Canola oil and black powder?

[Nickle]

Have  any of you tried using canola oil for lube on you vintage black powder gun? In my area canola oil is cheap and plenty.  It's basically main ingredient in cooking sprays.

I normally like to leave hoppes9 (kerosene)in barrels just to have bit of rust protection.  Plus it cleans .

But petroleum oil if you shoot the gun with it in the barrel really makes the fouling worse.

Black powder lubes are natural like tallow and bees wax. I'm just wondering if a patch of canola oil in the barrel would help with fouling?  The cooking spray canola would be handy to spray around cylinder for lube and protection.  

My gun is original 1880 manufactured with nickle steel.  I'm not if the nickle finish makes a difference or not.

Yes I know you are supposed to wipe cylinder and barrel perfectly clean etc.

I like to store guns with a bit of rust protection.  Sometimes I just grab a gun in a hurry and shoot stuff. Hoppes9 doesn't cause any troubles and I've been doing it all my life

[Rip Snorter]

Used Crisco years ago - haven't shot the black in ages.  Got rid of nearly all of the guns.

[J-BAR #18287]

PAM cooking spray is essentially canola oil, and it works dandy as a patch lube in my Hawken .58 rifle.

 

For long term storage I swab the barrel with a light coat of conventional CLP, which is removed with dry patches before the next shot is fired the following season.

[Chickasaw Bill SASS #70001]

I use Bore Butter soaked patches 

 

 a tube lasts a long time , 

 

also use it to protect the wood stock 

 

  CB 

[Colorado Coffinmaker]

 

Mobil 1 Synthetic Motor Oil

[Texas Joker]

50/50 olive oil and bees wax.

 

Works for patches. Leater. And chapstick/windburn.

[Nickle]

3 hours ago, Colorado Coffinmaker said:

 

Mobil 1 Synthetic Motor Oil

So synthetic works differently than conventional oil if you shoot black powder with the oil in the barrel? 

[Nickle]

5 minutes ago, Texas Joker said:

50/50 olive oil and bees wax.

 

Works for patches. Leater. And chapstick/windburn.

Ever use olive oil without the bees wax for bore protection and lube if you fired a black powder round through it with  the olive oil in the barrel? 

[Warden Callaway]

4 hours ago, Colorado Coffinmaker said:

 

Mobil 1 Synthetic Motor Oil

 

14 hours ago, Chickasaw Bill SASS #70001 said:

I use Bore Butter soaked patches 

 

 a tube lasts a long time , 

 

also use it to protect the wood stock 

 

  CB 

Ditto

[Eyesa Horg]

Lucas synthetic Gun Oil works well too.

I use Eezox for barrel protection and wipe down, and it works excellent and is also a good cleaner. Available from Amazon.

[Subdeacon Joe]

Lard.

[Colorado Coffinmaker]

 

Nickle

 

YES!!  Synthetic Lubricants react much differently with Black Powder as opposed to Petroleum Oils.

[Cowtown Scout, SASS #53540 L]

The main thing is not to use a petroleum based product.

[Texas Joker]

7 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

Lard.

Got to be careful of the salt content

[Cemetery]

On 3/2/2025 at 11:26 AM, Nickle said:

Have  any of you tried using canola oil for lube on you vintage black powder gun? In my area canola oil is cheap and plenty.  It's basically main ingredient in cooking sprays.

I normally like to leave hoppes9 (kerosene)in barrels just to have bit of rust protection.  Plus it cleans .

But petroleum oil if you shoot the gun with it in the barrel really makes the fouling worse.

Black powder lubes are natural like tallow and bees wax. I'm just wondering if a patch of canola oil in the barrel would help with fouling?  The cooking spray canola would be handy to spray around cylinder for lube and protection.  

My gun is original 1880 manufactured with nickle steel.  I'm not if the nickle finish makes a difference or not.

Yes I know you are supposed to wipe cylinder and barrel perfectly clean etc.

I like to store guns with a bit of rust protection.  Sometimes I just grab a gun in a hurry and shoot stuff. Hoppes9 doesn't cause any troubles and I've been doing it all my life

 

I used all kinds of stuff, cheap cooking oils (but using Olive Oil gave me a hankerin' for fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil), fresh bacon fat, Crisco and beeswax.

 

When I had original Winchester rifles, I used Ballistol in the barrel and lifter area, and white lithium grease on the toggles and such.

 

With my cap and ball guns, I used either cooking oil lubed wads, or tallow/beeswax blend smeared across the cylinder face.  For cleaning I use industrial cleaning wipes from Home Depot (also handy around the kitchen), afterwards I wiped the barrels out with Qmaxx Black Diamond, Gunzilla or Eezox.  Same goes for rifle and shotgun.  Guts of all my guns are lubed with white lithium grease.

[Subdeacon Joe]

48 minutes ago, Texas Joker said:

Got to be careful of the salt content

 

 

There are several brands that don't have salt.

[Rooster Ron Wayne]

I have gotten lazy in my old age .

