Deer tallow lube....part Duex

[Cuts Crooked]

Ok, I got it werkin agin...my computor that is. (been fightin' with a new service provider and a wireless networking system in our multiple 'putor household, never undertake DSL and wireless networking at the same time!!  )

But I got a chance to try out my deer tallow lube in my .45s today...after doing some hacksaw type gunsmithing. I had changed primers in my loads, forgetting that my 92 absolutely HATES CCI primers! Wouldn't light the danged thing off. So it was down to the shop where I made a shim for the hammer actuating rod/mainspring assembly that put a bit more OOOMPH in the hammer fall. That did the trick!

And the deer tallow lube seems to werk jist fine thank you very much!  I put 70 rounds through the pipe as fast as I could hammer em out and reload to do it again. Never seemed to lose any accuracy and clean up was par for the course as with my old 50/50 lube. I'm happy

[Dick Dastardly]

Howdy Cuts,

It's a shame how much fine deer tallow goes to waste.  It's a fine lube.  I've found that Wisconsin White Tail deer are FAT.  I can get a LOT of tallow off of 'em.  One thing I've not been able to do is to quantify the quality of the tallow.  So, when I make PLII I don't use tallow.

I'd like to offer a Wisconsin White Tail lube, but it's hard to nail down the actual fat content.  But, I'm shootin' a lot of it mixed in with Pearl Lube Classic and it works great.  Sure would be nice to have a good enuf lab that I could quantify the quality of great products like deer tallow.

Rest assured, if you have a Big Lube™ boolit, yer gettin' plenty of lube to the bore.

DD-DLoS

[Delmonico]

Dick I may be wrong, but of rendered properly the tallow should be much the same from deer to deer like lard or the sheep tallow others sell.  What got me to using it about a dozen years ago in my Sharps is the fact it has a higher melting point than the other fats.  This can be very important in the summer around here where 100 is not uncommon.

[Dick Dastardly]

Cuts raises a good issue here.  I'm going to look into what it takes to do some fairly large scale rendering.  I'm thinkn' maybe a turkey cooker could do the work.  We have a good crop of deer killed and butchered by area meat cutters.  They have to pay to get rid of the trimmed tallow.  If deer tallow is consistent enough I could bring out a companion product to Pearl Lube II.  Name it Wisconsin Whitetail Pearl Lube.

DD-DLoS

[Cuts Crooked]

Name it Wisconsin Whitetail Pearl Lube.

Now that sounds like a winner!

I donno about rendering on a large scale, I wouldn't know where to begin I jist rendered mine in a frying pan on the stove in the canning kitchen. I know, I know, I'm s'posed ta use a double boiler. But that werked fer me. I had time to stay right there and keep the heat low enuff that it wouldn't burn or catch fire. The end product was rather firm once it set up in the cooling pan. Some what less firm than bees wax, but far more so than crisco. When I made bullet lube I added about 10% bees wax, just because I thought I should, but I think it would have worked jist fine "Ah Natural". In fact I think I will use it straight, for patches in my front stuffers, next time I go to a muzzle loading competition.

There is one thing I can't define at all...the tallow feels much more "slippery" to touch than crisco or vegatable oils, that's the only way I can describe it. Not very subjective, I know..........

[Delmonico]

Cuts that is my opinion also, I had been using it for years as a hand lotion, when I got into BPC I decided that SPG was too expensive and had read somewhere how buffalo tallow and beeswax was a common lube in the era.  Made some and never looked back.

[Delmonico]

Dick, do check in with your Game folks and make sure selling it is legal, I never wanted to go into making it to sell, but a chat with a friend who was the head of law enforcement in our state said it was a bit of a grey area.  Hides and antlers can be sold, but no meantion of the tallow.  He said a good case to the commisioners could most likely get the tallow added since most of it goes to waste anyway.

[Silver Creek Slim]

I get eczema in the winter (and I passed it down to my children). Del gave me a little jar of tallow a couple years ago. We use it on the eczema. It works better than any other lotions or creams we've tried. 

Slim

[Dick Dastardly]

Howdy Slim and Del,

Lotion may be the only way Tallow can be used in our sport.  I got a call back from the WI DNR and the dude said probably I couldn't use deer tallow.  They said I'd be marketing deer products and that was against the LAW!

The LAW sucks.

DD-DLoS

[Delmonico]

Thats what I found out from our guys, although they have in the last few years changed it to allowing hides and horns.  My friend said a good case to them about a product going to waste could maybe change it if one wanted.  The other problem may come in shipping it to others states with different laws.

[Dick Dastardly]

I'm on the horns of a legal dilemma here.  I can follow my natural old poacher self and just make the lube and sell it, or I can try to follow the law.  Of course, I could dig it out of the land fill and claim it as salvage.  The DNR sucks.

I'll stand by for another opinion from further up the DNR food chain. . .

Mostly, in my state, the DNR only knows how to say no.

DD-DLoS

[Delmonico]

The sad thing is Dick if you got caught they could DNA it, that happened to a place here that was selling deer meat a few years ago, they had over 200 DNA samples from different deer and treated each one seperate.  Was kind of a test case for using DNA in wildlife violations.  Yes it sucks that a good product goes to waste that could be used. 

[Silver Creek Slim]

Howdy Slim and Del,

Lotion may be the only way Tallow can be used in our sport.  I got a call back from the WI DNR and the dude said probably I couldn't use deer tallow.  They said I'd be marketing deer products and that was against the LAW!

The LAW sucks.

DD-DLoS

Bummer!

Slim

[Dick Dastardly]

Cuts, forgive me.

I've taken yer thread and turned it aside.  Didn't mean to do that.  Deer tallow is a fine bullet lube component.  I sure wish I could market my lube with it in it, but our LAW doesn't seem to have room for pards wanting to make a profit from recycling.  And they call 'em the DNR.  Dang.

So, keep on makin' yer fine lube usin' tallow and publishin' yer results.

Mayhaps I kin market a product that says "add x amount of yer own tallow". . . .  That'd spike their LAW guns. .

DD-DLoS

[Silver Creek Slim]

Cuts,
So to clarify in my mind, are ya using 100% deer tallow for lube or are ya mixing something with it?

Slim

[Cuts Crooked]

DD,

No problem! That's the nature of web boards, a "conversation" can go off in any direction. And that can be a good thing!

Slim,

I mixed about 10% bees wax in it, by weight, but I don't think it was really needed. Even if it did get hot enuff ta melt it, I never have a problem with lube migrating into the powder charge. A properly sized shell seems to prevent that from happening, trapping any liquid in the grooves. But ya gotta watch out fer damaged bullet bases! A nick in the base, that reaches the lube groove, would probably let lube get into the powder!

[Silver Creek Slim]

Thanks, Cuts. I was just curious what yer mix was. I haven't started using tallow for boolit lube yet but I will soon. I have used it to lube shotgun wads.

Slim