Anyone assemble their gun with bore butter only?

[SteveInColorado]

OK. I've been doing a lot of shooting the last few days, and found these BP revolvers to be very common-sense. If I think it should work a certain way, it does. BTW I realized I had another '58 Remmy still in cosmoline when my father-in-law passed away, so I got out both. I loaded one with single wads, the other with 2 wads. One with grease only, the other with 2 wads. One with 2 wads, one with cream of wheat. I've reloaded since I was 15 or so, and to be able to sit in the grass and tinker with what works is a lot of fun. I read early on that Hoppe's #9 got the job done to lube the thing after cleaning, and had been using that. Ran out the other night, and grabbed my favorite, Breakfree CLP. After I put one gun together with that, I had a moment of dread thinking I hadn't seen it mentioned anywhere, and I might have just done a bad thing (Did see somebody say it was OK after that). Anyway, I've been lightly coating the cylinder and barrel with bore butter, and it occurred to me that maybe I could just use that on the whole gun. I can see that it would break down and not give a lot of protection in hot conditions, or if left for a while, but I live in the Colorado mountains and didn't have any problems shooting the bore butter gun yesterday. Thoughts?

Thanks,
Steve.

 

[Snaggletooth]

Speaking from a bad experience. Bore butter tends to harden and if used on the spindle the cylinder becomes a problem to get off. Olive oil is better., but thats just my opinion.

 

[tango2echo]

Olive oil has been used as long as we have had firearms. It works for me.

t2e

 

[arcticap]

Due to your low humidity, Bore Butter should work fine for the short term to protect everything but the internals as long as everything is thoroughly clean.
Bore Butter does have a higher viscosity than oil, so it stays where it's applied and doesn't run.
There's better products but as far as being a good general purpose protectant and lube, it will do the job.
It will even work as an anti-seize on the nipple threads.
I think that it could protect for 3-6 months, or maybe even double that length of time depending on the storage conditions.

 

[Old Cannonballs]

I've been using Ballistol for oiling my BP guns, and so far it's worked great for me. I've only been shooting black powder for a couple of years, and for all I know using Ballistol may yet come back to bite me on the behind, but so far so good. I even rub the stuff into the wood stocks and grips, and it seems to help preserve them and keep 'em nice and shiny. I like the smell of Bore Butter better, but as someone else mentioned, it does get hard over time.

 

[[email protected]]

I use "Butter Flavor" Crisco

 

[JCT]

wouldn't the "Butter Flavor"crisco have salt??? I'm sure no one wants to be applying salt on their guns!!
I use a mix of my olive oil/ beeswax and I stir in some Rem oil to thin it out. Great slippery lube that stays where you put it...

 

[JCT]

Oh yeah....Marvel Mystery oil is great too, planning to stick to that once the rem oil runs out...

 

[bluesuit01]

I only use Bore Butter on anything of mine I use BP or BP cartridges in. Revolvers, Spencer, Henry, Sharps, Maynard. I blank shoot and live fire and have no problems with rust, sticking parts, heat, cold, etc. I have loaded a revolver before and not had to use it over a period of 2 or 3 months. They always fire then clean right up with no problems. I clean with hot water and TC No. 13. Everybody's opinions and results differ, but I don't use any petroleum products on BP weapons. I started cleaning this way years ago after reading page 29 of this: http://www.jspublications.net/tips/BPLoading.pdf

 

[SteveInColorado]

I've looked all over the internet, and found lots of good info, but no real definitive answer for my question. The safest solution I can see is to get the gun absolutely clean and oil it with the oil of your choice, then clean the bore with alcohol before shooting. I found an interesting site, ctmuzzleloaders.com, where a guy does experiments with different protectants to see how they do for anti-corrosion. Ballistol did well, but olive oil and bore butter did horrible. The guy is an M.D., so not exactly an expert in the mechanical field, but he at least tries to be methodical in his experiments.

I've found several mentions of bore butter creating a buildup in your bore over years that eventually cause accuracy problems. I know from what I've seen so far that it does make cleanup a lot easier, though, which is why I wanted to use it on everything. I think I will continue to use it on the bore for a while to season it until something better catches my fancy, and I think I'll start using Ballistol for oiling things.

A couple interesting things I ran across-

Somebody mentioned sealing your action around the hammer with bore butter or Crisco to minimize fouling there. I think I'll try that.

I came across something somewhere that said the vast majority of chainfires start from the nipple end. I hadn't even considered that. The first time I used #11 caps, I knocked off a couple on the second shot. Got a handle on it now, but I hadn't even considered how important it is.

Thanks for the replies.

Steve.

 

[Shultzhaus]

Ballistol for me. Seems to be used by a lot of folks on this forum. Never had any problems with it. Still a good thing to clean your bore, and chambers just before firing.

 

[Chasing Crow]

I've used Wonder Lube only on my long guns and revolvers for years with no problems.