Shotshell lube

[Oregon Bill]

Shot up 25 Magtech BP loads last week in the Husqvarna damascus double. Load was CCI 300 LP primer, 4 cc Goex FFg, 11 ga. Circle Fly nitro card, two CF 11 ga. 1/2 inch cushion wads, 4 cc No. 8 shot, 10 ga. CF overshot card glued in with Duco. Loads shot pretty well on clay pigeons, but wow, what a layer of hard fouling afterward. I need to work some lube into this load, probably by soaking a cushion wad in melted SPG or Matthews or some such. What are you boys and girls doing to keep fouling soft in your shottie loads? I'm not interested in pusing Oxyoke Wonder Wads. They're relatively expensive and they aren't traditional.

[sundance44`s]

I ran into the same problem with B/P loads in my new Stogger sxs 12 ga ..what a mess , ended up haveing to shoot a few smokeless loads through each barrel to get all the clinging crud out of each side ..I scrubbed untill my arm got tired ..I was doing some skeet shooting with mine too I might add , so things got hot quick ....I sprayed some moose milk down each tube maybe twice during the shoot ...but it was of no help .
Soaking the wads in some lube might be the answer , I was even thinking of makeing a 12ga lube cookie and putting it on top of the powder card ..under the shot wad ...there has to be a way to fix this problem .
Would like to hear some success storys .Dove season is upon us here in the South and I`m sure I`ll do it again ..

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Howdy!

Bill, I bought the "lubed" .500" cushion wads from Circle Fly.  It's some sort of dry lube, I think.  I've toyed with the idea of dipping the wads in my home-made "super-dee-dooper SECRET lube formula" (beeswax & olive oil -  - some secret, eh?!) but I haven't 'cause the fouling doesn't seem to be a problem.  I've never fired more than 30 rounds in one match (I shoot a double, so 15+15) and I simply disassemble the shotgun and run hot water 'thru the barrel from the sprayer at the kitchen sink.  It never takes longer than 15 seconds to have a mirror finish showing.  It actually takes MUCH longer to guarantee that all the water is gone and the barrel is properly re-oiled after its' wash.

[knucklehead]

I use the prelubed cushion wad in my winchester aa 12 gauge shells.
I haven't had any crude build up that would not come out easy.
the last state match i shot about 70 rounds of 4 cc goex 2f powder with 1 1/8 oz shot in winchester aa shells.

When i got home i soaked the barrell down with moose milk, left alone for 10 mins.
then i just pulled a bore snake through the barrell 3 times and it was clean.

mabey the prelubed cushion wad helps in ease of cleanup, i don't know cause thats all i have ever used.

[Silver Creek Slim]

I soak my 1/2" cushion wads in lube. That keeps the fouling soft fer me.

Slim

[litl rooster]

I soak my 1/2" cushion wads in lube. That keeps the fouling soft fer me.

Slim

do the same one pull from bore snake it's clean

[Grizzle Bear]

I just dip the fiber cushion wads in lube.  Soaking them makes them much heavier, which increases your recoil.

I can shoot a couple of boxes of shells and a patch with moose milk cleans the barrels.

Load is:
CBC brass shell, 12 ga.
Berdan primer
90 gr GOEX FFg
12 ga. half-inch fiber wad, dipped in lube
1 oz. #8 shot
10 ga. card pressed in dry

Grizzle Bear

[Oregon Bill]

Thanks for the fast responses gents. Say, with these Bore Snakes do you wash them out after each use? Seems like they'd get pretty filthy pretty darned quick.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I don't bother with any lube at all in my shotgun loads. I used to dip a little bit of Crisco on the underside of my over powder card, but it didn't really make much difference and so I stopped doing the extra step.

The secret to cleaning hard BP fouling out of a shotgun is not so much using lube, it is using lots of hot water to clean the barrels. I bought myself a couple of rubber stoppers that fit my muzzles just right. I disassemble my SXS and plug the muzzles with the stoppers. I prop the barrels straight up and pour really, really hot water into the barrels and then I let it sit there while I clean my revolvers and rifle. Then after about 20 minutes or so of soaking I come back and pull out the stoppers and let the now luke warm, filty black water pour out into a bucket. Then I take some regular paper towels, tear them in half, crumple them up and moisten them, and shove them down the barrels with my cleaning rod. 90% of the fouling is removed this way. Then I put my 12 gauge bore brush on my cleaning rod, soak it good, and run it up and down the barrels a couple of times to loosen any remaining crud. A couple of more wadded up paper towels and the fouling is all gone. Takes a lot longer to type than it does to do.

Generally speaking, I save the bore snakes for very last. If you run a bore snake down a cruddy BP fouled bore you wind up with a cruddy BP fouled bore snake. I run a little Ballistol down the bores of all my guns, then drag the bore snake through to spread it around. I never try to clean out the majority of the crud with a bore snake.

Smokeless is a different thing. I use the bore snake right away with Smokeless, but I save it for last with BP.

[Dick Dastardly]

I'll pre-qualify my answer here.  Just shot "Fire in the Hills" Wisconsin state championship.  Used my 16ga with all bp loads.  I may have be the one, or one of the very few, who had 100% of the shotgun KDs go down on one shot.  Cleanup was very easy.  Spritz with moosemilk and a tug of the bore snake.

