Cross-Patching Conicals

[DanChamberlain]

Was thumbing through my old Gun Digests and ran across an article that mentioned "cross-patching" for conical muzzleloaders. With either paper or cloth, a patch was cut in a cross that allowed for a full base protection, but 4 leafs to center the conical for bore windage. Supposedly, it was pretty popular among the precision target shooters in the muzzleloading era gone by. It was discussed in relation to heavy barreled 20 pound guns with false muzzles for loading. Even had a die to cut the cross patch.

Just wondering if anyone here had heard or it, or tried it.

Dan

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Heard of it, never seen it done. It looks like a good idea but of course the false muzzle must be made for use of such a patch. Some cut the paper in a cross shape and some used two separate straight strips of paper.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Many of the slug gun shooters at Friendship, and other matches, use cross patching all the time. The False muzzle is grooved so that the strips can be laid down in the grooves, and then a disc of steel can be put on top of them, to hold them in place while a bullet is pushed down through a hole in the disc, and slowly pull the 4 sides down and around the bullet as its loaded into the false muzzle. When cut exactly right, its almost impossible to see a seam between two adjoining strips along the sides of the bullet.

Paper patched bullets are among the most accurate long range projectiles made for small arms. The cross strip patching is just one way to paper patch bullets. It needs that false muzzle to do it, tho', and that is why its so rarely seen.

 

[Bearbait2]

Mr. DanChamberlain,
My neighbor patches his slugs in that fashion.
Best Wishes

 

[dsuursoo]

Was thumbing through my old Gun Digests and ran across an article that mentioned "cross-patching" for conical muzzleloaders. With either paper or cloth, a patch was cut in a cross that allowed for a full base protection, but 4 leafs to center the conical for bore windage. Supposedly, it was pretty popular among the precision target shooters in the muzzleloading era gone by. It was discussed in relation to heavy barreled 20 pound guns with false muzzles for loading. Even had a die to cut the cross patch.

Just wondering if anyone here had heard or it, or tried it.

Dan

hm... i'd like an image of that die. might be kind of fun to try that with some of the machining tools i have at work.

 

[longcruise]

Some years back i shot alongside of a guy who had one of these guns. I think his was in the .38 cal range. He had the die to cut the crosses and all. I don't recall if he was using a false muzzle or not .

His accuracy was pretty good but not spectaculor. He was new to the gun though. We never crossed (no pun intended) paths again. That was around 15 years ago.

It had me playing around with cross patched maxi balls in my TC .50 for a bit. Almost impossible to load since it created a way oversize projectile. They shot about the same as a nake maxi. By the time it was seated on the powder it probably was naked. :haha: I did not have a sizer but a .449 or .501 sizer might have made the whole thing work, but, OTOH, a typical traditional method of paper patching and sizeing would be easier and simpler.

 

[ghostdncr]

I've seen such a rifle. It had a barrel somewhere around 2" across the flats, very heavy caliber (.75?) and cased with something like forty POUNDS worth of specialized loading gear.

The muzzle had four dowel holes that aligned the false muzzle, two dowels 180 degrees opposed on the side flats near the muzzle, which served as the anchor for the starting ram. The ram looked not unlike a modern reloading press, only with two swiveling, hooked plates that engaged the dowels.

As I recall, there were two bullet molds. One cast the forward portion of the bullet, the other cast the skirted base, presumably with the front half hard lead and the skirt soft lead. The two were pressed together and then the whole affair ran through a sizer. I guess the harder lead would handle a faster twist rifling?

To address your post, I do specifically remember the cross patches and this rifle included a punch to make them. More like a modern stamping die set, really.

Quite a collection of knowledge, it was.

 

[DanChamberlain]

PomPom

The image is nothing more than a hand drawing of a stamping die in the form of a "cross" to cut the patches. It's not particularly useful as it doesn't show dimensions, nor does it look to be accurately portrayed.

Dan

 

[ghostdncr]

Rethinking my earlier post, I must be confusing two different rifles. What would be the point of a two piece bullet if you were shooting it patched? :shake:

As far as patch dimensions go, wouldn't dividing the circumference of the bullet by four give one the necessary width of each "arm" of the cross?

 

[huntnfishnshoot]

Two-piece bullets were made so the softer base would engage the rifling(even those using paper patches)while the harder nose resisted deforming from the loading process.
-Joe