Cleaning patches

[Bunyan]

What sort of cleaning patches does everyone use? The patches for your roundballs? Or 12 gauge shotgun patches? Or commercial ML patches? Or do you cut your own?

 

[Stumpkiller]

For wiping between shots I use the same cotton tick I patch with. Much easier to carry a multi-use roll in the pouch.

Before shooting and after cleaning I wipe the bore with a cotton patch containing Lehigh Valley Lube.

For cleaning at home I use bore mops for the hot water and cotton GI patching to oil with afterwards. I guess I must finally be rich because I don't mind spending the $3 to get 100 GI patches. When available, I really like old flannel sheet material. Same system for shotgun and rifle.

Sometimes I clean with tow just for the heck of it. That's all I ever used for cleaning my Bess.

 

[Rebel]

I get white cotton flannel at the fabric store and cut it into squares. The size depends on the caliber they are used for.

 

[cayugad]

For the longest time I was cutting up old white cotton socks, T-shirts, just about anything made of cotton that I had worn out, need to be replaced (or could no longer wear) or I did not like to wear. (It helps when your friend owns a towel factory also... good patch material there...)

I even went as far as washing the old patches. I still do. They make a good scrubber patch for cleaning out the black powder fowling where you really know that the patch will not come out clean in the first place. And then I throw them away after about the fifth time I use them.

It's not that I am a penny pincher, but there is really not all that much work to cleaning the used cotton patches. I finally broke down and Wal Mart had a sale on cotton patches. They came in a pack of 200 patches for cleaning anything from a handgun to shotgun. So I bought five bags of them. All they are it looks like, are scraps of old cotton T-shirt from when they make clothes in a factory. Instead of throwing the scraps away like they used to, they bag them and sell them at Wal Mart. :: Anyway, they are real inexpensive and they work.

As for the patches I shoot, well I buy them at Wal Mart in the fabric section, wash the yard of cloth, and then cut patch as I need it....

 

[roundball]

Southern Bloomer Manufacturing Co.
Bristol, Tennessee
Phone 423-878-6660
All sorts of different sized cleaning patches

Item#125=2.0" x 2.0" cotton patches > $12/1000
(Named Special .30cal cotton cleaning patches)

Item#123=2.5" x 2.5" cotton patches > $12/1000
(Named Universal Rifle-Pistol Cleaning Patches)

Been using them for 15 years now...outstanding.

VERY IMPORTANT: THEY ALSO MAKE WHAT THEY CALL:
"MUZZLELOADER CLEANING PATCHES"

DO NOT GET THEM!!
DO NOT ASK FOR OR EVEN MENTION "MUZZLELOADER CLEANING PATCHES"...THEY ARE A HORRIBLE, LOOSE WEAVE, SYNTHETIC MATERIAL AND DON'T SOAK UP ANYTHING...I HAD TO RETURN THEM !!

 

[Jack Walker]

I also use light flannel for both cleaning and patching round ball. A friend of mine had a bit of it and gave me a portion. I started using them for just cleaning, but ran light on ticking in the field. Well I tried the flannel with better results. :thumbsup:

 

[DanWalker]

I buy white flannel at the fabric store and cut into 2.5" x 2.5" pieces. Only takes about 15-20 minutes to cut a yard of material and yields 200-300 patches for a couple of bucks.