loading blackpowder, lead balls & lard or tallow ??

[riflee]

I use sheets of wax/lube and punch out lube pills to use under the ball where they do the most good fer me. The powder burn melts some of the lube pill down the barrel and some gets on the arbor.

I bought a couple of  wool wad punchers made to go in a reloading press so I do use some wool wads with lube/wax in them.

Lube/wax wads can stick to yer balls though and putting a paper wad punched with the wool wad punchers on the lube pill that is under the ball stops the sticky ball thing. A lube pill can and sometimes can't  harm accuracy if it's stuck on the ball.


If a person is worried about wax/lube getting in the powder when the wax/lube is on the powder the person can punch potassium nitrated paper in place of plain paper. That way the lube/wax stays out of the powder and the paper helps melt some wax/lube.

I've found that sticky lube pills or sticky wool wads (sticky lube/wax like some  toilet seal wax added to the mix) sticks to the barrel some before the powder burn comes along so the fouling can stick to the barrel less.


Anyway....I found a really good blackpowder sub by Alliant Powers called "Black MZ" and it has no corrosive properties and is consistant and works really well in my cap&ballers. Actually can improve accuracy. Don't know why it isn't the big rage with blackpowder  Hombres? It's the best sub I've found. That powder is not in need of any wads of wool or lube/wax. First time I tried it I was AMAZED. It is like 777 powder but not as sharp even though it has good pep. It's worth a try for sure. On the front of the black jug it says it's invariablly non corrosive. I tested it and it really does seem non corrosive. The only thing I hate about the Black MZ powder is the fact it doesn't need any lube wads at all and I do enjoy making wax/lube wads.

[Bunk]

I tried a wad of pure lube under the ball on top of the powder. Texas summer 100+ degrees, and my shooting session was interrupted. About an hour later i came back to shoot and I had a  pop-poof five times. Seems the  lube pellet had melted and almost completely contaminated the powder. It was a mess to clean.
I now use a hand made "wonder wad" under the ball problem solved.
And yes, Black MZ is made by American Pioneer Powder and is pretty neat stuff. It requires the same treatment on brass cases as does regular black powder and, according to Coffinmaker, the gun is always just one shot dirty. Easier to clean than BP, but does not smell as nice.
Smoke On!!
Bunk

[riflee]

Bunk, now that you mentioned it I remember The BLACKMZ powder is made by Pioneer Powders but it's made to ALLIANT powders specifications. I think that is what makes it good ….being spec.ed out by ALLIANT.

The real black powder will always be number one fer me but...….I do like having to just do a quick spiff job on one of my cap&ballers  and then use it again fer multiple days without worry bout corrosion.  Getting older means after I walk the hound dog and do some walkin and shootin  myself I'm tired when I get back fer supper. A  real good clean up takes too long when my old back hurts..   


Anyway.....ifin a persons lube wad melts too much in the hot weather they need to add some more wax to their recipe.  The softer the lube pill the better but too soft in hot weather can make a lube pill even difficult to pick up.  Been there.....


I just blobbed a melted lube pill in the chambers on the powder and kept shootin. That was possible cause I was shooting right away.


I make two kinds of Lube Pills. Hot weather lube pills and cold weather lube pills.  Cold weather lube pills benefit from a little caster oil slipped into the mix.  Hot weather lube pills benefit from a little more wax in the recipe.


One thing I learned is to heat water real hot, pour it in a square pan and then pore my melted lube recipe in there with the real hot water.  The lube/wax floats and finds it's own level so when the stuff cools and hardens the sheet of wax is all exactly the same thickness and doesn't stick to the pan.

When I just poured the lube/wax right in a pan and waited fer it to harden I had trouble leveling the pan to get uniform thickness to the sheet of wax and......I needed to stick the pan with the hardened lube/wax in it in the freezer so I could un-stick it from the pan.  That is solved by pouring the hot wax on hot water and waiting fer it to cool and harden and be a uniform thickness and easily come out of the pan. 


I like it when I use the punch and punch lube pills and the pills come out of my home made lube pill punch. The pills are stuck together super neatly and perfectly lined up with each other in a column. The pills slide off each other pushing them sideways and will come apart that way even after years have gone by. Amazing sorta.

I make lube pill punches from the brass tubes I get at the hardware store.  One tube fits perfectly inside the next size bigger. Soo......I take a short piece of the smaller tube that is the size of the pills I want to make and solder it inside(with some sticking out)  the next size larger brass tube. That way the lube pills have less drag resistance thru the longer brass tube and don't get squished together too hard. That way they come out in those pretty little columns all neat and ready fer the box or bag fer storage.


