Shiloh Rifle Forums

A friend with a Farmingdale '63 he once wanted to sell is now having second thoughts since talking to me.
His is also a .50 calibre and I asked him what he shot in it. He never bothered with cartridges (he's lazier than me!) and used loose powder. For bullets he used the TC .50 calibre Maxi-Ball! They hold lots of lube and I know that Cowboy action shooters use them for the same reason - less bore fouling.
I don't know the diameter of a Maxi-Ball but obviously a chamber full of BP caused them to obturate as he said it was 'accurate'.

That's the problem I'm having - getting off repeat shots due to bore fouling. For best results, I have to wipe between shots.
Up to now I haven't been using SPG, but an inferior product. If SPG doesn't cure the problem, I'll try it in conjunction with .50 calibre Maxi-Balls.
It could be the 'Silver Bullet' for my '63.

Todd

Todd,

I use a Rapine Christmas-tree bullet in my Shiloh '63 military carbine and have no trouble getting off 15 shots without cleaning. For a lube, I use 50% bee's wax, 40% Crisco and 10% vegetable oil.

Rich

Thanks Rich

How does your mixture stand up to hot weather? We get up to body temperatures here in the summer.
I was just reading in a reference book how the Brits went to 100% bees wax for their Enfields cartridges as the tallow that had been part of the mix had an adverse reaction on the lead of the ball in storage.

That kind of blows the story about the tallow being the cause of the Indian Mutiny. The Muslims thought it was pig fat and the Hindus thought it was beef tallow, according to legend.
That didn't stop either ethnic group from using their cartridges on the 'ferenghis' Sahibs and Memsahibs.

Todd

Todd,

I've shot the lube in 90 degree weather without a problem but you can always add more bee's wax to stiffen the mixture. After I assemble my paper cartridge rounds, I just dip the bullets, nose first, into the lube that I have heated to a liquid in a microwave oven.

Rich

Rich

I'm wrapping my nitrated paper around the rings of the pan lubed bullets just short of the leading edge of the first groove.
The lube actually adheres to the bullet. That along with a glued edge makes up a pretty robust cartridge.
They look just like a lot of paper rounds in the books.

The Brits experimented wit a "tropical" lube mix as they found that requirements were different in various parts of the Empire. What worked in Halifax didn't in the Khyber Pass or New Delhi. It was an ongoing thing and they never did fully resolve it in the BP era.

I've yet to experiment with recipes (and there are a lot of them) as I am concerned with consistency. With my Enfield MLs, I went back to Crisco (I call it bear fat for the sake of kids) as it never varies.
There used to be a product called "Spit Ball" that I liked. I used to put a dollop in the hollow base of Minies. It was actually a cleaning agent in a semi-paste form. A more fluid type was called "Spit Ball" for patched round ball.

They worked and made clean up a breeze.

Todd