I lube my wads with DD Pearl Lube II.  You may want to save some money and just use 50/50 Soy Wax and cheep veggie shorting.  Silas McFee does that and it works great for him.  Simply melt up a kettle about 1/2 full and dump in your fiber wads.  Let 'em soak up all the hot wax they can and put 'em on paper to cool.

A loading note.  On my MEC 600 Jr. Mk-V loaders (one for each gauge) I  use a carriage bolt under the rammer when seating the lubed fiber wad.  If I don't do that some fiber and lube will get into the rammer and the shot won't drop.  Makes a mess.  Simply putting a carriage bolt inside the rammer and using it to seat the wet wad handles the problem.

Ok, so the flat work, cleanup is easy and they are cheap to make.  What else ya want to know?

DD-DLoS

[Noz]

I'm going to Magtechs. I talked to Circle Fly about lubing shot shells. He was rather insistant that some lube be used. He recommended his lubed wads or dipping his unlubed wads in a hot lube and letting them cool before using.
I'm sick of having to buy everything on the internet(wax, wads, hulls etc.) I have more in the shipping than I do in the products.
I'm going to try squirting some Bore Butter on the cushion wad after inserting. If that doesn't work I'll try something else.

[litl rooster]

   I guess I for I give a squirt of moose milk first then the Bore Snake.   And yes you can wash them out.  I have once    Crisco is a good source of lube, but it smelled like I was frying chicken

[Sod Buster]

I put a dab of Crisco between the over powder card and the wad.  There is absolutely no stubborn fouling.  It is always soft and wet.  A fwe squirts of moosemilk and a pull on the boresnake at the end of the shoot and I am all done with the SxS.  The barrells are nice and shiny.

[Wills Point Pete]

 I tried lubed wads once. Enough lube stuck to the casemouth to where the glue wouldn't stick the overshot wad in. So, I took the shot out of the cases where it didn't run out without any effort and took a rag with some of Linda Lou's nail polish remover and wiped out those cases, Then, after the headache went away from having the nail polish remover so close to my face, I put the shot back in and redid the overshot wads. This time they stuck, the fouling was softer.

The thing is, water is cheap. I do more or less what Driftwood does, I squirt lots of hot water through the tubes of my double. Then, I squirt a bunch of Windex with vinegar down, this dissolves the "plastic snot". I push a half of a paper towel through each barrel, the plastic comes out like a shed snakeskin.  Since I still wake up in a cold sweat if I dream about that DI I had back in '64 I always squirt some more Windex through the tubes. It's easy, I squirt the windex and clean one handgun. Then I run the paper towel through. Then I squirt the next batch of Windex and clean the other revolver. Another paper towel and then I run a moose milk patch through, wipe the outside down with more moose milk, wipe off the other parts of the gun and let the moose milk dry. The shotgun is cleaned and lubed. So are the revolvers.

So, I don't bother with lubed wads. Maybe I would if I had to fire a hundred rounds a day, the 25-35 rounds of a six stage CAS match, it's not worth it. Of course, if I wanted to fire that many rounds I wouldn't use the brass cases, they're too slow to load.

[Peddler Parsons]

Like Driftwood I plug the ends of the barrels pour hot water doen them a coulpe of times then let it set about 20 min. pull the corks and the black snake comes wright out a couple passed  with a paper towel then oil with Ballistol andi am done.

[Driftwood Johnson]

What size carraige bolt?

Really. You may save me a step.

[Dick Dastardly]

Howdy Driftwood,

I think the carriage bolt is a 3/8 X 1/2" long.  You want the biggest size that will slide inside yer rammer and short enough to put in easy.  The bolt head will slide right thru your wad guide but will stay inside the shell.  You still have to pull the shell and dump out the bolt, but that's real quick and easy on a MEC.  If you forget to dump out the bolt and dump shot you will have fineshot spilled.  The end of the carriage bolt leaves a nice concave impression on the lubed wad.  I'm using around 100 pounds of compression for Three seconds roughly.

The thing is,  with this slight modification I can compress lubed fiber wads without getting stuff in the rammer.  I also use it on dry wads for the same reason.  The MEC drop tube/rammer likes to get stuff inside and then it doesn't drop all the shot and sprinkles it all over the loading bench and floor.  Nasty, stepping on that stuff with bare feet, whut?

DD-DLoS

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Thanks for the fast responses gents. Say, with these Bore Snakes do you wash them out after each use? Seems like they'd get pretty filthy pretty darned quick.

Howdy!

Bill, I'm a bit anal, but yes, I wash my BoreSnakes (I have 12) after (nearly) each use.  No grit ... No grunge for the next time.  I throw 'em in a "delicates" wash bag (looks like fine netting) and into the washing machine with my dirtiest rags.  (Which ALSO get washed regularly.  )

[Driftwood Johnson]

Thanks Dick, I'm gonna scrounge around in the basement for some carraige bolts and try it. Might try some hex head bolts too.


Seth: you only let your SXS go uncleaned for 3 weeks? I'll confess that I seldom clean my SXS at all during the season. Usually goes a couple of months, and several matches without cleaning. Sometimes I get a little bit of flash rust, but nothing worse than that. I know I should clean the old girl more often, but I'm kind of lazy and cleaning the shotgun is the messiest of all the guns.

[sundance44`s]

SteelHorse I`d have to wait untill the wife was out before I could get away with that kind of washing ..lol
Lord only knows what she`d do to me if`in I got caught ....On second thought though she`s pretty obsessed with buying new wash cloths ..so she hands me all the old ones for gun cleaning ..Life is good.