Been away for awhile. Old computer died and needed time to get familiar with the new one but I'm back. Been doing a lot of shooting as of late. Monthly shoots with the York County Powder Burners up in Limington Maine have taught me a lot about my rifles and how to hone my skills. One thing that I have changed is my reliance on pre-lubed patches. They are convenient but don't give the best accuracy. I have been making my own patches from 100% cotton canvas and pillow ticking and lubing them with Mr. Flintlocks lube or a 3:1 ratio of Ballistol and water. The later improved my groups some but the former really made a difference in group size. I'm going to try Hoppes #9 next as a lube some fellas online say it works well for them. A few of my older rifles that seemed to have lost their luster have been shooting much better with the new patch and lube combos. This winter I hope to get out to a couple of primitive biathlons. Shooting paper targets has made shooting steel quite a bit easier. Well, its good to be back.
Don
I gave up on prelubed patches a long time ago when I learned that the prelubed patches I was using were disintigrating when I shot. I got some pillow ticking and made it into strips and lubed with spit and my shooting improved.
I haven't tried the lubes you mentioned but hand lotion works well when I take time to use it and freshly lubed patches with any one of a number of oily lubes work well for hunting. Water based lubes like hand lotion or spit work fine if you are going to shoot immediately but will dampen your powder or create rust if left in the bore for very long so they have their place but also have their limitations. Avocado oil or olive oil are good light oil lubes and their are plenty of other things that will work.
I've never used any commercial patches lubed nor un-lubed. I started off in the 1960s with cut up T-shirts, various cotton scraps and stuff like that. But eventually I got religion and started buying decent material from Walmart, Joann's and other places and cut my own. Lubes started with spit and eventually included a variety of stuff. Soon I settled on Hoppes BP Patch Lube for general use and TOW mink oil for the bush. I even occasionally used DGW's "Black Solve" with great results.
I'm going to resurrect an old thread by saying that I too started with prelubed patched and it wasn't until I learned how to cut at the muzzle that began to test patch lubes. Pillow/mattress ticking works for me and using a little JB's Bore Past on the ticking patch definitely helped break in the new barrel. I've used olive oil, beeswax and olive oil and Ballistol/water mix with great success.
I started cutting at the muzzle , then few years later tried pre lubed patches, after about a year of pre cut pre lubed I switched back ! one of the reasons I dont used a loading block ! and I did try them out as well ! guess they`re alright if you need a quick second shot , but I just was`nt happy with them !