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Making your own ball patches. Info needed.

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So using the drier ok?
I do, without a dryer sheet, those have oil on them.

Blue Walmart pillow ticking is working well for me for my 54 and 58 cals, Old jeans with.530 rb for the Renegade smoothie, and pockets from jeans for the Patriots and Seneca 45s, ymmv.

The experimentation is the fun of muzzleloading! You just try new variables one at a time till you find what your gun likes, and I think it's easier than with brass suppository pieces, with their huge varieties of projectiles, primers (well, not in 2024), and powders, and cases. I experiment more with the charcoal burners!
 
Honestly, much ado is made in this forum about "overthinking it" and a patch is a piece of cloth. Just try different pieces of different cloths until you find what works best with your ball and your bore. Overthinking patches is about as close as I want to get to wasting time thinking, and I'm an overthinker by nature.
 
Honestly, much ado is made in this forum about "overthinking it" and a patch is a piece of cloth. Just try different pieces of different cloths until you find what works best with your ball and your bore. Overthinking patches is about as close as I want to get to wasting time thinking, and I'm an overthinker by nature.
A patch a piece of cloth? From my trial`s tee shirt, linen and pillow ticking can change the impact point from the point of aim
 
Ok i got a barrel with .010 deep lands. Investarm 1/48 . Recommend in the manual us .015 patch and .490 ball. I just got in some pillow tick that’s .015 . And ordered some I thought was going to be .018-.019 But I measured it and it’s .022. I’m figuring it’s going to be tight. To tight ? It was the Ron-loc red pillow tick. Wardawg
 
The old-school method for patching round balls works fine. Find a natural fiber cloth of the right thickness. I use cotton pillow ticking. Wash it to remove sizing. Tear or cut it into strips. Lube it with whatever bullet lube you fancy. Or spit lube it, if you prefer. Place the end of the strip over the muzzle, insert and start the ball to just below muzzle level. Use your patch knife to smartly slice through the patch strip. Ram it home. The patch you cut will be almost perfectly round. It's worked for nearly 300 years.
 
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!
second that. those fabric cutters can make a pile in no time.
 
Pure cotton fabric is best; calipers to measure compressed cotton fabric. Depending on several factors such as ball diameter, bore diameter the patch should compress to fill the gap. Typically a .490 ball with 10-15 thousands patch with lube will fit snugly. Be sure you measure your tamping rod to ensure the ball is seated firmly on your powder charge.
 
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 have red and white that mics
018 to .020 I have blue and white and even some purple and white. The thickness of the colors seems to vary depending on the mill. Bottom line is learn to read mics.
 
What ever ball diameter and patch thickness you use it should cause the ball to acquire a pattern of light and heavy patch weave marks embossed as a belt around the circumference of the ball.

Buy your patch material as new fabric. Wash twice with your usual laundry detergent.
Machine dry on the hottest setting to shrink the fabric tightening the weave.
Steam Iron the fabric to flatten it.
Use a circle template and draw the circles of the required diameter use a very fine permanent ink marker from an artist supply store so the ink doesn’t run when the patches are lubed and stored.
Spend an evening or two cutting out patch circles.
I make stacks of 50 patches bound together in a stacked column with 2 slightly over size circles of cereal box cardboard top and bottom, bound with 2 thin rubber bands.
 

Over the past 60 years I've used Osborne Arch punches as they are industrial grade.
After washing sizing out of the pillow ticking material I fold the material into 8 layers.
Place the fabric on a sheet of hardwood, nylon as a backing & use a 3-4 lb. mallet to make an inventory of patches.
Convenient patch packing tip;
Run a needle with nylon thread through the center of a stack of 50 or so patches, tie a knot at the bottom of one end to prevent patches from slipping off & leave about 8" at the other end to attach to strap of your shooting bag.
Method speeds up loading & makes for less litter in in your shooting bag & range box :thumb:
Relic shooter
 
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