I used to get nice little boxes off the net and pack the lube pills in real neat and......my wife sold them to people on the net. I ended up getting tricked into doing the making and packing of the lube/pills. I'd have 300 or more pills to a little box and the wifey sold them pretty cheap so people liked that.  Wife finally stopped doin it though. Lost interest.

 I still enjoy making lube pills the way I do and...…..lube pills do the job they are there to do better than wool was with lube on them.

[Advertising]

[scrubby2009]

It has saved so much mess and drama for simple enjoyable shooting and clean-up with my NMA. Paper cartridges, made with the Johnson and Dow bullets and FFFg. I dip mine in 4:1 beeswax/lard. I don't lube, I don't fuss, I just shoot the crap outta that old warhorse from time to time, clean it up, reload it,  hang it back by the bed for "next time". Just as the Good Lord intended.

[riflee]

Sound wisdom scrubby2009. I've made some of those.  Every cap&baller  shooter should try it as least once. See how they like it.

[Bunk]

sixty rounds later divided between an 1851 Navy snubby in .44 caliber and an 1851 Navy in .36 caliber (both Pietta) full size that the grease stays on much to my surprise.
The .44 was tuned by a well known retired gun plumber and the .36 by .44 Dragoon so the cylinder/barrel clearance is quite tight and that may make a difference.The load was 20 grains (weighed) FFFg GOEX and a .451 or .375 ball.
 Crisco was used because it is soft, but stayed on. Lube wads are faster to load with less mess, but grease on top stays on top.
I was wrong and admit it.
Bunk

[riflee]

Well! I don't really have anything to add that hasn't already been explained except...….

I started with things I called lube pills. Sheets of wax and lube of some sort. Tried all kinds of lube stuff.

I got to where I could fire 100 balls from the cap&baller revolver without too much barrel fouling or the cylinder dragging on fouling on it's face.  Got to two hundred at one time with a little help from a Visine(little eye drops bottle) bottle with some solvent in it.

 200 balls fired without problems. I used a wax and lube combination that consisted of multiple oils. So many I didn't log it to remember it. Since then I just use bees wax, paraffin wax and a mutton tallow in different amounts depending on the weather temps. Winter more lube and summer less lube. 


I make my lube wax mix and pour it on a pan of very hot water and the lube wax floats. When it cools I remove a sheet of wax that is a consistent  thickness.  Then use a punch I made and punch out the lube pills. I put them in an Altoids tin and that's it. Take them with me when I go to shoot.  After a good while the cylinder will drag a little so I put a few drops of a black powder solvent on the arbor where the cylinder hole is. Then go back to shooting.  Depending on what mix I use for the lube pills I can shoot an extended amount of time. 


I try to make the lube pills as soft as I can with lube to be able to "handle them".

Must have written-typed a million times to ," put the lube pill under the ball and on the powder where it can do some good". It makes sense to a lot of folks because they do it. Been doing it way way back in time till now.   The grease over the ball in the chambers was mis-information. Sorry.  Use it if you want but remember better results are with lube pills/lube wool wads right on the powder under the ball.  Man evolves with time and so does the loading sequence with cap&baller revolvers.        


Sure.....I thunk the lube pill is best but.....if an Hombre wants to lube up some wool wads and it works there's nothing wrong with that.


Doing the wax-lube thing and it getting into the powder?  Shooting right away the powder sticks to the back of the lube pill but those particles are exposed so I figger they burn.  I loaded chambers and then pulled the balls and the lube pill to see what I just said.


Anywhooooo..with the pills or lubed wads there will be some fouling mixed with lube in the barrel after each shot. The next ball pushes that out and then leaves it's own fouling mixed with lube on the barrels bore. 


Using a little sticky in the lube like the toilet seal wax ring stuff helps things. Sticky wax lube in the bore helps it stick to the bore in front of the powder. Makes it better fer the next ball to shove it out. 


Loading for an extended amount of time? Leave out the wax/lube and just fire powder and ball.  Makes sense right?


I you go way way back you can find that folks did the wool wad lube with wax/lube, Elmer Kieth book "SIX GUNS" talks a little about that.  NRA had a lube wax formula way back too. Bees wax and mutton tallow.

[greyhawk]

Well! I don't really have anything to add that hasn't already been explained except...….

I started with things I called lube pills. Sheets of wax and lube of some sort. Tried all kinds of lube stuff.

I got to where I could fire 100 balls from the cap&baller revolver without too much barrel fouling or the cylinder dragging on fouling on it's face.  Got to two hundred at one time with a little help from a Visine(little eye drops bottle) bottle with some solvent in it.

 200 balls fired without problems. I used a wax and lube combination that consisted of multiple oils. So many I didn't log it to remember it. Since then I just use bees wax, paraffin wax and a mutton tallow in different amounts depending on the weather temps. Winter more lube and summer less lube. 


