Bore Butter really puzzled me for a while and it was all I used to use. I knew the rifle bore was clean before I swabbed it out with bore butter. And I shoot a lot. None of my rifles really go into storage for more then a couple weeks unless they are center fire.

Anyway, I would bring out a bore butter gun and swab the barrel first to remove any extra bore butter and I almost always got a tobacco stain colored patch out of it. I asked a gun smith about it once, and he had no idea but said, maybe the bore butter changes colors as it ages.. Sounded reasonable.

Then as time went, and more and more bore butter was used, my accuracy began to drop off. In fact I was at a deer camp and shot at a little buck not more then 40 yards away. I had that deer dead to rights. He dropped like a rock, then jumped up and took off. As he ran off, I could see his side, and he was hit low and back. And I knew I was not aiming there.

So I walked back to camp a little upset. And to get help for the long track job. An old friend of mine was at camp and he'd shot muzzleloaders since he was a kid. I told him what happened. First thing he asked me was, do you use bore butter? I told him I did, so he had me take a pop at a target we had at camp and it was very low and left.

He then told me we had to clean my rifle. So I water bathed it and then he handed me a bore brush and some solvent (which I used to think was a no no). I scrubbed the rifle clean. Then we boiled the barrel with water. It looked like ear wax floating out of that barrel. He then had me oil the bore, and then alcohol it back out. The next shot at the target was dead center. He then told me that the tobacco stain patches were actually rusted water in the bore butter. And that bore butter builds up in bores and basically turns your rifle into a smooth bore. Hence the accuracy disappears. So it has to be cleaned out.

I never used it again since that day. We walked that buck down. It took me two miles and we recovered him about 10:00 pm. We wereunarmed (illegal to carry guns at night). He was still very much alive. But he was hurt pretty bad and had kind of went a little stiff (he was dying). So I took care of him. Then we had to drag him out of a swamp. I was worried the coyotes would have had him before morning.

I will be the last person to talk someone out of using something they believe in. It just will not go back in my rifles as something to protect it with.