Making your own ball patches. Info needed.

Trying cut my cost. When my name brand round ball patches are gone , I plan on cutting my patches. Like to just cut one size. 50 & 45 cal. Can yall give me the material I should be looking for and dimensions to cut it . I’m sure this has been covered before. But I’m writing all this down. Thank you WarDawg

Blue/white pillow ticking, normally in the .018" thickness.

Red/white pillow tick in .015

Depends what thickness you are currently using.

Walmart sells it by the yard, Johannes, hobby lobby.

I've been experimenting with lubed paper patches, and have been having some pretty good results.

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/loading-paper-patched-ball-tail-up-or-tail-down.182056/

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/...did-you-do-today.134755/page-744#post-2646256

I buy the red striped pillow ticking at Walmart. Wash it it to get the sizing out of it. It measures .015” thick. I then use a Fiskars roller cutter and self healing board to cut it in strips about 1” wide. I cut the fabric so it’s 18–24” long before cutting the strips. Roll em up, rubber band 2-2.5” rolls. After pouring in powder, put strip over muzzle, lube with your choice, set ball on, button starter to seat in muzzle, cut with knife, fully seat charge. Some grind the teeth from circle drills and cut round patches. The blue ticking measures .018-.020” thick. Joann’s #41 drill cloth is used by many. Good luck!

I use #40 cotton drill cloth from JoAnnes for my patching. It runs .016-.018 in thickness. I wash the fabric two times and hang dry. I put several layers of fabric on a board and use a sharpened hole saw in my drill press to make my patches. 1.25" diameter for .45 caliber, 1.5" diameter for .50 & .54, 1.75" for my .58's and 3/4" for my .32's and .36's.

Frontier's said:

Blue/white pillow ticking, normally in the .018" thickness.

Red/white pillow tick in .015

Depends what thickness you are currently using.

Walmart sells it by the yard, Johannes, hobby lobby.

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For the most part, the difference between red striped or blue striped ticking is the color of the threads. Do look for ticking that has the stripes woven in, not printed. Mattress ticking will be thicker than pillow ticking.

JoAnn's cotton drill is about 0.018" thick and is a slightly tighter weave than ticking.

Sometimes a thicker patch is needed and then it's time for a denim or canvas.

Do take a Vernier caliper or micrometer to measure at the store. The sizing will affect the thickness and compressed thickness but gives an initial indication.

This can get way over complicated if you let it. Suggestions on patch material above are good. I like the Joanne's drill but good ticking is fine. Tough and correct thickness FOR YOUR BORE AND BALL is the important thing so it's worthwhile to try different things.

Cutting at the Muzzle is simple and effective. I use a pair of scissors to put a nick in the edge of the material so.as to measure equal to the circumference of the ball and tear it off.

If you are accustomed to using pre cut and pre lubed patches there's no need to make them round. Just snip off squares and pre lube yourself.

I use Joannes #40 cotton drill. Washed and dried, then cut into 1 1/4" squares. I see no difference between square and round so why go through the extra effort?

Don't over complicate it, Dawg. Get you some pillow ticking and be sure you get 100% cotton. If there's any synthetic thread in the cloth, it'll melt in your bore and gum up your barrel. Take it home and wash it with soap and water three times to get the sizing out of the cloth. Then cut it in strips .... some say 1 inch, some go for 1-1/4 inch. Depends on what caliber your shooting. I find that the 1-1/4 inch works well for my .54 and my .620 smoothbore and the smaller calibers too, so that's what I use. As for patch lube, I got spoiled `cause I used
YCA#103 for years and can't get it any more. When I had it I lubed strips of patching, rolled `em up and tucked 2 or 3 in my hunting pouch. Put a roll of dry patching in there too, just in case. Cut at the muzzle. Works every time.

You can cut those strips into squares and pre-lube them. If you are shooting right after you load, you can also leave them dry and pop one in your mouth to wet it while measuring your powder. 1" to 1.25" squares of either red or blue ticking work well for me in my .50cal.

