Bear grease as a component of bullet lube

Chris

Well-Known Member
I know there are members here who have deeply investigated bullet lube components, so I wonder if anyone may have knowledge of the use of bear oil.

I did some poking around the internet and don't come up with much. The stuff is well known as a leather conditioner, base for salves, hair grease, etc. The bullet lube references generally seem to use it in lard-based (or Crisco) lubes, or as a substitute for lard. Emmert's lube, I think was mentioned. They also seem to like it as a patch grease for muzzleloaders. The black powder shooters like a lot of grease in their lubes to keep the fouling soft, so bear oil could work well here mixed with a little beeswax.

I rendered a gallon of oil. The stuff is liquid at room temperature with a viscosity of mineral oil. Turns harder in the cold but not as hard as lard or bacon grease. I accidentally got it warm and it smokes a bit at 375 degrees.

I know there are tests for physical properties, viscosity, lubricity, and others. I wonder what this stuff compares to? Anybody know? I hesitate to just say it's another animal fat, since all animal fats do not have the same properties, and neither do vegetable oils... peanut oil is very different from olive oil.

Am I correct in saying that this oil is useful for softening wax based lubes? How do you suppose it compares to vaseline as an agent? Any place where this might be particularly useful, maybe cold weather lubes?
 

Ian

Notorious member
I was wondering if you were going to save the fat, glad to year you did because bear grease isn't available commercially.

What I used in lube was some Grizzly fat salvaged from the toe pads of a hide my fur-dresser friend was processing for a client. Got about half a cup of the stuff rendered and it is the berries for leather conditioning. IIRC I just softened some beewax with it and let it go at that, it did fine in my 45/90 with Pyrodex Rifle, but no better than Emmert's....though I can say that straight bear grease really is the rust-inhibitor that it is cracked up to be. Bear grease is kind of like cow leg fat in that it has a lower congeal point than most other animal fats, not sure it is any advantage in bullet lube. Also, the stuff is incredibly slippery, so it might not make the best smokeless powder lube, but I never tried it.
 

358156 hp

At large, whereabouts unknown.
IIRC, Veral Smith uses it for everything he possibly can, spindle oil, cutting oil, that sort of thing. As far as using it for bullet lube, I suspect Ian, Pete, & Fiver would be the top candidates.
 

Chris

Well-Known Member
I'm interested in Pete's 4 quarters lube recipe, specifically for possible cold weather and first shot to aim possibilities. Wonder whether it would aid in achieving those? I don't understand the role of ester oils in lube, would the bear oil accomplish similar (or better)?

I imagine Pete will be along after a bit.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
I would be mostly parroting Elmer Keith in anything I could say about using bear tallow for bullet lube.
I have used the cow foot stuff and it is quite similar to the sulpher ester oils in how it feels and how it reacts with bees-wax.
as far as using it for smokeless it would work but I wouldn't use it as a 50-50 mix or anything like that.
I would use it to replace both the atf and 2 stroke in my simple lube.[half the volume of the 2 combined]
I'd also use it in case/swaging lube, mixed with lanolin and castor oil at about 10% by volume.
the stuff is slick and has a pretty thick film to it, I would under shoot it's volume when used in a bullet lube.
 

Chris

Well-Known Member
Wax softeners: how does vaseline compare with various oils in this role?

I believe I understand and have experienced lube purging and the concept of CORE makes sense to me. "Slippery oils" can cause problems, and if I understand you right bear fat should be used in moderation because it is slippery like castor oil? Does vaseline soften waxes without causing lube purging or problems with CORE?
 

Eutectic

Active Member
I'm interested in Pete's 4 quarters lube recipe, specifically for possible cold weather and first shot to aim possibilities. Wonder whether it would aid in achieving those? I don't understand the role of ester oils in lube, would the bear oil accomplish similar (or better)?

I imagine Pete will be along after a bit.
Bear oil I haven't tried......

Veral Smith likes it for everything according to 358156 hp....... It must be unique in some way. I lived and worked in Superior, Montana in the 60's. I had a good friend there I shot and hunted with named George. Most seasons George's Mom would "pressure" George to get a bear..... A fat bear! I asked George if she liked the meat....... "She likes the fat!" George laughed. "Why?" I asked.... George told me she rendered it down.... Then she would deep fry with it..... Not everything; but her fine pastries that raised to light fluffiness! She would win the baking award almost every year at the Missoula County fair for her light fluffy pastries. George's Mom had learned a secret..... Pastries WOULD NOT absorb ANY grease when deep fried in the bear oil!

So it seems Veral Smith and George's Mom knew bear oil has unique qualities........ For this reason alone Chris YOU SHOULD WORK WITH IT!!!! If it were me I'd add some (little amounts) for part of the Vaseline % and see what happens! Maybe 4Q can go through a metamorphosis and be better than sliced bread! (or even fine pastry)

Pete
 
FWIW "Bear Grease" is pretty much a misnomer, bear fat will render straight to oil from body heat while you handle it, as for rendering it like pig fat and making lard, it liquifies at a much lower temperature. The Old wives tails about it being the best pastry oil is indeed true, it does like a post above and if the temperature is any where near frying temp it won't soak in. It has almost no flavor to alter the recipe, and has a high smoke point.

The reason it works so well for softening leather is it is a very fine oil and penetrates readily, displaces water and lubricates the fibers so they don't chafe against themselves.

How it would work as a bullet lube, I have no clue and cannot offer any facts.

