Making cookies for my walker

[Steven Youngblood]

I make lube wads for my Uberti Colt Walker.
I use an empty 45 long colt case as a punch, with an old used roto tool-grinding wheel as a plunger, that way I can punch them out in groups of 6.
I then cut a small strip of wax paper and just put one on the paper and fold back and forth until all 6 are in a little stack, ready for the storage box.
That way when I go out shooting, I just set a stack out and go to loading.
When punched out with a 45 long colt case the cookies fit perfectly in the chamber.
Now why would I go to so much trouble? I learned the hard way about not enough bullet lube.
I shoot a 50 cal smoke pole, at the beginning of deer season every year. (Any excuse to get in the woods.)
Well, I bought this really neat mini ball bullet mold.
I cast a bunch of those bad boys, hollow base; the test fit on each showed that all would fit in the muzzle no problem.
I grabbed my possible bag and headed out to do some test firing.
I greased up the first one with bore butter, eased her down on a 55 grain test load, and let fly. Don’t get me wrong, I love bore butter, the stuff is great, but it just was not enough, as I quickly found out when trying to load the next round, I broke my bullet starter trying to get the next round down the bore. A victim of the dreaded lead and powder fouling.
It took what seamed like forever to get the barrel clean again.
The next time out I made some lube wads for under the round, and used the same lube on the mini balls, and have not had the problem since.
But what about the walker.
I lube the conicals by pan lubing, using the method from "http://www.jspublications.net/tips/BPLoading.pdf" and use the left over lube to make the wads. I just re-melt what is in the pan, in a dbl boiler and re-pour it into the pan and wait until it cools, but not rock hard. If you wait to long the lube cracks when punch out.
I put a wad under both the conical and round ball.
I use bore butter on the conicals with the wads and on the round balls, old habits and all.
I have never had a flash ignite another chamber, but still like something over the powder. The same thing as having a fire extinguisher in the house, never had to use it but it is there anyway.
As for accurcy, I am ex-navy, I use to drink coffee from a cup big enough to float a whole dounut, and I have 4 children and 6 grandchildren.
I point at the target and squeeze the trigger as the target goes by.
That is why I like big guns with big bullets; I don't have to be that accurate, close works just fine.
There are more photos on " The Official THR Walker Club" thread on this site

 

[scrat]

This is from Steves other post

 

[scrat]

Steve excellent post for sure i am going to try this. This is the best idea i have heard in a long time. Now i got to go on a beeswax hunt. Wow i have a bunch of 45 colt shells. this is some very good information. i imagine the guys shooting 36 caliber can use 38 shells and so on. very good information.

 

[Acorn Mush]

I use an empty 45 long colt case as a punch, with an old used roto tool-grinding wheel as a plunger...

You have a good idea there for a "cookie cutter" and I might give it a try myself.

Have you given any thought to coating the stone with crazy glue, epoxy, or some such to keep it consolidated and eliminate the possibility of getting errant abrasive granules in the lube? Personally, I wouldn't want to give Mr. Murphy any opportunity to exercise his law with respect to abrasives and barrels.

 

[Steven Youngblood]

I had not thought about that.
That is a very good idea.
I checked the stone and it is coated with lube, so I don't think there will be a problem.
If I ever need to make a new one, I will defiantly seal it with white glue.
You can use anything as a plunger. The grinding wheel was something; I had on hand and worked better than a matchstick.
I’m Sure others can come up with better ideas, this was just one I had.
There is only one hardware store here, and there is not a gun store in the entire county, so
supplies are limited and I have to make do with what is on hand.
I am always open to new ideas, and discussing them with others, that is what makes this so much fun.

 

[Steven Youngblood]

Scrat, Thanks for the help on the pictures. You did good.

 

[Steven Youngblood]

I got my beeswax from "http://hiveharvest.com/index.html"
I bought 2 lbs and had it shipped for about $24 total
That sounds like a bunch, but it made 4 pints of bullet lube.
I will try to get a local supply this spring.

 

[Marlin 45 carbine]

that's a good idea. I have been useing a mix of lanolin and beeswax to smear atop the loaded chambers of my C&B revolvers (and dip conicals in)but your way would definitely be quicker.

 

[Steven Youngblood]

Scrat.
I hear ya.
This is where I got my training.

 

[Snaggletooth]

Bees wax could be bought at a plumbing shop or hardqare store years ago. If there is a beekeeper near you you could probably get it there. I did. He gave me a quart.

 

[Steven Youngblood]

I know of a place in a near by town, that sells honey and I'm sure they have beeswax as well, but they were not home the last time I wanted some beeswax, so I just ordered it. We only have one hardware store within about 30 miles and to let you know how well they are stocked, I wanted to get a small can of turpentine and a can of boiled linseed oil, to add to some beeswax to make some stock polish.
There was one, one-gallon can and it looked like it had been dropped from a roof at least twice. I will wait until I go to lexington or hoenwald to get a pint, that was made since the civil war.

