Buying vs making shooting patches

[garra]

I have been reading on how many of you make your own shooting patches. You go to the fabric store, micrometer in hand to select the right thickness. I have been pondering doing the same, but I keep just going back to the ease of just buying dry patches in the size I need.
In working out the economics, I guess one would have to figure out what they use a year. I shoot at every monthly shoot that my club has. We have 21 targets on our range walk, so I would use about 400 a year @ $4.00 per hundred. $16.00 total for my 50-54 cal rifles.
I found a nice round Osborne cutter, cost was $32.00 plus I would have to find material , wash it, iron it and then cut it.
What factors do those of you who make their own use in determining that is the best method for your patches?

 

[Black Hand]

Buy a yard (or more) of material at $2-4/yard, wash and dry. Make SQUARE patches by a combination of ripping strips to the appropriate width and cutting the strips into squares with shears. Will make dozens/hundreds of patches in a very short time.

There is no need to buy a punch...

 

[BrownBear]

Yeah. A single yard of fabric makes 576 patches 1.5" square. You get over a year's supply of patches (at your rate of shooting) for $2. That means you're leaving $14 laying on the ground.

Dunno about you, but I'd be real proud to find $14 laying there on the ground, and I'd sure pick it up rather than walk by it.

 

[wayne terry]

Bought 1/2 of a yard of the brown pillow ticking (just the right size for me) from Wal-Mart cost was a whole .68 cents and made one heck of a mess of patches for my 50 cal. plus it's the fact that you did it yourself makes this hobby, sport and way of life for many more enjoyable and satisfying.

 

[curator]

I stopped buying commercially made patches a long time ago and have never considered going back. Nearly all of the "pre-lubed" patches are way too slippery for best accuracy. Since I regularly supply local Boy Scout muzzle loading events as well as Hunter Safety muzzle loading familiarization, I go through a lot of shooting supplies. I bought a full bolt of .016" pillow ticking fabric a year ago. I cut off 4 foot sections (48"X48") at a time, wash and dry to get the starch "sizing" out of it. Then I tear into 1 1/8" strips (for 50 caliber guns) Clamping several strips together, I use sharp scissors to cut neat squares for patches. I make 38 patches from each 48" strip or roughly 1000 patches per yard of fabric. Even at boutique prices of $15 per yard, the savings are enormous. I paid less than $4 per yard by buying the whole bolt at wholesale.

Not only does making my own save money but accuracy is uniformly better. When providing powder, patches, and balls for the Boy Scouts, I supply home-cast .490 round balls, and dampen the patches with 1-1-6 Ballistol, denatured alcohol, and water. They are easy to load and require no trimming. For my own shooting I use .495 balls and the same patching. Groups are a bit tighter but also a little more difficult to load. I could never get the same consistent accuracy using store-bought patches

 

[DOUBLEDEUCE 1]

All of the above :thumbsup:

I just go get the blue and white pillow ticking. It works best for me. No need to fuss and over think stuff. I wash, iron and cut it into strips. Roll the strips and toss them into my bag. Or I will cut them into squares and store them. Easy.

 

[wpjson]

If you take your time into the accounting you get different figures. Your $14.00 disappears pretty quick if you value your time @ $25.00.

 

[garra]

You know guys, I think I phrased my question incorrectly. I am only receiving one side of the question, only from the folks that make their own patches. All are great and meet your specific needs.

How about hearing from the side that only buys their patches. It would interesting to hear from both camps.

 

[BrownBear]

If you take your time into the accounting you get different figures. Your $14.00 disappears pretty quick if you value your time @ $25.00.

It's a hobby. If I counted my time fishing, I figure I'm paying around $1,941 a pound for the fish we eat. :rotf:

 

[wayne terry]

:thumbsup: :hatsoff: :metoo:

 

[wayne terry]

Garra I still do buy patches and use them but only when I can get them dirt cheap/next to nothing, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing that. If I had to say I would say that all of us here at one time or the other has purchased pre-cut patches but like I said earlier to me and many others it's the part about doing it ourselves like our ancestors did that makes it more enjoyable. Some patches are good but ya really don't know until ya try them and you can't measure them and really get a good look at them when they are in a little plastic bag or if your ordering them from a dealer off the net, and that's just my 2 cents worth IMHO. enjoy shooting.

 

[FishDFly]

How about hearing from the side that only buys their patches. It would interesting to hear from both camps.

Seems to me one camp is vastly larger than the minority camp, seems simple to me.

 

[jamesthomas]

You know guys, I think I phrased my question incorrectly. I am only receiving one side of the question, only from the folks that make their own patches. All are great and meet your specific needs.

How about hearing from the side that only buys their patches. It would interesting to hear from both camps.

The thing is I bet 95% or better of us buy our fabric and cut them up for our patches. I can get an untold number of patches for my .40 cal. out of a yard of Pillow Ticking, the same thing for my .50 cal. You save so much more money by cutting them yourself, also what if the store you go to is out of patches? and do you know how old they are? they can get old and be worthless (rip and tear while loading or after firing). I've never had my Jo-Anns or Hancock Fabrics be out of the Pillow Ticking I need. Btw, time is no factor, Just use a yard stick to trace the proper size lines on the fabric and while watching T.V. cut your patches with some scissors.

 

[Bob J]

Garra - Although I cut my own cleaning patches from washed 100% cotton flannel, and sometimes make my own shooting patches, I have found that Ox Yoke originals "Wonder Patches" shoot so accurately in my .62 and "Wonder Ticking" patches in my .36 and .54, that I usually shoot these store bought patches. Sometimes I buy the unlubed versions and lube them with Wonder Lube. Works for me :wink:

 

[galamb]

I buy my patches - Ox Yoke pre-lubed/pre-cut.

Why?

Because I'm not a prolific BP shooter (shoot my bow, centerfires and then in a distant 3rd, my ML's). I love building ML's far more than shooting them.

I hunt my (weapons) primarily. I have a bow range in my back yard - for the stuff that goes "boom" I have to travel to shoot them.

So 100 patches could easily last me all year, depending which particular rifle they are for, and they cost me somewhat less than 10 bucks.

2nd, I don't patch tight, don't really care if my groups are 2" or 1" or a little either way so not all fanatical about whether my .018 pillow tick is .01793 or .01824" - Bambi doesn't seem to notice the difference either (and I also heard that ol Davy Crockett didn't have a micrometer or scales either).

3rd, I just can't be bothered - see it as "personally" a waste of my time. I pull one from the ziplock and use it.

I buy my pre-cut/pre-lubed patches off the shelf.

Use them to wrap my "off the shelf" roundballs coming from a box with Speer or Hornady markings on it (and don't care if they are a few grains different here or there).

I stuff them down on top of my powder which was measured using a fixed measure after I have determined a charge which is "accurate enough" as opposed to the "most accurate" (stored in speed loader tubes), and shoot.

I over analyze, over do, over work many many things - but my patches, balls, powder is just not one of them.

For me, the black powder season is the last one to come around in the deer season.

So if I haven't got Bambi in the early bow season (most of my deer come in this season) or the CF rifle season (rarely have a tag left after that season) and then the late bow , then my "hail mary" season is the muzzleloading season (1st week of December), followed by the late, late bow (until New Years eve).

We only get one (1) deer tag and I hunt from a bow stand, so when 35 yards is a "long shot" you just don't need to be fanatical about patches/balls/powder - and when I range shoot I do that for enjoyment, not points.

So for me, spending my limited free time cutting patches and then soaking them in some voodoo concoction that I have cooked up myself to use as lube is just not on my list of things to use up my time with...

 

[Rifleman1776]

I keep just going back to the ease of just buying dry patches in the size I need.

You have pretty well already made up your mind. Others are sharing what they like. For the record, I prefer to buy material and cut at the muzzle. To me, buying stuff in a plastic container and using it for this "traditional" ml game is pointless. If I have a day I feel modern I use those brass thingies that shove into the back end of a bolt action. Last count was one round of those two years ago. My reloading equipment is collecting dust. Glad you asked. :wink: Did I go ff

 

[tenngun]

:thumbsup: good for you. We all need to take the joy from ml that we can find in it. I like to replicate as close as I can the equipment and styles of the past and be as hc as I can get. Others like to be primitive not nessisarily hc. Some don't care at all about primitive or hc if they just get a chance to shoot pretty guns. Some happy with a dinner plate sized groups at 50 yards, enough to put Bambi in the pot, others aren't happy unless they can shoot a quarter at 100 yards. I use precut patches because I don't like to cut at the muzzle. I use lard or mink oil to lube with and don't make any "voodoo" concoctions. Fact is there is room for what you want to do.

 

[coloradoclyde]

I use to shoot a lot...so any money I can save by making my own things is more money I can spend on the thing I cant make.

I have shot a lot of premade factory patches and still buy them when I can...some of my guns like a premade patch... some like a homemade one...
Since I started shooting long before we had the internet or Walmart...... Availability was a big issue...so I started making my own out of necessity.
Nowadays I do it for the economics and entertainment.
Plus if I discover I'm almost out of patches the day before I know I'm going to shoot I can easily make some the night before..

 

[wpjson]

Most folks must occasionally buy ready made patches or there would not be the demand to support all of those who supply them. I do not use enough to make my own. Cap and Ball revolvers and conicals in most of my rifles. Prb for shooting paper and steel ducks and chickens.

 

[Black Hand]

Most folks must occasionally buy ready made patches or there would not be the demand to support all of those who supply them.

I believe this is because many are convinced that "pre-made" is bigger/better/harder/faster (demonstrated by the profusion of widgets & doo-dads marketed to the BP crowd) or they just don't realize that patches are easily made (many seem to be hung-up on needing round patches).

It is certainly one thing - more expensive. The patches I've purchased in the past needed to be re-lubed as they were too dry. I've also switched to using bear oil/grease exclusively, and pre-cut/lubed patches don't come that way...