Mixing up Moose Milk for patch lube

W

warrenlikesboats

CGN frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
So ive been reading about moose milk as a patch lube in this forum, and others; and plan to go into town tomorrow to buy the ingredients I need to make it up.

added to the water:

People seem to recommend Ballistol, or a water soluble machinist cutting oil ( which I like the idea of more cus you can buy it by the truck load for cheap)

An alcohol to eliminate this mold that I read about forming on the mixture and to winterize the formula.

And then people keeping suggesting something like Murphys oil, which I dont understand the point of ?? what does it do?
 
I have used a mix of Ballistol and water as a patch lube.

I used pre-cut patches in a CCI musket cap can. Lay out the patches in overlapping circular pattern, add a mix of Ballistol and water and let sit overnight. The day of the shoot, squeeze out the extra mix so the patches a wet, load and shoot.

The patches can be used for cleaning as well.

Now I just use water for the shooting patches and cleaning; and Hoppe's N0.9, to clean after shooting.
 
I use cutting oil from Princess Auto, and mix it with water about 10/1 water/oil.
It will get moldy in the bottle after a few weeks, so I only mix up a small amount.
Patches soaked in this stuff will too, but If you lay them out on the bench to dry, the water evaporates, and then they are good to go back in the bag again.
 
ryan said:
I use cutting oil from Princess Auto, and mix it with water about 10/1 water/oil.
It will get moldy in the bottle after a few weeks, so I only mix up a small amount.
Patches soaked in this stuff will too, but If you lay them out on the bench to dry, the water evaporates, and then they are good to go back in the bag again.
Click to expand...

That's what I'm looking at! A jugof the princess auto cutting oil is 30$.

I'm just wondering if I should bother searching out this Murphy oil?
 
warrenlikesboats said:
So ive been reading about moose milk as a patch lube in this forum, and others; and plan to go into town tomorrow to buy the ingredients I need to make it up.

added to the water:

People seem to recommend Ballistol, or a water soluble machinist cutting oil ( which I like the idea of more cus you can buy it by the truck load for cheap)

An alcohol to eliminate this mold that I read about forming on the mixture and to winterize the formula.

And then people keeping suggesting something like Murphys oil, which I dont understand the point of ?? what does it do?
Click to expand...

That's simple, it smells good and you get to tell fellow BP shooters that you mix your own special milk concoction and won't share the 'recipe'...making you mysterious and a point of wonder if not for just the fleeting of moments. :wave:
 
My recipe has worked well for a patch lube and also cleaning for a decade or so. One part Ballistol, one part Pinesol, one part hydrogen peroxide and 20 parts water. Murphy's Oil Soap, windshield washer fluid and alcohol aren't necessary - I have never heard of patch lube going moldy. The primary purpose of patch lube is to keep the fouling soft - not to make the barrel slippery. In sub-zero temperatures or when the ball will be loaded for an extended period I use Bore Butter so there isn't any effect on the powder charge as there could be from a wet patch. No problem when hunting but it takes less than 10 shots with Bore Butter before a ball is tough to load and accuracy becomes erratic because of fouling in the barrel, in my experience.
 
...actually I've tried just about everything including nothing (my own spit), and have come to the conclusion that commercial BB is the best. I'll melt it into my patch tins and smear it directly into projectiles like mini's and maxi's. I find it keeps the fouling greasy soft even when shooting all day at the range.

I use solvents/CLP to clean my guns and have never experienced any rust since using this regime. No more wonder lubes and hot water for this guy. YMMV :wave:
 
Only issue with some of the greasy lubes is that they can be a fire hazard when used on patches. I'm not sure if bore butter is one of the culprits or not as I use a variety of the moose milk recipes myself.

We very often have to keep an eye out for smoldering patches in Lethbridge when we have dry windy conditions. Apparently some ranges test patch /lube combinations with a torch and don't allow those that smoulder.
 