 

[Mike 56]

I bought bees wax at Michaels craft store it is around 20.00 a pound but they have a 1/2 off coupon in their Sunday add. I made my cutter out of a 45-70 case, wood dowell and a nail.
Mike

 

[Hellgate]

To make lube wads I buy sheets of automotive felt 1/8" thick F-1 and punch them out on a drill press with a cheap 7/16" hole punch chucked into the press. I use the 3/8" (.375") punch for the 36s. Then I melt 50/50 beeswax & lard in a pan and throw in a pile of wads to soak it up. Comes out to about 2 cents a wad. If you want a thicker wad then order any thickness you want up to 1/2-1" depending on your budget and the company.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Excellent post and pictures. Very auspicious start Steve Youngblood.

 

[bejay]

found this site that seems to have a good price on wax if you cant find it locally. http://www.eberthoney.com

 

[madcratebuilder]

I

bought bees wax at Michaels craft store it is around 20.00 a pound but they have a 1/2 off coupon in their Sunday add. I made my cutter out of a 45-70 case, wood dowell and a nail.
Mike

The 45-70 case is a great idea. I made my cutter to complicated. I like yours much better.

 

[Steven Youngblood]

I like the 45-70 as well.
I'll need a longer plunger though.
very good idea.

 

[dirty dave]

GReat idea wonder if a 32 S&w case would work for my 31 cva?had a cylinder on my daughter not long ago .no one hurt but scared her and me both.the ball was covered in bore butter guess the fire found a hole.thanks for the tip.

 

[AdmiralB]

Are you putting the lube pellet under the ball, or over the ball?

 

[Smokin_Gun]

Lube Pill Tubes



SG

 

[AdmiralB]

I tried this tonight. I have a "Kitchen Kettle" in which I keep a 50/50 mix of beeswax and paraffin; I use it to pot guitar pickups.

I picked up a little two-quart crock pot and mixed the above with Crisco, in a 2:1 ratio. Then I attempted to pour a uniform surface.

Had a lot of trouble with that. First I put a silpat mat in a cookie sheet and used the ring from a springform cheesecake pan for a form. I put a nickel in the bottom and used it as a reference for thickness.

Didn't work well at all, couldn't pour it uniform.

So then I got the bottom from the springform pan and used the rolled edge as a guide - worked really well.

I have some stainless steel tubing in the correct inner diameters for .44 and .36; I punched some .44s out and used some 7/16" diameter nylon rod to push out the cut disks. Seemed like I could punch six or seven out in a row before it started to take too much effort to extract them.

I considered just pouring a tube full, then cutting individual disks off as mentioned above, but I think it'd be difficult to get uniform thickness that way.

Gotta get some 3/8" dowel tomorrow before I can do any .36s, but overall after figuring it out, it wasn't too much trouble.

 

[Smokin_Gun]

Admiral, give this a try. I have been posting this for years after listening to Wayne I developed this process and still using it today. Have at it ifin you like. I'm still usin' the above Tube/Cutters...

Dang I'm broke Lube Pills

What I did was start out with:
Parafin comes in a brick divided to to 4 like a stick a butter, I used a stick.
Then 1/4 of a Bolwax Toilet Seal Ring(Beeswax)substitute or beeswax or use with the parafin.
Then 8-10 Tablespoons of Olive Oil/soy oil
The Olive oil is the Lube the Waxes just carry it and keep the pill as
you want it.(consistacey/hard or soft...climate time of year)
And that made alot about 600 pills...about 1/8" thick for the most part.
Place the lube mixture in a small saucepan, place the small saucepan in a larger pan with water
boilin' the water and sorta poach the lube mix to a liquid.
level stiff heated pizza pan(or 7-9" heavy pie pan)is the best thing to pour your mix into...
so mix cools evenly(flat) .Place in fridge when it's set stiff(optional)
And worked good for me...you need to try your best guess and add/subract as you like them
for your use.


Punch out to the caliber of your choice, with a tube. Place lube pill over powder with ball
on top. You'll shoot all day without binding. Keeps cylinder lubed fouling soft and barrel
relatively clean.

It works.

SG

 

[4v50 Gary]

Link to a similar approach

 

[hartcreek]

I basically have been making my over the powder wads the same way for more then a deckade I store my home made wads and even oxyoke wads in empty chap stick tubes. I remove the cup and cut off the plastic screw flush and the just stack the greases wads up and slide them in the chap stick tube. I use a stick or anything handy to push the wads out of the tube as I need them.