I decided to use a roundball rifle today to test the two. I selected the Traditions Woodsman Hawkins. My percussion Woodsman Hawkins has a 1-66 twist roundball barrel. It is a very good shooter.



The last time I tested the two lubes in a side by side test, I used the Liquid Wrench first. This time I decided to use the Moose Milk first. My only concern was they moose milk would be on a squeaky clean barrel. So I was fully ready to throw out the first shot in both cases.



My rifles shoot card said 90 grains of black powder. So I selected Graf's & Sons 3f black powder, pillow tick patch and Winchester Magnum #11 caps. The firs shot to give you an idea of POA would have been exactly on top of the front sight. Shot #2 was a very slight hang fire, and I do mean very slight. Shots 3-8 were perfect ignition.

Using Rusty Duck Black Off I swabbed the barrel clean. And I do mean a white patch came back white when I was done cleaning the rifle. I let the rifle rest as I sprayed a strip of pillow tick then allowed it to somewhat dry in the sun. I was now ready to shoot.



My POA was right under the green square dead center. The first shot I threw out, because it was again.. a clean barrel. The others did pretty good.

The reason I shot at 35 yards was this is what the card claimed the rifle is sighted in at. See this is my walking around rifle, because it is small, light weight and fast to shoulder. So any shot with this right would be very close. And this was why it was sighted in this way.

Now some observations on the two lubes. I have no idea why this happened, but using the liquid wrench, the first eight inches from the muzzle down were fouled really bad. In fact trying to load the second shot on the fouled barrel, had me very concerned. I had to pound that ball down in, and then use a lot of force on the ramrod. So much so, that I knew I would never be able to load the rifle without the range rod. So I was forced to swab between shots.

This was not the case with the moosemilk. I shot all them rounds with out swabbing. As I said, I have no idea why the liquid wrench was holding the fouling so bad near the muzzle. Other then that it shot very well.

Interesting finding on the fouling Cayugad. I didn't observe that. But I always swab between shots anyway so I wouldn't likely have noticed.

I'm still a Liquid Wrench believer based on my own experience. Now here's a thought. Do you know what patch lube you were using when you worked up that 90 grain load? I wonder if a few grains more or less would make a difference with the LW.

I used liquid moosemilk when I worked up the rifle. I do think that with some adjustment that liquid wrench would shoot even better.

Possibly. But it would be hard to beat that moose milk group.

Have either of you fellas ever substituted 3oz. of Ballistol for the 3oz. of castor oil as called for in the moosemilk recipe?

I love ballistol(other than smell) I mix it 7:1 with water.soak my patches then let them dry.I get better accuracy with that than any other lube I have ever tried.

I just can not stand the smell of Ballistol. That stuff would drive me out of the house. I have never tried it in place of the castor oil in my moose milk.

I kinda like the way it smells.

Funny you mention that Dave, that's exactly how my wife feels about it. I mixed up some moose milk recently and that's what I used....seemed to work fine on it's trial run. Just wondered what some of you fellers thoughts were on using it as a substitute.... BPS

Dave, as I recall, you had the same problem with the fouling on the earlier test with the Liquid Wrench, didn't you? If I were you I'd stick with the moose milk. I haven't tried the MM yet because I have been having good results with olive oil or bore butter.
I think you need to stretch the range a bit out to 50 yds to give a better indication of accuracy.