DGL lube for hot weather

[gunlaker]

I bought some DGL lube on the advice of some fellow shooters. I had heard that it's superior to SPG for warm weather.

It sure seems to melt fast in the double boiler, faster than SPG by a fair bit, and way faster than the Alberta Schuetzen Lube that I'm also experimenting with.

Nearly of my competitions are shot lying in the sun with the barrel fully exposed to the sun's heat. Is the DGL really going to cut it? In Worland recently my SPG was pretty marginal as it was starting to melt out of the grooves.

Chris.

[desert deuce]

Hi Chris, you pose an interesting question. To which there may not be an answer.

How, when and under what conditions the lube is applied is the first consideration. Gooey, sticky lube makes more mess and not easy to work with.

Of course, for a lube to then be of benefit it first must remain on the bullet until the trigger is pulled. That is the next first little thing that should happen.

Then it must keep the fouling soft enough or pliable enough that the adverse effects of a build up of hard fouling don't negatively affect accuracy to an unacceptable extent.

And most important it must promote accuracy regardless of the conditions that exist at the time the rifle is fired.

When you discover that perfect lube give me a jingle.

[johnl]

You guys use a double boiler, oops I've been a nice frying pan my wife forgot she has on low heat

[gunlaker]

Zack I think there is one more factor, and that is to keep as constant a coefficient of friction as is possible from shot to shot.

I looks like the match in Kamloops this weekend won't likely be very hot so I won't gain much information. I will load up the Borchardt .45-90 and the .40-65 with DGL and see how they shoot. Later in the July I will find someplace hot and dry and test groups of 15 shots over the chronograph. Tomorrow I'm ordering a new Oehler 35p which should help evaluate some of this.

I have some hope for the Alberta Schuetzen Lube as it definitely melts at a higher temp, and so far seems to shoot as well as anything else I've tried.

John I definitely use a double boiler. Well, actually I use a pot half filled with water. I put a pie plate on top and line it with parchment paper so that it's easier to separate the lube cake from the pan. Some lubes are very hard to get out of the pan otherwise. I put the whole works on a hotplate. My wife bought me one with a temperature control and a timer with auto-shutoff.

Chris.

[bruce m]

chris,
there is a simple solution to this problem.
use no lube
you are already adept at patching and wiping.
the problem goes away
keep safe,
bruce.

[BFD]

Thank you, Bruce, for saving me from having to write that.

[John Bly]

I'll have to disagree with you that DGL melts at a lower temperature than SPG. I have always used SPG. I won some DGL at a match and as an experiment I put some of each in a can and melted it floating in a pan of boiling water. The SPG melted first and it was some time before all the chunks of DGL were melted and absorbed into the melt. That was proof enough for me.

[bruce m]

actually in my constant and ongoing quest to shoot dirty with target accuracy, I have found one thing.
an old guy gave me a very small amount of whale oil.
2 of 1/8" felt wads soaked in whale oil under a bullet came very close.
I loaded and shot 14 rounds straight with no blowtubing - easier than any other kind of lube wad.
for this to work, you need to seal the powder from the oil reliably, and use neck tension so the bullet does not squeeze the oil when chambering the round, thus maintaining cartridge overall length consistency.
further shots were blowtubed to see what happened, and 2 or 3 breaths made the muzzle appear very dark black.
it would appear that if you can keep the bore oily enough with the right stuff, temperature and drying out becomes less of an issue than with conventional lubes.
the same experiment with jojoba oil was virtually hopeless, as was 50/50 jojoba/tallow, both things known to be good in lubes.
the problem is there was only enough whale oil to soak about 30 wads.
keep safe,
bruce.

[gunlaker]

I imagine you have to go to Japan to replentish your whale oil Bruce .

As you know, I'm a big fan of paper patching and am definitely continuing with that as well. I think I am very close to getting it all sorted out. In my new .45-70 I think my wiping routine is working, but with the increased fouling in my .45-90 I don't think I'm quite there when it's really hot.

Next weekend I'm going to compare vertical at 800m with the Borchardt .45-90 shooting GG money bullets and the highwall .45-90 shooting PP bullets. It's probably a bit unfair as I've spent a lot more time with the PP rifle, but it'll be interesting to see.

With respect to melting temperature, I'm going to do a proper test using bullets lubed with all three lubes I've got. What I did wasn't a very strict test as I just looked at how long my lube cakes took to melt.

Chris.

[bruce m]

chris,
in our Australian summer I have gone away from the accepted method of wiping.
standard thinking seems to prefer damp patches as opposed to wet ones.
summer and winter here, bore pigs pulled directly from under the surface of moose milk (read very wet) are pushed through with a dry patch which is pulled back and then pushed out with the pig.
this proved to still leave a little wetness in the bore, so a second dry is sent down, back, and down and out, leaving bore condition consistent.
the amount of wetness might have some cooling effect on the barrel.
yes some fluid runs down in the action, but in a falling block, and being soluble oil, this is not an issue.
possibly damp only pigs and patches are suited to greasers more than pp, as dampened lube, whether by a pig or a blowtube, is actually a lube in itself.
this will protect the dreaded bore riding nose from leaving a calling card in the barrel.
you just have to get it the same each time.
one pass with a pig is a lot quicker than 6 correctly applied blows, and makes you much less giddy.
keep safe,
bruce.

[Lumpy Grits]

I live in the Mojave Desert-I have found DGL to not 'bleed' in the heat like SPG will. Shows an excellent lube star on the muzzle of both my 30" and 34" bbls.
DGL has also work'd well for me down into the 30* range.
Very easy to pan lube with.
Gary

[gunlaker]

Thanks Gary.

Chris.

[TexasMac]

Guys,

FWIW, during a discussion with Dan Theodore concerning his White Lightning (WL) lube, he confided in me that, based on his understanding of the ingredients in DGL, it would be his choice if WL was not available. Of course, at the time and until his untimely passing, he was making WL.

Wayne

[gunlaker]

Thanks very much Wayne, that is good to hear.

Unfortunately for me, it was cool and damp in Kamloops so there as nothing much for me to learn with respect to fouling control. The Borchardt did shoot quite well at the 880 yard gong so I did learn that my load holds vertical reasonably well.

Chris.

[desert deuce]

Glad to hear that you and the 78 hung in there at Kamloops. I think once it accepts you as a shooting partner and you affectionately discover and accept it's proclivities you two are going to become fast friends.

May we assume you were using DGL on those wonderful new inventions termed GG Boolits? Just cast up a few myself to try with a new lube concoction that another desert dweller shared who is a Master Class Long Range Shooter. Just a little project to amuse myself. The lizard tallow is a bit tough to come by in any quantity though, the rest of the 32 ingredients, not so much.

Kamloops vs Byers.........mmmmm, maybe as different as Long Island, NY and Raton, NM.......

Something to remember: What you need to have depends on where you are and when you need it to do what.