Ol' Flinter said:
Murphy's Oil Soap, windshield washer fluid and alcohol aren't necessary - I have never heard of patch lube going moldy.
Click to expand...

water soluable cutting oil and water has definitely gone moldy for me. I mix up 1 liter at a time and pour some into a smaller container for use. The 1 liter bottle develops a slimy layer of I presume mold, floating on top of the liquid. I assume the water soluable cutting oil is some sort of vegetable oil for it to go moldy. I add some Murphy's Oil Soap just because other people seem to. It does not seem to diminish the value of the mixture.

cheers mooncoon
 
Buy the Ballistol in the screw top cans instead of the spray cans. You get twice as much that way for the same cost.

I've had a little bottle of Ballistol MM that I've simply kept topping up for over two years now and it's never gone moldy. So that's another good reason for using the Ballistol over the cutting fluid. Besides, I need to keep the Ballistol around for lubricating the gun afterwards for corrosion protection. I prefer it over other oils because I don't need to wonder if what I've used is compatible with black powder fouling or if it'll turn tar like.

And finally, at a mix ratio of up around 8:1 water:Ballistol and at 4 or 5 drops per patch we're hardly going to break the bank in terms of cost.
 
I used to use Ballistol and water. I've tried between 10%-30% Ballistol. This year I switched to NAPA cutting oil, 10% with water, mainly because many of the master class shooters I've seen at matches use it.

I cannot see any practical difference between the two to be honest. I have had the Ballistol mix get clumpy on me when I was at a match in Phoenix, but it does mix better than the NAPA stuff.

Once the temperatures get much below freezing these mixtures will freeze though.

Chris.
 
Tossing my 2C in because why not. I keep all my beef fat/grease and pork fat/grease and render it down to tallow. Takes a while, but since I use the fire pit outside it doesn't really cost me much energy or effort - just toss the pot on whenever I'm burning things. The tallow lasts forever (never had it go moldy yet) and the rendering pulls any salt that might be in the fat out. I usually render 2-4 times depending on how much water's in the pot and it produces a very white, very smooth, fairly tasteless/odorless tallow.

Mix the tallow with beeswax and you have a nice warm weather lube. Leave it as-is for a cold weather lube. Heat it up and soak your patches in it, wring them out and let cool. If you have a patch cutter, soak the whole cloth in it, squeegee it out then cut your pre-lubed patches. Works great and keeps fouling wayyyyyy down and soft.

Heck, when I first began I used paraffin, which I've since learned is a no-no on account of fouling... but frankly I found it worked pretty well! Maybe the tallow saved my butt, I'm not sure... I've never bothered to compare fouling between paraffin and beeswax, I just switched because I heard it could be bad.

That reminds me... I've got about 4L of fat to render and I'm out of beeswax....


Edit - as there's often discussion of salt in bacon fat: rendering the fat removes 99.9999% of the salt, if not all of it. Considering how blackpowder causes rusting, the infinitesimal amount of salt left in the tallow doesn't really bother me. I also use the same stuff to grease and protect components and have yet to see it cause rust. Considering that the salt in bacon grease is potassium nitrate/nitrite, and the main ingredient in blackpowder is potassium nitrate.... I'm not at all worried :p
 
Last edited:
My neighbour's own Schneider's Gourmet World (check them out on Google, they have great popcorn stuff). Anyway I buy coconut oil for my popcorn from there and today I took my first muzzleloader out to the range and the wheels started turning. I thought of bacon fat, but a quick Google search didn't recommend bacon fat. So I took some coconut oil which is the consistency of lard. Rubbed it on the patches and it worked excellent, with the exception of smelling horrible when you shoot it. :)
 
I am perfectly happy with a mix of windshield washer fluid and cutting oil about 8:1 when commercial lube is scarce.
My favourite patch lube is Hoppe's Number 9 for Black Powder but it is no longer imported into Canada.
 
I have been unable to find Hoppe's No. 9 for Black Powder for a number of years. What I have on hand was bought at Gun Shows from old stock.
Hillfolk Musket Supplies has been unable to import it - no bilingual labelling apparently.
Cabela's, Wholesale Sports, and all the other vendors of Hoppe's products that I have visited do not have it. If you find a supplier, let us know.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom