Blue jean material for shooting patches...........

[ETipp]

Anyone ever try using blue jean material for shooting patches. I'm think we have a couple boxes of old jeans packed away so I'm wondering how that would work. The only thing I can see that might be a factor is, depending on each specific pair and how worn they are might result in different thickness.

What say you?

 

[CZMark]

Blue jean material makes good patches, but not when cut from worn jeans. The knee and seat area, sometimes the upper thigh as well, is worn thinner. You want patches of consistent thickness, if you want to use blue jean material, go to the fabric store and purchase some.

 

[DuncNZ]

Blue jean material makes good patches, but not when cut from worn jeans. The knee and seat area, sometimes the upper thigh as well, is worn thinner. You want patches of consistent thickness, if you want to use blue jean material, go to the fabric store and purchase some.

What he said .Make sure the material is pure cotton with no synthetic also wash it before use , it will shrink and thicken so it is a bit of a guess how much it will thicken , I'd go pillow ticking .

 

[smokepolehall]

If the blue jean material isn't too worn it will be around .022-.024 thickness. I would not go over.010 more than the rifle Company says to use

 

[B P Maniac Shooter]

Unless you wish to use a lot smaller ball, be ready to "pound" those balls down the barrel using blue jean materials...
That doesn't sound like fun to me.

 

[Eutycus]

I know it's a very thin material but how about the stuff that makes the inside of the front pockets of old blue jeans. Too thin?

 

[CTShooter]

I tried it, didn’t care for it compared to ticking.

 

[roundballman]

Blue jean material works ok for shooting smaller diameter balls. I use it for shooting 375 balls in my 40 cal rifle. Best accuracy is normally found with thinner patch material, like using .012 ticking with 395 balls.

 

[Henry Miles]

It works well for me in a 150 year old 8 bore using smaller balls and a fiber wad. It doesn't work with normal size balls as it is too thick.

 

[Howard Pippin]

PRB Patches.
Using some blue jeans that were well-worn, but taking it off the back of the legs I made a bunch of these and they didn't load all that bad though they measured .030. It seemed like it depended upon the lube I was experimenting with. I use a fairly accurate Caliper for Measuring, applying firm pressure and considering that normal Thickness. The pillow ticking that I normally use was purchased from Cabela's several years ago and seems to measure .025. I found the larger discrepancy in the different brand of blue jeans, and the ones I'm using right now are dickies. I've never experimented much with thinner patching material, but I plan to as soon as the weather gets nice. I use a range rod, and though my short starter takes some effort for the first 6 inches, the range rod will seat them on down Without pounding. The main rifle I'm using is a 50 caliber 1 in 48 twist. I don't load real heavy, I've been experimenting with 40 to 60 grains 777.
Squint

 

[jefair1]

I use it for cleaning patches.

 

[Red Owl]

You can buy a ton of pillow ticking at JoAnn fabrics or Wally World for a couple of dollars. Why use anything else? It's like trying to make a knife out of a questionable piece of steel, why? You can get state of the art steel for just a few dollars per blade.

 

[Dale Allen Raby]

Back in the day, I'm pretty sure that patches were cut from old rags, but cloth was expensive back then. I routinely use patches cut from old shirts and such and have noticed no deficiency in my shooting that I can tie to recycled patch material, but I am not a precision shooter. If I can make a gallon jug explode at fifty yards, my day is made.

I would not use denim, though. Too thick as I do not carry a hammer in my possibles bag.

 

[beardedhorse]

Blue jean good for cleaning patches and with a .715 round ball in a 12 gauge Curly Gostomski sitting fox barrel. For consistency I get new blue jean fabric, wash out priming and shrink in high dryer setting. Any pure 100 per cent cotton fabric I will try out for char cloth and use if right thickness for cleaning. For my .54s red or blue pillow ticking lubed with bear-beeswax. Mics out to.015, .016 and .019 from JoAnn Fabric. As previously mentioned, avoid polyester or synthetic blends in blue jeans.

 

[Red Owl]

That's sort of my bias against Blue Jeans -a lot of them aren't 100% cotton.

 

[user 51067]

Unless you wish to use a lot smaller ball, be ready to "pound" those balls down the barrel using blue jean materials...
That doesn't sound like fun to me.

Or just use a .32 ball in a .50 rifle (it COULD possibly work)!

 

[sqqy14]

I've used denim for use as an over powder wad for hunting. It kept the powder from getting tainted with the patch lube so you could keep the gun loaded during hunting season. Seemed to work well.

 

[Eutycus]

This particular thread appears to be on the "anti-blue jean" side. But I do recall that there are some denim users here.

 

[deerstalkert]

i would dig through that box of old jeans and see if there were some old Levi's in there. i have seen a ratty old pair of Levis sell for more than a thousand dollars.
find the right pair and you could buy a gun to match the patching of choice!

 

[Eutycus]

Is there an easy way to tell if an old pair of jeans is a blend of cotton and polyester?