Well, I believe the liquid base for Sheath is some sort of alcohol or other volatile substance, as it seems to dry out completely in a day or less after application. I have not found it necessary to dry patch a bore before loading up again after using it, but I sometimes do swab a bore with a dry patch, more out of old habit than anything else, and just to reassure myself that nothing's rusting inside... also another old habit! However, when I swab the bore with a clean, dry patch after leaving Sheath in the bore for several days, NONE of the patches has ever come out with any kind of liquid on it, Sheath, oil, water, alcohol, orange juice, or a cool Jacks!

I use Bore Butter for lube and Sheath for rust.

I am one of the ones that still uses BB in both my sidehammers andinlines + plus my trap guns. BB melts the plastic fouling in the chokes (you won't believe how much plastic fouling is reduced in your screw in chokes) and reduces the apparent plastic fouling that you are suppose to get from the sabots in ML'ers.

I have not read all the post in this string so I do not where the sentiments lie, I do know that it works for me and has not presented me any problems. I beleive I have been using it for about 7-8 years nows in 10 different ML'ers that I own.

I do not get plastic fouling or even the crude ring shooting t7 in any of the ML'ers. I very seldom if ever need to use a bronze bore brush or anything abrasive in the barrels. I believe that BB and in combintion with a good light weight bore oil, that my barrels are protected.

I know this is and will continue to be a discussed topic and people are going to do what has worked for them or what ever advise they have received from another "professional."

I think thebiggest difference that exists is the method that the BB is applied. It took me a couple of years to work up an application method that seems to work for me. I wish I could find a copy of the steps on one of the many different sites that I have written this same reply so I could just copy it here....

I do believe if you apply it to a hot barrel it will be sucked into the pores of the metal. I have conventinal steel barrels, green mountain barrels, factory barrels TC, CVA, & Austin Halleck, also Stainless Steel barrels on a couple of inlines. Using the hot application I have seen it disappear into the barrels.

I do not BB everytime I clean, only the times that I use boiling water and really heat the barrels. Immediately afer swabbing the barrels with boiling water I will run a dry patch down and completely dry the barrel. Then while the barrel is still hot but dry I will apply a BB to abore swab and run that downin and out of the barrel, usually more than one time. When the brush comes out it will come out completely dry and sucked clean of bore butter. Then swab the barrel again to get any excess out. Allow the barrel to cool and swab (dry patch) again to get any excess BB butter. After the barrel has cooled enough to handle with bare hands I do apply bore oil.

I also do not shoot a perfectly clean or dry barrel barrel. During hunting season my barrel will have a light light coat of bore oil and in combination with the bb in the pores and the light coat of oil I am confident in its protection and it's accuracy.

This treatment has given me outstanding accuracy and protection for several years now in rotten Idaho winter weather and spring/fall target shooting.

Remember this works for me, but may not give you the same results. I shoot only sabotted bullets and t7 in all of the ML'ers and I shoot a lot, except during the summer. I always am somewhat reluctant to flat out say this but - I do not have a problem with plastic fouling or the crud ring, because tomorrow when i go to shoot you know what is going to happen... Cleaning for me is not a real chore, well it is a chore compared to my centerfires, but it is not a nightmare.

Good luck to all this hunting season

I have a small can of crisco grease I use and it work's good I never had a problem and it clean's up well with hot soapy water..

This is probably similar to what the mountain men used a hundred years ago. And probably still works . . . .

Big country,I found out many years ago in my 58cal Zouve with a 500 gr,minni ball with a cavity base.I used crisco cooking lard in it and it works great and is better than bore butter. vangunsmith

When me and a buddy first started shooting muzzleloader, we got in trouble with the lady of the house because we took her Crisco without asking. Well even if we had asked she'd of turned us down.

Worst part was when she came out to the range in the yard and saw it there on the picnic table. I will never forget the look on her face. She screamed at my buddy, "Is that mine?" He just smiled and said, "Not any more."

Actually Crisco works good until the weather gets warm or you start shooting a lot and the barrel gets hot. Then it starts to melt in the bore over the powder charge. I just never thought that was a good thing. Bore Butter for years was the thing to use. Then I started having troubles with that, moved away from it, and never looked back.

I own 4 sidelocks and found this out just last week. I use bore butter and will continue after I found this out. Last weekend, I shot my .50 t/c hawken flinter, .50 t/c hawken percussion, and .54 t/c renegade percussion. The flinter I've had for years, the hawken percussion I only shot a couple of times, and the .54 renegade was brand new and cleaned with a solution of 50/50 windex and alcohol to get rid of any oils.
After the shooting session I put some hot soapy water in a bucket, brushed and swabbed all the barrels then rinsed with hot clean water.
I then preceeded to run patches thru the barrels - both dry patches and ones soaked with #13 BP solvent.
The flinter barrel patches came out clean after only a few swabs. The hawken perc. took a few more patches to clean and the renegade was a mess.
IMO the bore butter does 'season' the barrel and inhibits rust and makes cleaning much faster.

After over three decades of muzzleloading, the most important thing here is care for your muzzeloader regardless of what lube you use.

That said, I've never bought into the "seasoning" thing. In fact, I have removed this seasoning (which is little more than buildup within the bore) on several ML's over the years to return them to accuracy. Seasoning is also more beneficial to cast iron (like my pans), not the modern steels of today.

For a shooting lubricant bore butter is fine (although Rooster Labs lubes are better) for patch, conical and field lubrication.

Why? Because Natural Lubes don't coke up and tar within the bore like synthetic or petroleum lubes when shooting black or substitute powders.

However for long term protection against corrosion, bore butter is better than nothing but Otis 085 Ultra Bore and Clenzoil are vastly superior and not even in the same category. The best lubes for corrosion protection are lubes that displace moisture.

I've used Clenzoil since the late 60's and Otis Ultra Bore for six years now.
Bore Butter's do not displace moisture.

To get ready for shooting:
Non-natural lubes need to be removed from the bore prior to shooting. Easy, take a couple of good bore solvent or alcohol & Windex patch or two and in a minute all of the oils are removed. Then dry patch followed by a natural lubed patch to protect against flash rust.

I'm with "Roundball", I'm not trying to change anyone's maintenance procedures.

The most important thing is to care for your muzzleloader like you have never cared for any other weapon. As soon as you are finished shooting and even if you have only fired one time, detail clean it and care for it and it will last.

I always use boiling hot soapy water (laundry detergent) for cleaning and then alcohol patches for moisture evaportation while everything is hot.

Then dry patches and then Otis inside and Clenzoil everywhere else.

M2C & Best,

I don't use anything else for lubing or for barrel protection . I do use a different anti-sieze grease for the nipple and breech plug though .