When lubing the base of the minie ball do you fill the base or just make sure it is coated? Is the T.C. lube ok for this? I know there may be something better but right now I am trying to get my Zouave Fired a couple of rounds to get the feel for it. I am going to fire 575 to start with.
Glade to get any help
I dip lube the outside of my Rapine Minies with beeswax/Crisco (proportions will vary with the season) and use pure Crisco in the base. When assembling my rounds I melt the Crisco and use an eyedropper to put about 5 drops in each base cavity. This does not completely fill the base. The more lube on the bullet, the better you can keep the fouling soft. I don't need to clean my musket between relays and waste a lot of caps to clear the vent again.
Jim Burgess, 15th Conn. Vol. Inf.
Well, I shoot FFg so I leave more fouling. I fill the caviey with melted Crisco. I use a restaurant style plastic bottle to hold the melted Crisco and just squeeze in 'til the cavity is full. I dip my minnies in MCM lube.
Greg Ogdan, 11444
110th OVI
About 20 years ago one of the best team shooters I have ever observed (was with the 110th OVI) told me that he had six cookoffs until he started putting a pea sized portion of white lithium grease in the base of his minnies and has not had a cookoff since. Well, I began that procedure based on his advice and after 20 years and surely 20,000+ musket rounds I have not yet had a cookoff (I am knocking on wood with one hand while typing this). I have no idea why, but white lithium grease seems to work. The closest I have been to a cookoff is standing next to shooters who have had one, and that is as close as I ever want to get!
Dominic Infante, 8359V General Sherman's Bodyguard
Ok I am just getting into this, Can you tell me what a cookoff is? Hope this is not to dumb a question.
A cookoff is the powder burning after being poured into the barrel just from something in the barrel. It sends hot, hot, hot black granules out the barrel that will enter the skin of your hand or face if they are over the barrel.
I use white lithium grease in the base of the Minie. But, I have used just lithium grease - the color doesn't matter. Since I started using it, I have never had a cookoff.
I had one cookoff in 37 years. I had a Bill Large barrel with a small cup shaped cavity under the tapped hole for the nipple. After the cookoff I found some buildup accumulated in the hole. After the cookoff, I made sure to clean out that cavity, and I never had another cookoff. I think if there is something in the barrel that reaches the ignition temperature of black powder, it will cookoff. And that something that is hot can be carbon/ash/sulpur or whatever from the powder burning.
I suggest cleaning out the barrel well, and use lithium grease in the base of the bullet. If you don't clean the bottom of the barrel well, the barrel will start to pit. I know soldiers in the Civil War could not do that, but they didn't pay for their barrels. it is a good idea to use gloves without fingers. If you are burned, the palm of the hand will be okay.
If you shoot on a hot day, the lithium grease will not melt like Crisco does.
David
DAVID FRANCE
Dominic,
Maybe the litium grease cools off any hot spots better than Crisco. Could be!
David
DAVID FRANCE
Does anyone use T.C. maxi-lube to lube the sides of the minie ball? Oh I am going to buy some lithium grease Tomorrow. Do you have this problem using Hodgdon's powder?
For what it's worth, when I tried white lithium grease as a base lube, my groups opened up some so I went back to Crisco. And yes, I have had 1 cook off in the 8 years I have been Skirmishing. It was on a bright, humid morning, in practice with the Union Guards, and it was rather surprising, but not injurious.
Greg Ogdan, 11444
110th OVI
I've only had one cookoff in my nearly 40 years of skirmishing and that was not long after I started in the early 1970s. I attribute my cook-off to the use of military patches that tend to fray easily and leave residue behind in the bore that acts as a slow match. I don't think I was using Crisco in the base back then because I was cleaning my Zouave between relays and I don't have to do that now using the Crisco.
The flash point or ignition temperature of black powder is somewhere around 500 degrees F. if I recall correctly and it is next to impossible to get our barrels that hot. Something has to be smoldering in the barrel for a cook-off to occur. It would have to be caked fouling or some other combustible material. I seriously doubt Crisco has anything to do with it despite the anecdotal experiences of some skirmishers.
Let me add that as a regular backstop lead picker, I often find fired minies with a white, gooey substance in the base which I suspect might be lithium grease. Whatever it is, since it is still largely intact, it probably does not contribute much to keeping the fouling soft in the bore.
Jim Burgess, 15th CVI
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