[Smokepole14]

I've read in the forums and heard about lube pills and it seams you can shoot a lot more at the range without cleaning as much. Just what exactly are they and how do they work plus how do you make them. can someone help explain this to me

[Bluehawk]

Basically homemade, round disks of beeswax, parrafin, and other ingredients (lithium grease?) that are melted together then laid/rolled out flat onto waxed paper and cut out with a correct sized punch for the specific caliber. The guys here all have their own fav formulas and will chime in quickly I'm sure.

[nalioth]

I"m surprised this isn't a sticky: How to best use a cap and ball revolver - THR (http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=65820)

If it is a sticky, I'm not surprised it's ignored (nobody ever reads the stickies).

[Oyeboten]

I would never use Wax Paper.


Paper Towling is excellent...it absorbs, and disappears in combustion when fired.

Organic Vegetable or Plant or Insect 'Waxes' or Oils...

Bee's Wax and Olive Oil work very well.

Paper Towel strips are run though molten mixture...cooled, and 'discs' cut out with a Hole Punch.

These then go between Powder and Bullet.

This is what I use, and I have been very pleased with the results.

[dwave]

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=52456&stc=1&d=1170456815

Here are mine. I use a simple mix of 50% Crisco and 50% Beeswax.

Also here are a few tests I did with them:
100 shots with lube pills (http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=252458)

100 shots with lube pills, chapter 2 (http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=321198)

[madcratebuilder]

Lube pills or grease cookies can be made with dozens of variations. They are not prone to melt or be runny like a bore butter/Crisco type product. They can be used under the rb or over the rb. I make mine about an 1/8 inch thick now, they make a great arbor lube also.

[arcticap]

rifle's wife Junk Yard Dog makes them with mutton tallow and sells them.

The recipe fer the Lube Pills if ya want to make yer own and not buy them from Junk Yard Dog (1-740-824-5566) is "equal parts of bees wax,paraffin wax,mutton tallow. Punch them out from a thin 1/8th deep wax sheet...

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=272941&highlight=mutton+wads

[pohill]

I mix up the beeswax/paraffin and pour it into the barrel of the gun (one end is blocked off), let it set for a few minutes, then push it out. Now you have a lube stick from which you cut off perfectly sized pills as you need them.

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m217/pohill/S4020211.jpg

[Oyeboten]

Parrifin in theory is an incompatible base with Black Powder chemistry...

Natural Plant, Insect or Animal Waxes or Oils are supposed to behave better and not combine to make weird or adhesive goos or residu.

I have not shot my Cap & Ball Revolvers without my Home Made Lube-Wafers to see what difference not using them would make.

But, with them, clean up is very easy, fast, just hot Soapy Water, hot Water rinse...heat dry...Metallic Cartridge Revolvers using BP, clean up the same...

My Lube Wafers are about .040 thick, so they do not displace much Powder.

Cleaning the SAA or New Service is just as easy as cleaning a C & B Revolver, Hot Water just rolls off areas having a minute condensed coating from the Lube Wafers, Bore Brush for the Barrel and Cylinder...Paper Towel wipe off Frame and so on...Heat dry.

Easy and fun, just takes a few minutes is all.

I lightly Oil once done drying, and put away till next time.

[mykeal]

The issue with petroleum based oils being incompatible with black powder guns is with the lower distillates such as some of the heavier (thicker) gun oils and smokeless gunpowder cleaning solvents. The temperatures in a black powder combustion chamber are not high enough to completely burn those lower distillates, and the result of the incomplete combustion is tar.

Higher distillates, such as mineral oil and similar compounds will burn completely in a black powder combustion chamber; these products do not leave the tars behind like the lower distillates.

Paraffin wax, vaseline jelly, machine tool cutting oils and other water soluble or miscible oils are among the higher distillates that will burn off more completely in a black powder gun. Note however that there are variations in how these products are made, and thus the ratio of high and low petroleum distillates they contain may vary between products. Just because the paraffin one bought last month worked just fine is no guarantee that the paraffin one buys next month will also, and vice versa.

[Bluehawk]

I would never use Wax Paper.

I didn't mean the waxed paper became a part of the lube pill...it is there to lay the melted wax on as opposed to pouring it out onto the kitchen counter!