oil is the trick to the internals and the arbor pins and cylinder pins. My BP pistolas rock and roll on olive oil!

I fired 4 stages with my Pietta '51 Navy C & B and my 2nd Gen. Colt '51 Navy last Sunday with NO cleaning between shots or stages. I just reloaded after the stage and helped the posse at the unloading bench. I used olive oil as stated above and Bore Butter over each ball. The BB didn't blow out with the first shots either. They didn't even slow down. Normally we shoot 5 or 6 stages and I expect the guns to not slow down when next we shoot. We shot only 4 stages as we were having a going away party for our Territorial Gov.

 

[langenc]

I worked oe summer at a refinery. The lube of choice for large bolts (1 1/4+")
was graphite suspended in motor oil slopped on quite heavily. Bolts came off rather easy after being on 5+ years and tightened as tight as a 2 man air impact wrench would do them.

 

[Bad Flynch]

>My BP pistolas rock and roll on olive oil! <

Must be Italian replicas, I suspect.

>I use nothing but Virgin Olive Oil,<

No sense paying extra just to squeeze a virgin, just use 2nd or 3rd pressing.

 

[Old Dragoon]

Nope original Remy's and 2nd Gen Colts. But the Repros werePietta's and Uberti's and Euroarms. They all ROCK and ROLL on Olive oil.

You're right but I usually just grab what's on the shelf and the last time was Virgin Olive Oil. I use it for my holsters too. And I do cook with it some, but not the bottle that is in the shooting box.