How much Crisco?

Z

ZVP

New member
I usually screed-off the Crisco level with the rdge of my Cylinder with Crisco but upon the first shot it all melts off leaving just a oily deposit around the remaining balls.
So the question is just how much flash-over protection do you really need?
Frankilly I prefer the clean felt, over the powder, wads for Flash-Over protection.
They clean the bore, leave a little lube behind anddon't seem to hinder accuracy at all! Yea at a dime a shot they DO increase costs dramatically, actually bringing the cost per shot equal to $15 per box .38 reloads but nobody said shooting was "cheap" anyhow...
How much Crisco do you use?
ZVP
 
I'll fill up the chamber until the ball can't be seen- anything that is deposited onto the side of the barrel simply blows off when shot.

I've even used a wad on top of 10grns of powder with the rest of the chamber filled with crisco to kill bore bees. :D It works, and you can fry them right up afterwards.:p
 
All you need is enough to fill any possible crack between the ball & the chamber wall. Anything more is blown away anyway.

I make my wads & lube. Use the paper mache egg cartons, Punch them out with (sharpened) 45 colt or 45 ACP range pickup brass, & dip em in melted beeswax/crisco 50/50 mix & let harden. Do remember to drill out the primer pocket before trying this clever trick the first time though!:p:o

Its actually the best use I've found for once fired steel case ammo:D:eek:
 
Crisco is easy to get, but I would recommend that you change away from Crisco. It has a low melting point and it is a sludge builder.

Without a whole lot of trouble you can melt together a 50%-50% mix of Olive oil and beeswax. This will make a much better chamber lube for you.

Personally I use 60% lamb's tallow to 40% beeswax, but olive oil is a lot easier to acquire.

If you get a chance to try it, I think you'll be happy you did.
 
Gave up on Crisco decades ago, the Wonder Wads are infinitely less messy & more convenient. :)
Denis
 
About...

....half and half Crisco (or generic vegetable shortening) and wax rings.

Stays where you put it.

Keeps the fowling down.

Keeps the pistol free.

Easy to get.

Cheap.
 
Like Wogpotter said just enough to go around the edge of the balls, anything more is wasted. I make my wads out of wool felt. You can get a set of cheap punches from harbor freight that will do the job. I paid five bucks for the set a couple of years ago.
 
Make your own felt wads.
Buy sheet felt of 1/8" thickness from Durofelt at http://www.durofelt.com/
Buy the Hard felt. Durofelt is made of 100% wool. Much of today's felt is limp and polyester (plastic) that may leave tiny nodules of melted plastic in the bore.
Check the clearance section in Durofelt for good buys on hard sheet felt.

A 3/8" hole punch will make wads for .36 caliber, a 5/16" for .31 caliber.
The 7/16" punch is a little small for .44 cap and balls, which are closer to .45 caliber, but is useful for making wads for cartridges such as .44/40, .44 Special, .44 Magnum or .444 Marlin.
Buy a .45 caliber punch from Buffalo Arms.
Punch the wads against the end grain of a small log, or against a hard plastic cutting board. Cutting boards are often found for a buck or two at thrift stores.

Melt the lubricant at low temperature and soak the wads in it. The Altoids Sour Candy or a shoe polish tin are good containers for melting and carrying wads.

Everyone has their own recipe, including me. Mine's a 19th century lubricant recipe that I found years ago. I improved it by using very specific ingredients. Shortly after posting it all over the internet, others named it after me: Gatofeo No. 1 Lubricant.
It's the best I've found, closely resembling SPG or Lyman Black Powder Gold but much cheaper if you make it yourself. It works as well or better than commercial lubricants.

Gatofeo No. 1 Lubricant is:
1 part mutton tallow (sold by Dixie Gun Works)
1 part canning paraffin (sold in grocery and hardware stores as 1 lb. blocks)
1/2 part beeswax (the real stuff. Today's toilet seals are not real beeswax)
All measurements by weight, not volume. Substituting other ingredients will result in an inferior lubricant.

The hard felt apparently has a scraping effect on the bore, clearing away a lot of the fouling. Gatofeo No. 1 Lubricant, coupled with the hard felt, will keep fouling to a minimum.

I abandoned putting grease over balls years ago. I don't believe that mutliple ignitions begin when fire gets past the ball. A properly oversized ball is too tight of a seal, in my opinion. Rather, I believe that multiple ignitions begin at the rear, with ill-fitting caps on the nipples, or caps blown off by recoil.

Years ago, in the 1970s, I experienced multiple ignition on three separate occasions with the same, cheap brass-framed 1851 Navy in .44 caliber. The last incident damaged the gun beyond repair.
In each case, I used Crisco over a .451 inch ball, and pushed No. 12 Remington caps onto nipples.
In the early 1980s, I began using lubricated felt wads, and pinched the caps into an elliptical shape to ensure they'd cling to the nipple. Not one multiple ignition since.
Lubricated wads are easier, quicker and less messy than smearing grease over the ball. Sure it takes a little time to make them, but this can be done during rainy or cold days when shooting is out of the question.
By making your own wads, you can use whatever lubricant you desire.
I'm not a fan of Wonder Wads' lubricant, which is dry. To keep black powder fouling soft and easily removed, you need a moist lubricant. I haven't found Wonder Wads' lube to be very effective.
Make your own wads, using Durofelt wool felt and a punch, for a penny each; less if you find a punch at a yard sale.
 
candle wax

If I'm just loading for a day in the woods I load all 6 chambers with powder and ball and then remove the cylinder and drizzle candle wax over each chamber until slightly over filled and then I slice the excess off with a sharp brass plate. No matter how warm the day gets there is no running lube and any unfired chambers stay just as they were, no disturbed lube. If I'm firing multiple cylinders I'll use wheel bearing grease.
 