I make my lube wax mix and pour it on a pan of very hot water and the lube wax floats. When it cools I remove a sheet of wax that is a consistent  thickness.  Then use a punch I made and punch out the lube pills. I put them in an Altoids tin and that's it. Take them with me when I go to shoot.  After a good while the cylinder will drag a little so I put a few drops of a black powder solvent on the arbor where the cylinder hole is. Then go back to shooting.  Depending on what mix I use for the lube pills I can shoot an extended amount of time. 


I try to make the lube pills as soft as I can with lube to be able to "handle them".

Must have written-typed a million times to ," put the lube pill under the ball and on the powder where it can do some good". It makes sense to a lot of folks because they do it. Been doing it way way back in time till now.   The grease over the ball in the chambers was mis-information. Sorry.  Use it if you want but remember better results are with lube pills/lube wool wads right on the powder under the ball.  Man evolves with time and so does the loading sequence with cap&baller revolvers.        


Sure.....I thunk the lube pill is best but.....if an Hombre wants to lube up some wool wads and it works there's nothing wrong with that.


Doing the wax-lube thing and it getting into the powder?  Shooting right away the powder sticks to the back of the lube pill but those particles are exposed so I figger they burn.  I loaded chambers and then pulled the balls and the lube pill to see what I just said.


Anywhooooo..with the pills or lubed wads there will be some fouling mixed with lube in the barrel after each shot. The next ball pushes that out and then leaves it's own fouling mixed with lube on the barrels bore. 


Using a little sticky in the lube like the toilet seal wax ring stuff helps things. Sticky wax lube in the bore helps it stick to the bore in front of the powder. Makes it better fer the next ball to shove it out. 


Loading for an extended amount of time? Leave out the wax/lube and just fire powder and ball.  Makes sense right?


I you go way way back you can find that folks did the wool wad lube with wax/lube, Elmer Kieth book "SIX GUNS" talks a little about that.  NRA had a lube wax formula way back too. Bees wax and mutton tallow.

Riflee
lube pills under the ball?? That idea did not work out well at our place - it was kinda fun tho
Junior had read about this on a forum someplace  (maybe eveh you wrote it) anyways read something to the effect it was silly puttin the grease over top - it really should go under the ball - so he decided to test the theory
I was in the workshop making a tang sight on the mill  - he and his partner do some test shooting just outside (we live outta town can plink anywhere so long as we dont shoot the neighbors cows) KA BOOM! and again - six of em - just love the way that walker rattles the tin ------then - ker pffft - another - three half hearted shots -- hey Dad ! come look at this - the target is on fire - three separate places - do it again son ! - three more shots - its late afternoon I can see the trail of fire from the muzzle to the target - that 1860 army with the lube under the ball had done this crazy tracer round stunt - the grease cookie had stuck to the ball and the charge set it on firre - 15 yrds range it set the paper target alight every shot - FUN but not very practical   

[riflee]

Sorry greyhawk!

I've had some smoker trails with some recipie I made once. No fire though.

Wonder what Junior used fer lube? Some sort of flammable grease or something? Left over napome?

I'd like to know what it was in case I want to try that.

Was using a black powder sub maybe?  It's a good thing he wasn't shootin at the barn.    

Bees wax/paraffin wax/mutton tallow seems safe. So does caster wax/bees wax/veggi oil is safe. Soy wax is usable and cheaper than bees wax.

I gotta show yer post to the wife. I bet she will get a kick out of it.

[greyhawk]

Sorry greyhawk!

I've had some smoker trails with some recipie I made once. No fire though.

Wonder what Junior used fer lube? Some sort of flammable grease or something? Left over napome?

I'd like to know what it was in case I want to try that.

Was using a black powder sub maybe?  It's a good thing he wasn't shootin at the barn.    

Bees wax/paraffin wax/mutton tallow seems safe. So does caster wax/bees wax/veggi oil is safe. Soy wax is usable and cheaper than bees wax.

50/50 beeswax/neatsfoot oil - the lube disc was straight on the powder - FF blackpowder - he rams pretty hard so there woulda been powder grains embedded in the lube cake ---same deal in his walker worked fine - more bundy in the walker load maybe made the difference. We gave it thumbs down - too easy to light fires round this place most of the year.   

I gotta show yer post to the wife. I bet she will get a kick out of it.

[R.M. Conversion]

For 'social shooting' (range day) I use lubed felt wads over the powder, seat the ball and lube over (bore butter in cold weather, beeswax/tallow in hot) just one or two chambers every once in a while.  I haven't seen an accuracy difference between an unlubed chamber and a lubed one.  Keep a rag and a spray can of Ballistol handy and you should be able to shoot for quite a while.