I just use Ballistal for everything now .

Zero issues. 

Not the cheapest way out .

But I know my investment is protected. 

Rooster 

[Nickle]

19 hours ago, Rooster Ron Wayne said:

I have gotten lazy in my old age .

I just use Ballistal for everything now .

Zero issues. 

Not the cheapest way out .

But I know my investment is protected. 

Rooster 

I never see balistal for sale retail in my part of Alberta.  I know it because I see Hickok 45 and Mike Bellevue using it.  Shipping would be to expensive because spray can and stupid regulations. 

Is all balistal the same?  What makes it different than gun oil that would cause more black powder fouling?  I guess it's synthetic and that makes it good? Example oil like 3 and 1 oil gels up over time so it's not a good gun oil. 

I know regular Lithium grease is the worse thing in the world for bullet lube and black powder.  You would be better off shooting unlubed bullets! 

[J-BAR #18287]

21 minutes ago, Nickle said:

I never see balistal for sale retail in my part of Alberta.  I know it because I see Hickok 45 and Mike Bellevue using it.  Shipping would be to expensive because spray can and stupid regulations. 

Is all balistal the same?  What makes it different than gun oil that would cause more black powder fouling?  I guess it's synthetic and that makes it good? Example oil like 3 and 1 oil gels up over time so it's not a good gun oil. 

I know regular Lithium grease is the worse thing in the world for bullet lube and black powder.  You would be better off shooting unlubed bullets! 

A page from the Ballistol MSDS:

 

 

Ballistol is primarily medical grade (food grade) mineral oil.  If you can't get the real stuff, you might try edible mineral oil (drugstore) as a substitute.  I haven't done this, but it seems reasonable.

[Cowtown Scout, SASS #53540 L]

Ballistol also comes in a non spray can of liquid.  I use that on rags for wiping and mix with water in a generic plastic spray bottle for use in cleaning.

[Nickle]

I'm going to have to look into this. Mineral oil is everywhere here in different grades from the drugstore where my wife works to UFA agriculture store that sells different grades. 

For black powder lube or to use oil in your barrel there apparently is a big difference between synthetic and conventional oil. If I Google Mineral oil it just says it's comes from refining petroleum.  

[J-BAR #18287]

7 minutes ago, Nickle said:

I'm going to have to look into this. Mineral oil is everywhere here in different grades from the drugstore where my wife works to UFA agriculture store that sells different grades. 

For black powder lube or to use oil in your barrel there apparently is a big difference between synthetic and conventional oil. If I Google Mineral oil it just says it's comes from refining petroleum.  

One of the nice properties of Ballistol is being able to dissolve in water.  I suspect the addition of those alcohols helps it mix with water.  You might have to experiment with some additives to the mineral oil to get it to behave like Ballistol.  Good luck!

 

 

 

Edited March 5 by J-BAR #18287

[ORNERY OAF]

I use butter flavored Frisco, smells good mixed with the holy!

[DeaconKC]

3 hours ago, ORNERY OAF said:

I use butter flavored Frisco, smells good mixed with the holy!

Frisco with smoke!

[Kid Rich]

On 3/5/2025 at 8:21 AM, Nickle said:

I never see balistal for sale retail in my part of Alberta.  I know it because I see Hickok 45 and Mike Bellevue using it.  Shipping would be to expensive because spray can and stupid regulations. 

Is all balistal the same?  What makes it different than gun oil that would cause more black powder fouling?  I guess it's synthetic and that makes it good? Example oil like 3 and 1 oil gels up over time so it's not a good gun oil. 

I know regular Lithium grease is the worse thing in the world for bullet lube and black powder.  You would be better off shooting unlubed bullets! 

I use black lithium grease mixed with beeswax for my BP lube in my 45/90 and 45/70 and have for years. Makes the best BP lube I have used. Red lithium grease in my cap and ball revolvers for lube, works great.

kR

[Nickle]

I was with a guy who was letting me try his cap and ball gun. We ran out of lard so we tried Lithium grease from a grease gun he had in his truck.  We put the Lithium grease over the balls. What a disaster. We only fired 6 shots. Bore was plugged with fouling.  Hard to clean it out. 

[Rooster Ron Wayne]

Balestall or 

Lard and Beeswax for me !

Edited March 9 by Rooster Ron Wayne

[Kid Rich]

11 hours ago, Nickle said:

I was with a guy who was letting me try his cap and ball gun. We ran out of lard so we tried Lithium grease from a grease gun he had in his truck.  We put the Lithium grease over the balls. What a disaster. We only fired 6 shots. Bore was plugged with fouling.  Hard to clean it out. 

Some of the "lithium" is a blend of regular grease and lithium.

kR

[Nickle]

11 hours ago, Kid Rich said:

Some of the "lithium" is a blend of regular grease and lithium.

kR

I googled and you are right. Can be either regular or synthetic oil.  The regular oil based grease we used on that cap gun really plugged the barrel really bad really fast with fouling.