Terry G said:
My .50 is pretty much done after six or seven rounds, until I clean the bore. I use "Bore Butter" for patch lubrication. With vegetable lubrication, I only get about three to four rounds until it's too fouled to load. Is this pretty much the usual? Thanks.
Yes and no. I have seen this a lot, but there are some "cures" for it.
Number one is look at how much powder you are using. Most people that aren't hardcore blackpowder shooters overcharge their rifle. The man who taught me just about everything I know about muzzies told me once that from 40-60 percent of the powder used becomes fouling. For a 50 caliber (with a roundball) I used to use 70 grains of powder. Out of my gun it was just about perfect. Don't worry about not having enough energy for deer, I never shot one that didn't die within about 40 yards.......never hit one that 70 grains with a .490 ball didn't punch clean through either. How much powder you use though is going to depend on where you find the most accuracy. My suggestion though would be to back off about 10% and see what happens.
Bore butter is good stuff, but no where near as good as they advertise it. They claim that they got 1,000 shots without cleaning. I call bullshit. I've never seen anyone get anywhere near that. A dozen without cleaning is good no matter what you use. Except......
Spit. It's a great patchlube as long as you are going to shoot your rifle off within an hour or so of loading it. It works just like a cleaning solution when you drive the patched ball down the barrel. Softens the fouling instantly and makes the next shot or two a lot easier to load. I typically use a "spit patch" about every 5 rounds or so. Just remember not to put a patch in your mouth that you haven't washed. The manufacturers put a chemical on them that make them lay flat. That same chemical will give you a stomach ache if you ingest too much of it.
Since I mentioned softening the fouling, there is another trick too. The reason that the patch doesn't want to go down is because that fouling is dry. You can add moisture to it and make loading easier by simply blowing a long breath of air into the barrel before you load. Wait a minute or two before you do this......give any sparks in the barrel time to extinguish themselves. Otherwise you could ignite them and burn the hell out of your tongue. Once you've finished blowing into it make sure you load right away, otherwise the moisture will begin to evaporate and you are right back to square one.
Never use any petroleum based solvents/oils on your rifle. NONE. They will gum up with fouling and make it 10 times worse. I use straight tapwater for cleaning. I dont' even heat it. The NMLRA did a study several years ago and found out that nothing cleans better than cold tapwater. Several products clean as well, but nothing cleans any better. When everything is clean and dry I coat the inside of the barrel with the patchlube to keep it from rusting. I've never had a problem.
You can try different patch lubes too. Some are better than others although the TC wonderlube is probably the best commercial lube. Personally, I use a combination of olive oil and bees wax. Bees wax can be a little difficult to obtain in certain areas, and it does require a certain amount of work to make it. There is no better lube on planet Earth though. It's also a wonderful leather conditioner/water proofer......and it cures chapped lips in a hurry.
Another problem is that people simply want to patch too tight. I do that for competition, but for hunting and target shooting I sometimes use a thinner patch. This is the last option I'd use though.
Try some of those suggestions and getting up to about 10 shots is fairly easy.
