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How tight a patch?

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Well I am now starting to work on a round ball load for my 20 bore fowler. I measure the Long Hammock barrel at .620 and my balls at .602. I measure Ox-yoke prelubed .010 patches come in at .012. My cleaning patches come in at .011 & make a tight fit with a water-Ballistol mix for a lube. The Ox-yoke patches are tight enough to want a short starter which seems way too tight for a smoothbore. Is there any problem with going to a thinner patch? How tight or lose a fit should I consider normal for a patched roundball in a smothbore?
 
A good rule of thumb is to get a ball approx. .020 smaller than than the bore size. Your .602 may be a little odd sized, but no problem. If you don't want to short start, consider a smaller ball and thicker patch, or fire a patch the next size down from your .010 patch and see how it looks. My guess is .010 and your .602 ball are fine with a good lube
 
The risk you take by using a thinner patch is the patch burning in the barrel, As it cannot hold enough lube to keep the flame from the powder from igniting the patch before it leaves the muzzle. The answer to that is one of the choice mentioned above, OR using an overpowder wad to seal the bore gases away from the patching and ball. I prefer the latter, as I think way too much is being asked of a cloth patch in most ML firearms. When I finally got a chronograph, and began playing with that new toy, as men are wont to do, I found out a lot about my ML rifle and smoothbore loads, and a lot of it was stuff I didn't want to know. My brother had sent me some wads, asking me to try them in my .50 cal. rifle. I did. Damn! The SDV dropped dramatically, and my velocity rose more than 100 fps. I have had to rethink everything I have done with a ML rifle or shotgun over the past 30 years, because that darn machine just won't " fudge " data for me. Worse, I am getting better accuracy, and I am eliminating some of my favorite " alibi's " I have always used to explain a wide shot! Darn. Darn. Darn! :cursing: I found the same thing working up loads in my new 20 ga. fowler. I am also messing with patch thickness, but I found early on that I get better velocity, and lower SDV in my fowler, if I use an overpowder wad, and then run the PRB down on top of it. Accuracy is greatly improved.

Its fun to just shoot these guns. But I found it even more fun to actually hit what I am shooting at, and at longer ranges. :surrender:
 
I too have a Long Hammock SB bbl. in 20 ga. in which I regularly shoot .6oo balls and a drill patch that mics. down with the clutch "off" to about .012 with a bear greas/beeswax lube. This combo shoots very well. I can load via a loading block without a short-starter, but is very difficult to thumb start when cutting at the muzzle.
By mistake I once used a thin .008 lubed patch (again squeezed down with the clutch off) and the patches were blown all to H... and accuracy suffered.
 
Whilst many shoot 600 balls, some shoot 595 balls with a thicker patch (.020) The 595's are also cheaper to buy, if you do not roll your own. good smoke, ron in fl
 
Have you checked TOTW prices? They certainly have the .595 balls for sale.

Use an Over powder wad(1/8") on top of the powder charge, and then load the PRB down onto the wad. You can get away with using the thinner patches to make seating the ball easier, and you can use more lube on the thin patches because the over powder wad will keep any extra liquid from reaching the powder and fouling it.
 
I've used Bob Spencer's recommendation of a ball .020" under bore size and a .017" lubed patch. Seems to work well. His site has a lot of good info.
[url] http://home.insightbb.com/~bspen[/url]/
 
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In my .620 smoothies I use a .600 ball and .015
pillow tick patch lubed with spit, no wads, have tried wads but found them to be of no benifit.
I have 3 .620s and this load is very accurate in all of them. I use a short starter on all muzzleloaders.
Deadeye
 
Deadeye: Have you tried 19 ga. wads? That bore on your gun is oversized for a 20 gauge, like mine is, and you should find much improvement by using 19 ga. wads.
 
PV, I haven't tried that but these guns are so accurate with just the spit patch, I believe I've shot 16 smoothbore matches with the fucil de chasse and received 15 first and 1 second but if I run across some 19 ga. I'll give them a try.
Thanks, Deadeye
 
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