Proper recipe for chamber grease.

[Pyro]

What's a good over-the-ball grease recipe to fill chambers with that doesn't:
-blow all over when firing
-melt when holstered on a warm day
-remains intact over semi-long periods of time

I usually use Crisco but I've used it enough to know it's only good for range visits.

 

[swathdiver]

For as many replies you'll get as many recipes.

6 Parts Mutton Tallow
1 Part Beeswax
2 Parts Olive Oil

Use less or more olive oil for warmer or colder weather. Thus far this mix has not melted in Florida 80s degree weather. I'll know better in August.

 

[Prairie Dawg]

60% toilet seal wax mixed with 40% crisco. The 60/40 is soft enough on cold days to poke into the cylinder holes and doesn't run on hot days.
This is Carlos El Hombre's recipe from the open range forum.
http://www.theopenrange.net/forum/index.php?topic=450.0
I've used it for years & its a good one.
Inexpensive too.

Gatofeo's lube:
1 part mutton tallow. I buy mine from Dixie Gun Works, which offers it again after months of unavailability. This is the toughest ingredient to find, but worth the search.
There’s something almost magical about mutton tallow. It doesn’t go rancid and it really keeps black powder fouling to a minimum.

1 part canning paraffin -- the same paraffin used to seal preserves in jars, sold at the grocery store in 1 lb. packages containing four slabs. Gulf is a common brand. Hardware stores with canning sections have it too.

1/2 part real beeswax

It's a very good lube.
I usually use it for lubing wads that go under the ball.
--Dawg

 

[rodwha]

I use Gatofeo's lube in my bullet grooves as well as on wads. For the bullet grooves I poured the extra I had melted into a soap mold, and cut that into squares. Then I use it like a crayon.

I keep a square of it in my range box too.

 

[Curator]

Living in SW Florida is a bit different than my old home in Western NY. I use a 50/50 bee's wax- Lard or Crisco lube for C&B revolvers. I also use this lube for black powder cartridge rifle & pistol bullets with good results. This doesn't melt at temperatures near 95 degrees but is still easy to use when near freezing.

 

[J-Bar]

^
^
^
this

 

[Lunie]

There is always the oldest recipe:

~78% Nitrogen
~21% Oxygen
~1% Other

It's my preferred mix for over-the-ball applications.

Edited to add:

Unlike others, I don't (typically) use lubed wads or anything else under the ball except black powder.

 

[[email protected]]

I like Butter Flovered Crisco, but I only load one chamber.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I stopped using Crisco or anything else over the ball a long time ago. Once I discovered Wonder Wads I never put anything over the ball ever again. Wonder Wads are expensive, you can split them in half if you want. There are also some other brands on the market now.

Basically, with a lubed wad, the wad pretty much scrapes the bore clean as it goes down, only leaving a little bit of fouling behind. Each wad scoops out the little bit left by the one before.

And for what it's worth, if you have slightly imperfectly formed balls that leave a void against the chamber wall where an errant spark could sneak by to the powder charge and cause a chain fire, a 1/8" or so felt wad is going to be a better spark arrester than a thin, runny, melted layer of grease.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

I've yet to see an over-the-ball grease that doesn't blow off the remaining chambers after you fire the first one or two shots. A lubricated felt wad between powder and ball provides better lubrication and is much less messier. You can buy Wonder Wads or make your own wads with a punch and then soak them in melted lube. The process has been described here, most notably by Gatofeo.

 

[rodwha]

Much cheaper to make your own wads.

Durofelt:
http://www.durofelt.com/image_26.html

Custom punch ($10 + shipping) by a retired machinist. You'd need to become a member of the forum.
Some people have done well with the cheap Harbor Freight set for $7, but mine wouldn't even go through the felt after several hard whacks with a hammer. To me they were the typical sorry cheaply made things you'd expect...

 

[wap41]

wads

You can find wads on ebay for about 1/2 the regular price.

 

[rodinal220]

Gatofeo #1!!

 

[Pyro]

I never understood wads.
Shouldn't you have lube saturating the barrel/projectile in -front- of the bullet?

 

[Prairie Dawg]

Nope:
The lube isn't to make the ball's trip down the barrel easier, it keeps the fouling soft, so the next ball pushes it out.

Without lube or with smokeless lube, you would quickly develop a hard fouling ring in the bore that would ruin accuracy.

So, you need a BP-friendly lube somewhere in your load.

The cleanest capgun barrel I've ever seen is when I don't use wads, just a 1/4" wafer of Gatofeo #1 over the powder. Seat the ball & shoot it. Very clean barrel after 6 stages.

--Dawg

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Use white lithium grease over the ball.
Fired the roa over two hundred loads in an afternoon without problem or cleaning.

 

[freedom475]

+10000....Gatofeo #1

I have tried every recipe you can think of...this stuff just works.

Makes excelent bullet lube in the Sharps rifle too.


Nobody knows for sure....but I think it may also be sold in really fancy pakages, a fat price tag, and the intials SPG attached to it too.

 

[Hellgate]

I use BOTH lube wads (felt or fiber with 50/50 deer tallow or lard & beeswax) under tha ball and good old rotgut cheap automotive bearing grease applied with a curved tip syringearound the edge of the ball in the chamber. It is a small bead. Automotive grease are temperature stable hot or freezing whereas any of the "organic" lubes get way hard or melt depending on temperature. I used to have a cold weather lube formula and a hot weather one but cold, crisp mornings that become hot afternoons messed that plan up. Lithium (Lubriplate) greases work well. I always put the auto greases on the cylinder pins too. I suspect the under ball lube wad does most of the work of keeping the bores unfouled but the grease also softens it. So far, after about 25,000 rounds, I have never had a chain fire but I am anal about loading & lubing.

 

[the Black Spot]

Punch for wads= 45 colt fired case, drill out primer pocket to push out wad after cutting
Wads = wool or felt from old hats, blankets, etc. (acquired at yard sales or second hand stores)
i soak mine in 50/50 beeswax/olive oil (lard would work also)

 

[BCRider]

Based on a you tube vid I saw and thought about I lube and seal the balls with a small drop of Canola cooking oil placed into the sharp V groove between the ball and chamber walls.

Touch the extension tube to the joint to apply the oil and it wicks itself around the whole joint neatly and with no messy fussing around.

The whole point of this seal are pretty much two fold. First is to keep the fouling soft. Second is to seal any possible fissures in the ball to chamber so sparks cannot blow by and set up a chainfire. A small drop of Canola does all this in fine style and it's super easy to use. And with only the one drop the surface tension does a good job of keeping a good amount of it in place.

Inspecting the barrels at the end of the day when using this method showed the fouling to be oily and very loose. And I've never seen any signs of leading either.

A small dropper bottle with an extension of red spray nozzle tubing makes for a perfect delivery system.

 

[Zeke/PA]

I have for years used a grease that we used in the Toolroom called "Old Bull".
It's a great over chamber filler and it works well for lubing conical bullets.
The lube/grease is easily carried and dispensed using a large hypodermic syringe
Google IMS Industrial Mold Making Supply.