Dewey3 said:
Are there a historical references for round vs square vs cut at muzzle patch use ??? Which was the most historical method, or were all three methods used ????
I use octagonal myself - cut square, then cut corners off.
There are some early 19th Century period references to patching - the first has the shooter patching the ball with no further description, IMO implying a pre-cut/pre-lubed patch. The second reference clearly mentions lubing a section of a strip of linen patching material by opening the trap (patch box)and greasing the patch with the lube contained in the trap, and then cutting the patch at the muzzle.
Below are two more detailed accounts of loading copied from Audubon's journals.
"Barking off squirrels is delightful sport, and, in my opinion, requires a greater degree of accuracy than any other. I first witnessed this manner of procuring squirrels whilst near the town of Frankfort. The performer was the celebrated Daniel Boone. We walked out together, and followed the rocky margins of the Kentucky River, until we reached a piece of flat land thickly covered with black walnuts, oaks, and hickories. As the general mast was a good one that year, squirrels were seen gamboling on every tree around us. My companion, a stout, hale, and athletic man, dressed in a homespun hunting-shirt, bare-legged and moccasined, carried a long and heavy rifle, which, as he was loading it, he said had proved efficient in all his former undertakings, and which he hoped would not fail on this occasion, as he felt proud to show me his skill. The gun was wiped, the powder measured, the ball patched with six-hundred-thread linen, and the charge sent home with a hickory rod. We moved not a step from the place, for the squirrels were so numerous that it was unnecessary to go after them. Boone pointed to one of these animals which had observed us, and was crouched on a branch about fifty paces distant, and bade me mark well the spot where the ball should hit. He raised his piece gradually, until the bead (that being the name given by the Kentuckians to the sight) of the barrel was brought to a line with the spot which he intended to hit. The whip-like report resounded through the woods and along the hills in repeated echoes. Judge of my surprise, when I perceived that the ball had hit the piece of the bark immediately beneath the squirrel, and shivered it into splinters, the concussion produced by which had killed the animal, and sent it whirling through the air, as if it had been blown up by the explosion of a powder magazine. Boone kept up his firing, and before many hours had elapsed, we had procured as many squirrels as we wished ..."
As related by J.J. Audubon, from Life & Times of Col. Daniel Boone by Cecil B. Harley
The original account in the Audubon journals (Vol. 2, page 460 of 1972 reprint) is the same as above but adds this at the end:
"...for you must know, kind reader, that to load a rifle requires only a moment, and that if it is wiped once after each shot, it will do duty for hours. Since that first interview with our veteran Boone I have seen many other individuals perform the same feat."
On page 492 is the mention of using the feather. Audubon watches his host prepare for a night of raccoon hunting:
"”¦ He blows through his rifle to ascertain that it is clear, examines his flint, and thrusts a feather into the touch-hole. To a leathern bag swung at his side is attached a powder-horn; his sheath-knife is there also; below hangs a narrow strip of homespun linen. He takes from his bag a bullet, pulls with his teeth the wooden stopper from his powder-horn, lays the ball in one hand, and with the other pours the powder upon it until it is just overtopped. Raising the horn to his mouth, he again closes it with the stopper, and restores it to its place. He introduces the powder into the tube; springs the box of his gun, greases the "patch" over with some melted tallow, or damps it; then places it on the honey-combed muzzle of his piece. The bullet is placed on the patch over the bore, and pressed with the handle of the knife, which now trims the edge of the linen. The elastic hickory rod, held with both hands, smoothly pushes the ball to its bed; once, twice, thrice has it rebounded. The rifle leaps as it were into the hunters arms, the feather is drawn from the touch-hole, the powder fills the pan, which is closed. “Now I’m ready,” cries the woodsman”¦.
Here are some 18th Century references to patching. In the first one the implication is the patches were most likely square or perhaps octagon, since they were being cut out like a shirt i.e. using scissors.
Siege of Fort Henry, September 1, 1777.
Recollections of Mrs. Joseph Stagg.
"Women ran bullets in frying pans, and two shot. Mrs. Duke cut bullet patches out of a 700 linen piece, like one cutting out shirts." p. 64.
Thwaites, Reuben Gold, and Kellogg, Louise Phelps, eds.; "Frontier Defense on the Upper Ohio, 1777-1778 Compiled from the Draper Manuscripts in the Library of the Wisconsin Historical Society." Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin. 1912. At Google Books.
Implies pre-oiled ad pre-cut patches.
Joseph Dodderidge quoting Capt Teter preparing against an attack on his father's fort.
"when you run your bullets, cut off the necks very close, and scrape them, so as to make them a little less, and get patches one hundred finer than those you commonly use, and have them well oiled, for if a rifle happens to he choked in the time of battle, there is one gun and one man lost for the rest of the battle. You will have no time to unbritch a gun and get a plug to drive out a bullet. Have the locks well oiled and your flints sharp, so as not to miss fire." p. 281-82.
Doddridge, Joseph; "Notes on the Settlement and Indian Wars of the Western parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania, from 1763 to 1783, Inclusive." Joel Munsell. Albany, New York. 1876.
As for round patches, there is a plethora of cased pistol and rifle sets by American, British, & French builders that include a round patch cutter.
Bottom line - even based on these few period references that how one patched and with what varied and included the same methods many of the previous answers include as their method.