I offer all of the above from experience and not hearsay. Back in my early days there was a bounty on bears and we were encouraged to do away with as many as we could, they were classified as vermin. This was in Southern Oregon in the sixties, I killed 26 one year from May to October, there was always someone who wanted some bear meat and I fixed them up with plenty.

MOB
 

Edward R Southgate

Component Hoarder Extraordiniare
MOB , FWIW I love the meat and would love to have some of the oil but we have no bears in my part of Tennessee and I rarely have time or energy to go to East Tennessee to hunt them . Maybe in a few years when I retire I can get me one with my dads 38-55 High Wall .

Eddie
 
Eddie,
I have found that there are two times of the years that bear meat is at it's optimum, early spring just as they are leaving hibernation while they still carry winters fat reserves and are purging on grass, it is something akin to a tonic. They will usually spend a week maybe two eating grass in large quantities. Many people are under the impression that they use all their fat reserves over the winter, but really they loose most of the fat after waking and spring offers little food, the reserves help get them through until food becomes more plentiful.

The second time of year here, is late September until snow flies and they are feeding on acorns, this is the equivalent to graining and finishing off a beef shortly before you butcher it.

I do indeed hope you get a chance at a nice bear, before you retire, and the 38-55 has harvested more than a few.

MOB
 

JonB

Halcyon member
Long before I ever cast my own bullet or even a round ball, I was shooting Muzzle-loaders (early 1990s). A good friend told me Bear grease was "THEE Thing" for patch lube and he gave me a small open top pail that was half full, he said it had been in the cold corner of his cellar for more than a decade, probably two. It stunk, but good. He told me to fry some Tators, and that'd clear up the rancid smell. I did that...sadly I did that in the house, boy did the house stink after that. The bear grease still smelled rancid.

A couple years later, a co-worker went bear hunting...He got a bear. He saved my some of the fat, on my request, so I could render it. He gave me a 5 gallon bucket of smelly meat/hide covered fat. What a mess that was. Rendering it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be...I didn't have large cooking vessels back then, so I did several small batches. At least the end product didn't smell that bad, I ended up with about a gallon of grease. It was a thick white grease at room temp. I had never heard of Bear oil before? I then processed (pressure canned) the grease in one Qt canning jars for long term storage, after the jars cooled to room temp, they were half clear oil and half white grease. So I learned then what bear oil was. That was 25 years ago, I still have two sealed Qts left and a partial open container in the freezer.

I have never experimented with it as a lube ingredient, I've just used it "straight" for patch lube for RB, and I also use it like gun oil on my muzzle loader guns. I've thought about mixing it 50-50 with Beeswax to make a lube for ML conical bullet, but the little bit I shoot those, I've just used TC's wonder lube, and I haven't used up the first container of that, that was bought in 1990, so I haven't had a need to make any.
 

Paden

Active Member
Is always sad to hear stories of poorly cared for meat, or in this case fat. It all needs to treated with the same care and respect, kept clean and cooled as quickly as possible. It shouldn't stink! Render it low and slow and do not scorch it! Filter and pour into glass jars; seal airtight and keep in the freezer. Best pastry shortening known to man!
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Any natural lube grease is going to eventually go rancid, and likely cause corrosion, too.
Not for me unless it were after TSHTF and I am desperate to grease patches for my
muzzle loader or something.

Bill
 

JonB

Halcyon member
Bill, Maybe you are correct?
But the same 3 steel ML guns that I've owned since early/mid 1990s, remain rust-free to this day (25 years of using Bear grease exclusively) as patch lube and as a gun lube.
Now, I have seen verdigris on some of the gun leather that has brass rivets and such...I use bear grease on most all of my leather items...the verdigris maybe due to bear grease? or just the natural stuff already in animal hide?
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
If you don't see it in many years, then seems like actual data proves my guess
to be wrong, for ML use. So many natural products contain salts, that was the basis for my
guess.

If it doesn't, it doesn't. Facts and experience always trump guesses.

As far as going rancid, AFAIK all natural oil and greases eventually go rancid. Perhaps something
in bear grease is different. Again, experience versus extrapolation from other natural oils
and greases. Also, I have no access to it, so wouldn't normally have any way to try it out.

My point of corrosion was more thinking of inside the case of loaded ammo as a lube ingredient than for
ML application. Clearly when cleaning up the BP crud, you are pretty likely to eliminate traces of
salts from the lube.

Bill
 

Ian

Notorious member
Have kept my 1874 Shiloh sharps spotless with straight bear oil in the bore for storage, have shot a lot of Pyrodex and black, going on ten years now. It's traditional, seems to work, so I don't mess with it. Sample of one, never left for more than a year at a stretch without inspection, kept in heated safe with no other dessicants, so take it FWIW.

I rendered the Alaska grizzly fat myself, it was rancid and had been frozen in the hide for a long time when I got it from my furdresser friend. Reeks to high heaven. Great for leather, mix it with beeswax to make a salve and restored many old dry leather items with it. Wonderful on boots, but I've worn them around dogs and almost without fail the poor pooches lose their minds when they catch a whiff, either they run away or get super-aggressive. Primal programming in the genetics maybe?
 

Chris

Well-Known Member
There seems to be a mystique regarding bear oil and its qualities. Heard lots of anecdotes, have little experience except that bear I shot previously made great pastries. Excellent deep frying oil, but I have no idea why. I'm going to try it in some lube recipes.

We had a bear roast for 13 people at Christmas and it was outstanding, even the "millenial" generation took second helpings.