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Question about silicone or baby powder on bags.

40X Guy

Yesterday at a GH match I noticed my rifle was torquing slightly on recoil (6.5X47L) and simply was not sliding as it has been recently. Rifle has a 3 inch wide Stockade stock. I was wondering if a combo of higher humidity and possibly me over applying the silicone spray made it act weird? Can you apply too much silicone and will it build up? I am thinking of going back to baby or talcum powder, or should I try the stock tape? Just wondering out loud what forum members are using for consistent results? I forgot to mention that I am using Cordura Edgewood front and rear bags.

Frank
 
humidity will change the way it tracks slips/sticks a bit. NO baby powder! and make sure you let the silicone get nice and dry.

JB
 
Thanks for replies guys!, I am spraying bags just before I lay rifle on them, so possibly I should spray the day before? And I was just looking at the stock tape in Sinclair catalog, can I use the tape in conjunction with the Kel Silicone, or just the tape with no spray?

Frank
 
I believe I tried them all, including Kel-F silicone, Sinclairs Bag Wax, even pure Teflon powder that piano tuners use.....they are all good, but their effectiveness degrades over time. The MOST CONSISTANT I have found is WELL-USED anti-static dryer sheets, such as Bounce, layed over both bags, doesn't matter leather or cordura......along with regular waxing the riflestock. An added bonus is the sheets offer an added layer of protection from grit which bags seem to attract, or perhaps sand dust migrating through the bags themselves, and prevent those tiny scratches to the stock finish. And you can't beat the price.
 
When using silicone I spray on a cloth and rub the cordura with it, then let it dry a few days. Same for the forend. Works for me most of the time. If silicone is sprayed direct onto cordura silicone will take ages to dry. Oddly enough one rifle stays slippery when it gets humid but the other rifle doesn't. I suspect that the silicone may be softening the finish on the problem rifle. When the humidity stickyness problem shows up I use the dryer sheet trick.
Baby powder on rear leather bag most of the time but dryer sheet is always at the ready in case of problems. Maybe I should just use dryer sheet all the time.
 
First of all, do the stock tape, then hit the cordura with Silicone or Sailcote (a good teflon spray). The latter works really well. If you want to make the tape slicker, try spraying a little Pledge (furniture cleaner/wax) on it and then wipe most of it off with a soft cloth. As a friend once pointed out, you really don't want to get Pledge on a smooth floor and then try to walk on it with gym socks. You will very likely end up on your backside.
 
I have been using my leftover hBN on my bags. Slicker than ice, repels virtually everything, and stays put. I have not yet recoated the bags. They are as slick today as they were when I applied it.
 
Thanks everyone! You guys are the best! I never imagined HBN but makes sense, i will be hitting up the wifes cleaning supply closet for Pledge furniture polish, and will order some tape from Sinclair. Boyd, whereabouts does one find Sailcote? I have never heard of it.

Frank
 
http://www.mclubemarine.com/sailkote/ Sorry about the misspell, although even with that, Google got me there.
HBN stands for hexagonal boron nitride, a dry powder lubricant that has seen recent use for coating bullets, by such notables as David Tubb.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boron_nitride
I tried it on bags, and although it works, I was not particularly impressed, which means that I guess that I have several lifetime supplies.
 
About the idea of Pledge on stock tape, it is surprising that such expensive tape would need help. Why not just wax the stock?
We often have over 80% relative humidity around here and just about everything ends up feeling clammy and sticky. Even silicones and waxes seem to loose their slipperyness at these extreme levels of humidity. Wish I had a solution other than moving to Arizona. :)
 
About the Sailkote...a couple of really good shooters (one is in the record book) put me on to it, and I have used it as well. As for the durability of Pledge, I only need it to make it through an agg. and again, I have seen a very good shooter use it. It was not my intent to conduct an industrial product review, just to list what I have tried, and how it worked. As for stock tape being expensive....I don't know where to go with that. To me, it is just a cost of the hobby, and a lot easier to replace than a worn stock finish. So, you have used Sailcote on cordura bags, and Pledge on a stock? We are in a much drier climate, central California. 90 degrees and 90% I understand, being from central Oklahoma, with family in Louisiana. It is different.
 
Yes Boyd.... I, (while living in Phoenix) along with a number of the regulars at Ben Avery tried the Pledge and anything else available at the time on our stocks. I have tried the Sailkote on the cordura simply because I had a can of it to use on the outriggers on my boat. I was not impressed with either application. After successfully experimenting with other uses for the hBN, I haven't looked back. I have gone as far as to remove the grease from my big reels and coat the gears and shaft with hBN.
 
Interesting....I would like to learn more about your application method for the reel and press parts. I put some HBN in a dab of STOS and it really slicked up my bolts. Don't know what gets the credit, the STOS, the additive, or the combination.
 
I believe the credit would have to be divided equally between the two Boyd. I use a Thumlers tumbler with a larger diameter drum that I fabricated from aluminum. I use a liberal amount of hBN in the process because I am not concerned with a build up. For the rams, I clean them, hit them with a very fine 3M pad just enough to create a bit of cross hatch pattern, then tumble for a few hours with ceramic media. My method for the shafts and gears are basically the same as above, but I use smaller jars so that the teeth on the gears are not clashing against one another. The coating has also proven to be a great rust preventive. Though it leaves a bit of a discoloration on rubber, I use it on all of the seals on my boat. They no longer dry out and crack.
 
Sorry to the op but I am very interested in slicking up my actions (and bags).
If I wanted to coat my action and bolt, What is the proceedure? Do I put one at a time in a jar filled with ceramic media and hbn then into my tumbler? Where do I buy ceramic media and hbn? Do you have some you want to get rid of Boyd?

I love the ideas for hbn, dies, shafts and gears. Does it work on plastics, teflon, nylon and such?

I'll just do a search on it, just looking for some quick info and experience, thanks.

Jim
 
Re stock tape, I thought it was used because of its anti friction characteristics. Considering the price of a few inches of the stuff I expect that it would out-perform anything else. It is not too expensive if it works. But if it needs to be coated with something else then why bother with the tape (even if it sells like crazy)?
With all the other efforts we are talking about to treat the bags and stocks, the concept of a stock finish wearing out from riding in the bags is difficult to grasp, but that's a different issue.
 
40X Guy said:
Just wondering out loud what forum members are using for consistent results? I forgot to mention that I am using Cordura Edgewood front and rear bags.
Click to expand...

Regardless of whether you use anything on your bags [Tony Boyer recommends in his new book using nothing, just brushing the Cordura with a brush to keep it clean] stock tape on your stock, fore and aft, is always a good idea.

That's my current set up, and it works just fine.
 
Wow! A wealth of knowledge on this subject. I try to subscribe to the KISS method and will probably eliminate the stock tape from further review. I did go to Walmart today and buy a can of Lemon Pledge and was the only one in the household cleaning section today on the 235th birthday of the Republic! I am going to clean stock and Pledge it plus continue with the Silicone. No worries here about anyone cutting in on my OP. We are all involved in this to make groups shrink and I hope everyone has a great 4th of July! :) ;) I have to agree with and like Tozguy's post about why bother with the stock tape if it is only insulating your stock from something else being applied? I am not too worried about good looks, way more worried about function and simplicity.

Frank
 
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