Tallow for Lube?

[Kansas Ed]

I was kicking around on GB this morning and saw an original box of Winchester 40-82 ammo. It had a Winchester reloading sticker on the side of the box which listed some details about reloading them. One of the items was to:
"use Japan wax or Pure Tallow for a bullet lube." I was wondering if anyone on here had ever tried pure tallow on their bullets before.

Ed

[coyote nose]

I use it all the time. Mostly deer tallow but am currently experimenting with beef tallow. Current recipe is 1 1/2 parts paraffin, 1 1/2 parts tallow, and 3/4 parts beeswax, all by volume. This is an original recipe from the 1880's, I believe the US govt used this, but would have to check my sources. I use this in black powder, 777, or pyrodex loads. I do not use it with smokeless loads.
Rimfire rounds of the 1800's were outside lubed with 50% beeswax and 50% tallow.

[coyote nose]

oops, just realized you said PURE tallow, as mentioned I mix mine with waxes. Pure tallow sure is soft, wonder how it would work? Deer tallow melts at a higher temp than beef tallow (thats why cold venison seems to leave a wierd feeling on your teeth...it is the fats coating your teeth whereas with beef the fats melt in your mouth). Still, deer tallow is soft.

[Chuck 100 yd]

I have used Beef Tallow mixed with about 25% Vasaline as a lube for BP rifle using bullets or ball. It is great as a lube on paper patched bullets also. Works as good as SPG for me.
Simple to make your own and it keeps for years in the fridge.

[Nath]

So how do you make tallow from a lump of beef fat then ?
Nath.

[coyote nose]

Nath, I cut up the fat (or suet if you want to buy it in the store) into little cubes, maybe 1" x 1" or so. Throw them in a frying pan, put the heat on low, and let it melt. As it melts pour off the liquid into a suitable container. As it cools this liquid will congeal. This will be tallow. ( A surprising amount of solids will be left behind in the pan. I let this cool and put it out in my bird feeders in the winter, the woodpeckers and nuthatches love it.)

[Ridgerunner]

I still am partial to hawg lard, in case one has to terminate a terrorist....

[Chuck 100 yd]

Do like Coyote nose said, But there is more to it if you use it for lube.
Once the fat is rendered down into liquid and the cracklins are seperated
(I use cheese cloth to strain it), Put it in a large pan with equal parts water and simmer for an hour or so. Turn off the heat and let it cool. The tallow will float to the top and set up into a cake. This process removes the SALT from the fat and the resulting product is sweet tallow.

[Rusty]

Mutton tallow was also favored in earlier times as a bullet lube although I'm not sure of it's properties.


As a word of caution, if you purchase lard from the store check the ingredients to make sure there is no salt in it.

[John in MS]

Ok, here's the stupid question for the day:
How do you go about buying fat/lard etc. from the grocery store?
Just ask the butcher if they have some, or is it packaged in any way?

I never thought to buy the stuff before!!

Thanks,
John

[gcs]

You can render any fat,.. beef is tallow, hog is lard, sheep is ?, sheep tallow?
You start with any raw fat, but the fat around the kidneys is considered higher grade.
Ask the butcher for some beef fat trimmings (suet), and render down likes been said, don't be in too much of a rush to pour off the liquid fat, you want all the water cooked off, there's probably a temp. range, but I don't know it.

Store the rendered fat in an old coffee can, it will last about forever with no refrigeration. The lard (Manteca) you buy in the grocery store is very soft, probably not FULLY rendered. About the salt, if you use fresh fat, there shouldn't be much at all, but do what these guys say if you want to be sure.
You might try a real butcher that gets halfs or quarters in, if there is any left, for a better suet, most butchers anymore only deal with boxed meat.

Good luck

[Scott64A]

And just how would one make a lube for smokeless powder from tallow or lard?

[John Boy]

The finest BPCR lube I've made is a modification of a HM Pope lube that he made and shot with black and smokeless powder reloads.
Ingredients
Pure Mutton Tallow
http://www.dixiegunworks.com/product_in ... ts_id=3686
Bayberry Wax - was used in early smokeless loads
Beeswax - still used in smokeless loads
Jojoba Oil - sperm oil was used in early smokeless loads. Jojoba oil is a wax from the jojoba plant seeds. Chemically tested for the hydrogen - carbon chain, it is better than sperm oil
Can substitute lanolin for the jojoba with the same results

Consistency is semi-hard - no heat needed in the lube/sizer and good for shooting in hot & cold temperatures. Plus, most tallow lubes will become rancid. My unused lube sticks show no sign of being rancid after 2 years

Also, a benefit is all the ingredients are non-petroluem and will not 'varnish' the grooves

[S.B.]

I've used it for flux while casting bullets but, not for lube.

[Swampman]

I've used the fat from around a deer's kidneys as a patch lube for my flintlocks many times. I rendered it over a campfire in an iron skillet. Sometimes I mixed it with olive oil & bee's wax. It worked fine.

[coyote nose]

I've never had to boil mine in water, tho I have heard of doing that to remove salt. I use deer fat from a deer I killed, or beef suet from the store (tell the butcher you want it for the bird feeder...he may even give it to you) and am not sure that salt is stored by animals in the fat anyway. If I would use bacon grease I would DEFINITELY boil it in water since here the fat was cured with salts. Altho...I only use this with pyrodex or black powder...the gun is going to get cleaned immediately anyway, and any salt that my minute amount of tallow added is miniscule compared to the salts left by the powder fouling.

[coyote nose]

Forgot to add, if you are after lube recipes prepare yourself to be inundated with 100's of recipes! An internet search will yeild a lot, what I did was narrow it down to what Winchester and the US gov't used in the 1880's or 90's (they changed their recipes many times). I made up 3 or 4 different batches and pretty much wound up sticking to the one I listed above as it seems to work in Ohio summers and winters. For smokeless I shoot mostly jacketed bullets so use a commercial lube for the small amount of cast bullets I shoot with smokeless.

[deerwhacker444]

I use Mink Oil from Track of the Wolf with great success out of my flinter. I don't know how many minks it takes to render down 6 oz of lube, but it's definitely good stuff. Slicker than snot and won't freeze at normal winter temps