WarDawg said:

Trying cut my cost. When my name brand round ball patches are gone , I plan on cutting my patches. Like to just cut one size. 50 & 45 cal. Can yall give me the material I should be looking for and dimensions to cut it . I’m sure this has been covered before. But I’m writing all this down. Thank you WarDawg

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I have tried everything from pockets cut out of old blue jeans up to including old blue jeans, so I've tried everything from about .012 to .030, and don't you know but all that happened is that it got so darn hard to load that I had to almost drive my round balls down the barrel with a hammer. I was watching that Black Powder Maniac, and he was loading with just a ramrod, so I ordered some .010 patches from eastern Maine that were preluded and started to experiment and discovered that if I keep my powder charge reasonable, as a mainly shoot paper turkeys and a few 3 inch bullseyes fastened to a sheet of cardboard, that they worked pretty darn good. I still use a little starter thingy that I built myself, and then the ramrod but it doesn't take long to load and accuracy is probably as good as I can do anyway as I only shoot my own round balls. In my 50 flintlock, I shoot 55 grains of black. In my 50 percussion I shoot 45 grains of 777. Most of my target work is at 50 yards sometimes a little further just to see what happens. Have killed both deer and antelope. This month at the Turkey shoot in Glasgow Mt, where they pay by the amount of Turkey hits, I got all my entry fee back
. Now back to what I would make patches with, go to a Salvation type store and see if you can get old blue Jean pockets. You can cut them square or round with scissors. That will be about as good as I can tell you you'll have to figure out your own Lube.
Squint

I have found 10 oz denim at hobby lobby. It's about .020 and works better than .022 pillow ticking (which blows out a bit) and it loads easier, it's because of the tighter weave that it doesn't blow holes I think. Hobby Lobby puts it 40% off every other week or so, that make yard 6 or 7 bucks and that's lot off patches.

WarDawg said:

Trying cut my cost. When my name brand round ball patches are gone , I plan on cutting my patches. Like to just cut one size. 50 & 45 cal. Can yall give me the material I should be looking for and dimensions to cut it . I’m sure this has been covered before. But I’m writing all this down. Thank you WarDawg

Click to expand...

I cut blue pillow ticking into about 1" wide strips (yes you should wash it to get the stiff sizing out of it). I'll pull the strip out, rub it in my tin of "Stumpy's Moose Snot" until I feel it coming through the fabric with my thumb, and set it over the muzzle, lubed side down. Then put the ball on top of it and use a short starter to get slightly under the top of the muzzle. Then I cut off the rest of the strip even with the top of the muzzle; put the strip back in my shooting bag; and ram the ball in its patch down onto the powder. This ensures that the patch totally encloses the ball and I don't have to worry about the patch slipping around the side allowing blow-by when I seat it.

I did go through the bit about cutting a lot of patches into specific squares and decided it was more trouble than it was worth, but if you want to go that way, get your self one of those rotating, razor sharp, cutting wheels along with the mat to cut them on. Joann fabrics, New York Fabrics, and and just about any sewing place that carries material has those. Use a yardstick to hold the pillow ticking down and run that wheel down along the edge of the yardstick. It's fast and accurate. Don't make a lot of them until you have figured out what size totally encloses your caliber of lead ball. The mats have ruler marks on them so you can consistently cut them the same size, just line your yardstick (or straightedge) up with the marks. Be really careful with that cutting wheel or you will have red streaks on your patches...ask me how I know.

1st: How thick is your current store bought patches?

That will be the thickness of material you will want to look for unless you want to change ball size and experiment again.
*general starting point:
Ball size + Patch thickness = Bore diameter

2nd: How big are your current store bought patches?

That will be the size you want to cut your patched.
Round or Square or even Daisy shape, I doubt you firearm will care. Even cut srips and cut at the muzzle.

For my 50cal and 45cal they do not like the Same Size patch...well actually "I" do not like as I find the 50cal patches a bit to large forcing the extra material down the barrel however I don't thing the rifles/pistols really care.

My 50cal I use .015 stripped ticking but for my 45cal pistols I use .001.
Reason is due to the size Round Ball I have chosen for each.

Ball size + Patch thickness = Bore diameter.

Some will tell you that you get better accuracy with a tighter load; Ball+Patch= Grater then Bore diameter.
While this may be true; how much banging and hammering do you want to do in order to ram that Ball down (watch out if using a wooden ram rod - Personal Experiance!)

WOW awesome reads I will state for my wads DuroFelt 1/8 thick felt closeouts for muzzleloaders as for patches? I am still working on it so far tee shirt, for my St. Louis Hawken style and my In-Lines works I can admit the results ain`t the greatest

I am leaning towards similar style of the patch cutting

Whether you use pillow ticking, cotton drill, canvas bought from your fabric store it has to be washed to remove the sizing. It will them be soft and accept your patch lube much better. I'd would cut it into 1-1/2" strips and lube and cut at the muzzle until you find the right combination of patch thickness, ball diameter and lube that works for you. Once you got that conquered then you can play around with cutting your own patches to size.

One thing that is important to do is wash the material to remove the sizing.

Also once done rinsing never wring it to dry. This can stretch the fabric and put thin spots in it.

So using the drier ok?