Extremely hard black powder fouling?

[john boy]

Is that pure spiruts of alcohol the same as Denatured alcohol?

50:50 mix of ATF and pure spirits of turpentine, not the distilled stuff

[Bruce W Sims]

Does anyone know of, or heard of antique piece being found to have such intractable, hard deposits?
In the short time that I have been involved with BP, such hard deposits seem to be associated more
with later practices than, say, 19th Century usage. There is this thought that maybe shooters of the
latter half of the 20th Century and forwards tend to be a bit "too tidy" and that maybe the times in which BP technologies
were developed assumed more slathering and no petroleum products. Thoughts?

Best Wishes,

Bruce

[rifle]

Backin the day they had Sperm Whale oil and used that to make lube fer the Holy Black. What I understand is that it was really goodlube stuff.

There was some stuff called Moose Milk made of...I don't know. Was a good lube I've read. 

When most went to the bullet instead of the ball and patch I imagine that is when they started using wax to hold the lube in suspension.

Then there was all the natural animal fat type lubes used. Bear,sheep,deer,cow,or anything they got their grimy blackpowder stained hands on. All natural non-petroleum based stuff.

Later there was Bayberry wax and Japan wax used in all military and commercially sold ammo. Japan wax was used with no other stuff mixed in.

The old time long range shooters used Bayberry wax and Japan wax in their lubes a lot I've read. Some used graffite in their lube. The famous Harry Pope used it in his lube.

Anywhooooo.....I can't recall ever reading anywhere bout anyone using petroleum based stuff in lubes fer the Black. They had that good stuff like Sperm Whale oil. That was used fer lamp oil too.


Back in the day I don't thunk they used petroleum stuff fer rust protection either.

[Ranch 13]

Does anyone know of, or heard of antique piece being found to have such intractable, hard deposits?
In the short time that I have been involved with BP, such hard deposits seem to be associated more
with later practices than, say, 19th Century usage. There is this thought that maybe shooters of the
latter half of the 20th Century and forwards tend to be a bit "too tidy" and that maybe the times in which BP technologies
were developed assumed more slathering and no petroleum products. Thoughts?

Best Wishes,

Bruce

I would urge you to do some real research into the writings from the past, and not rely on internet myth. Ned Roberts Schuetzen Rifle book will be a real eye opener, if for nothing else all the lube recipes listed. Edwin Perry's Observations on modern rifle shooting is another resource full of valuable info..

[jphendren]

Any chance that Lee Alox could have caused this?  My bullets were lubed with 50/50 beeswax/olive oil blend, but then I also tumble lubed them with Lee Alox thinking it would cut down on leading.  Supposedly it is safe with blackpowder, but I don't know?  It is very sticky.

Jared

[Ranch 13]

Yup the LLA is the culprit. Makes a heck of a mess with blackpowder fouling. Tried some with some Elephant powder in the sharps many years ago, almost plugged the barrel completely up..

[Noz]

LLA Is not good on BP bullets. Do make a mess.
That said, a friend uses candle wax and LLA melted together with a high degree of success.

[rifle]

Lee Alox is not good fer the Holy Black. I can agree on that.

At one time it was good. Real good since I remember using it as a lube pill (was pretty soft) in cap&bqaller revolvers. Then it changed and if I remember right(slight chance I do) the allox in it was changed. I talked to Lee Precision bout that I thunk.

The original allox was good fer the black but ......who knows what type allox it was since there are many different types of allox. There "is"one that works really well.
I remeber using that Lee allox and the barrels of my cap&ballers stayed actually shiny clean.

That I will never fergit since I used to shoot cap&ball revolvers and clean the barrels more than actually shoot to find the best accuracy. Pain in the arse.
Then one fine day...I tried a Lee allox lube pill with a lil dab of the Hornady lube (Spit Ball?)on it and seated the balls. Fired a few cylinders full and then removed the barrel and looked thru it.
I was amazed. The barrel was shiny clean abiet a few grains of blackpowder left in the barrel.

I then tried the Hornady lube alone and the Lee Allox alone and each gave the same result. Shiny barrel with a few grains of fouling scattered in there. I used them both till the Hornady was discontinued and the Lee allox was changed.

Then the search continued fer some sort of good lube stuff. I found.....that any lubey stuff with the right amount of wax would work as long as there was enough lubey stuff in the wax. Never worked as good as the other stuff mentioned but...whatta ya going to do...ask the BlackPowder Fairy Mother to thunk up a good lube fer ya and set it under yer pillow at night? Maybe pull a few teeth out and set them under the pillow in exchange? The Tooth Fairy likes teeth so.....

[Jefro]

Any chance that Lee Alox could have caused this?  My bullets were lubed with 50/50 beeswax/olive oil blend, but then I also tumble lubed them with Lee Alox thinking it would cut down on leading.  Supposedly it is safe with blackpowder, but I don't know?  It is very sticky.

Jared

Ah Haaa!! Now we get the rest of the story. I kept thinking this all sounds like regular smokeless lube was involved, now we know. Nothing left to do but keep soaking and scrubbing. And BL bullets should still be in your future. Good Luck

Jefro Relax-Enjoy