I use the Durofelt and punch with an 11mm punch. $20 worth of felt will last me over a year and I shoot a LOT.
I soak mine in melted DD Pearl lube.

I have had loaded guns in a warm room for over 60 days with no lube leakage into the powder.
 
Everyone has a idea and I just go with the loading instrctions that came with the guns. Colt never sold crisco or felt wads.
 
That will work, radom.

Just remember that we will shoot our(CAS) pistols more in one month than most of the original guns were ever fired. We put a lot more pressure on our guns than the good old boys in the 1860s did.

Soft lead balls is the answer to a good chamber seal. Too hard and you will get excitement somewhere down the line.
 
Well I shoot my Cap and Ball revolvers I dont use anything but .454 round balls and wonder wads I get from cabelas the .454 round balls are a tight fit when you ram it into cylinder it leaves a lead ring around cyclinder so it is getting a good seal.
 
Just remember that we will shoot our(CAS) pistols more in one month than most of the original guns were ever fired. We put a lot more pressure on our guns than the good old boys in the 1860s did.
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I'm not too sure about that. Taking into account the quality of metal and maybe they were not quite as obsessed, I would say there was enough practicing and competition going on back then for folks to figure better or found ways of lubing or patching beyond the manual.
I'm not saying there is anything wrong with different types of techniques with wads and lubes, I am just saying I think guys love an excuse to grease things up.
My wife gets mad at me because I think WD-40 solves every problem.
 
Gave up on Crisco decades ago, the Wonder Wads are infinitely less messy & more convenient.
Denis
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Another vote for Wonder Wads. Been using them at least 25 years.


Everyone has a idea and I just go with the loading instrctions that came with the guns. Colt never sold crisco or felt wads.
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Maybe so ~ I think a lot of my pre-ban ivory handled 2nd Generation Colts. The Wonder Wads are a cheap form of insurance.
 

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The earliest written reference I've found to using a lubricated felt wad under a ball is in a 1928 American Rifleman, by Julian Hatcher.
The late gun writer Elmer Keith, born in 1899, was taught how to load a cap and ball revolver by Civil War veterans. He carried his first gun, an original Colt 1851 Navy, in 1912 or thereabouts. There were plenty of Civil War veterans from both sides then living in Montana.
But Keith never specifically says when he learned to use lubricated felt wads. He just writes (in 1955 and later) of it being a good way to load cap and ball revolvers. He never notes that the Civil War veterans showed him to use wads.
Some years ago, I saw a half-loaded Colt Dragoon at the Cheney Cowles Museum in Spokane, Wash. I've often wondered if it's still there, and what might be found lurking beneath those three or four seated projectiles. Probably the remnants of a paper cartridge, if it is loaded with conical bullets. That Dragoon was picked up off an Indian War battlefield, as I recall. Perhaps the Battle of Steptoe Butte, near Rosalia, Wash.

Myself, I started using lubricated felt wads in the early 1980s. Prior to that, it was Crisco smeared over the ball. Crisco was messy, got blasted out with the first shot, but was better than no lubrication.
Colt's contemporary instructions mentioned no lubricant, but I can't help but think that shooters back then probably put beeswax or a drop of whale oil over the projectile, if only for insurance against moisture.
Some original factory paper cartridges have survived, and some of them show evidence of the bullet having been dipped in wax or grease that has dried. My guess would be beeswax, or a mix of beeswax and tallow (a lubricant well known at the time).

I switched to lubricated felt wads long ago. In time, I learned that hard felt was better than soft felt. Apparently, the harder felt has a scraping effect; it sure keeps the barrel clean.
Any decent lubricant will work if soaked into the wad, but some are markedly better than others. Among the best lubricants are SPG, Lyman Black Powder Gold and various homebrewed lubricants that use tallow and beeswax.
My favorite is a 19th century recipe I discovered years ago, and improved with specific ingredients. I first posted it about 1999. After a while, it was named after me: Gatofeo No. 1 Lubricant.
Gatofeo No. 1 Lubricant Recipe:
1 part canning paraffin
1 part mutton tallow
1/2 part beeswax
All amounts are by weight, not volume.
200/200/100 grams on a kitchen scale will fill a widemouth Mason jar about 3/4 full, when melted down. Place the jar in 3 inches of boiling water, for a double-boiler effect, for melting the ingredients. Stir them well, when melted, and allow to harden at room temperature.

This creates an inexpensive lube that is equal to or superior to any commercial variety, for any black powder purpose. I use it for felt wads, shotgun wads, patches and lead bullets loaded over black powder. It simplifies things to use only one lubricant. It's medium-hard though, too hard to easily smear over a seated ball.
If I need grease, I mix of a batch of beeswax and olive oil, to the right consistency.

Returning to the original post: I gave up on Crisco long ago. Lubricated felt wads are less messy, though they take some preparation before shooting.
Buy a hole punch of the appropriate size, and a sheet of hard 1/8" thick felt from Durofelt.com and you'll be set.
 
General Lee's 51 Navy was fired 7 years after his death. It was noted the balls were covered in some kind of black waxy substance. It was also noted that all six chambers fired normally.
 
Following my first C&B purchase, I bought a bag of pre-lubed circle fly wads, quantity 500 I think. After reading this post, I bought a 12"x36" piece of hard felt from Duro-Felt at a very reasonable price. I'm thinking that this will be my choice in wad material for the future paired with some decent recipe for lube found here. Will still use up the circle fly stuff but probably no more after that.

This info is very helpful. thanks to all here.
 
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