patch greasing question

[MichaelPetersen]

when putting a solid grease (such as TOTW mink oil tallow) on patches, how do you ensury an equal amount of grease on each patch?

 

[Trench]

Good question. I just smear my pre-cut patches over the top of the mink oil and then rub it in with my fingers until it appears saturated.

Other things you can do are dip them in melted mink oil and then dab them on a paper towel to absorb the excess.

I can't think of a way to make sure you have exactly the same amount of lube on each patch. :hmm:

 

[Rifleman1776]

when putting a solid grease (such as TOTW mink oil tallow) on patches, how do you ensury an equal amount of grease on each patch?

The lube I make is poured into small food storage tubs I buy. As it cools it hardens. When I need more lubed patching I just lay out the material and rub the lube over it the fold so the lubed sides are touching and put in a zip lock bag until needed. Don't worry, the plastic bags are 'authentic'. :wink:

 

[tiger955]

I was using Crisco for a while and I used a small metal measuring cup to melt a tablespoon or so over the gas stove just enough to melt it, not too hot to handle. The I put in a stack of about 20 patches, one at a time, they soaked the lube up almost instantly. Then I would take the stack out and squeeze the whole stack tightly with my fingers 'till they quit dripping and set on paper towel to cool.
Once cool I had a nice stack of 20 patches stuck together and peel them off one at a time for use. All were evenly saturated but not overly messy.

 

[roundball]

I was using Crisco for a while and I used a small metal measuring cup to melt a tablespoon or so over the gas stove just enough to melt it, not too hot to handle. The I put in a stack of about 20 patches, one at a time, they soaked the lube up almost instantly. Then I would take the stack out and squeeze the whole stack tightly with my fingers 'till they quit dripping and set on paper towel to cool.
Once cool I had a nice stack of 20 patches stuck together and peel them off one at a time for use. All were evenly saturated but not overly messy.

Sounds like a good way...
Another is sitting at my work bench with a pile of dry patches and a line of NL1000 squeezed out of a tube, touch my thumbs & forefingers to the lube, pick up a patch with each hand and rub the lube into them, drop them in a container.
Touch my thumbs & forefingers to the lube again, pick up another pair of patches, repeat...about 10 patches a minute, do a 100 in a few minutes.

 

[rabjr]

I was using Crisco for a while and I used a small metal measuring cup to melt a tablespoon or so over the gas stove just enough to melt it, not too hot to handle. The I put in a stack of about 20 patches, one at a time, they soaked the lube up almost instantly. Then I would take the stack out and squeeze the whole stack tightly with my fingers 'till they quit dripping and set on paper towel to cool.
Once cool I had a nice stack of 20 patches stuck together and peel them off one at a time for use. All were evenly saturated but not overly messy.

I pretty much do the same with my bear grease but I've also been known to just smear some on a patch with a finger and keep on shooting. :thumbsup:

 

[paulvallandigham]

I use the patch as I would wipe a rag in my shoe polish can. I wipe the patch with firm enough pressure to get a healthy amount of lube on the patch. Then, I put a dry patch on top of the side with the lube, press it together with the first patch, then use both patches to wipe across the lube to lube the second side. I keep doing this until I have a stack of 5-10 patches with lube on both sides, except the two patches on the ends. I put the stacks in a plastic bag, and left overnight, the lube migrates through all the patches, including the end patches.

Excess lube is not a problem with accuracy, so I don't worry about it. I do check the patches as I peel them off a stack to use, to make sure the patch is thoroughly greased. If I see a dry spot, I set that patch aside to be lubed again.

Its far more important to put the SMOOTH side of the fabric Down, and leave the rougher side UP, so that the rough side is what "grabs" the lead ball. The smooth side goes against the lands and grooves in your barrel.

Take a clean towel, or rag with you any time you are shooting BP. Your fingers are going to get grease on them, from handling the patches, and CRUD on them from the BP residue inside and outside the gun barrel.

Wipe your hands off, and wipe off the barrel, and your RAMROD between loadings to minimize how Dirty you will get. :shocked2: :grin: :surrender: :thumbsup:

I also take a roll of paper towels, a large bottle of water( at least a 2 liter pop bottle) and a small bottle of liquid dish soap to wash my hands, arms, and face off( on occasion) to clean up before I get behind the wheel of my car, and get the interior of my car/truck all dirty.

You can't AVOID getting dirty if you shoot black powder guns. Deal with it. :hatsoff:

 

[tg]

I have never worried much about it I lube up the bore side and load the ball and never found that lubing both sides or one side of the patch being better against the ball or barrel made any difference when I was working up loads of a good bench rest in years past, sometimes we tend to over think and make things more complicated than they need be.You would have to do some serious testing with good controls to prove that there is a noticable difference, and this is always hard as every ML shot is a unique handload no matter how close you think it was to the one before, amount of lube/powder,ball placesment and uniformity of balls compression, barrel condition and on and on, how often do we really duplicate two shots? I usually rub a patch in a tin of lube with my finger and do not care if any gets onto the ball side I see no real need for any ythere anyway but no harm if some does squezze thru, this will depend on the lube type and temperature.

 

[hanshi]

Okay, another dopey question. Wouldn't putting the ROUGH side down increase bore friction a little, raising pressure behind the prb for a better load? I'd never heard about this until I had been on the forums a while. Humor me, please. :idunno:

 

[roundball]

Wouldn't putting the ROUGH side down increase bore friction a little, raising pressure behind the prb for a better load?
Humor me, please.

You're already being humored...the whole concept is humor
:wink:

 

[Bill Hall]

I rub it into each patch between my finger and thumb, until the patch won't take any more lube. When that's done, I give it a quick blot with a cloth and stack them all together in a baggie or plastic gladware container.

No matter how you apply the lube, dipping, rubbing, pouring, etc, I think stacking them all together tight is the key, since the lube eventually soaks evenly throughout all the patches, giving an even amount of lube from patch to patch. Bill

 

[BrownBear]

when putting a solid grease (such as TOTW mink oil tallow) on patches, how do you ensury an equal amount of grease on each patch?

I've never been worried about "equal" amount. I just want 100% coverage. Maybe I'm all wrong, but I just drag the surface of the patch (I cut at the muzzle from a strip) over the surface of the grease. If it's covered, that's good enough for me.

I don't get burned or torn patches doing that, and I've never traced accuracy issues to my lubing methods. Lots of other things, but not that! :grin:

As for rough side/smooth side? Patching is so much more compressible than steel or even lead, it's pointless to imagine there's a difference when you fire the shot. Someone is yanking your leg if they make that claim. Or their own leg!!!! :rotf:

 

[paulvallandigham]

The difference in chamber pressure would be minute. When you consider how little of any ball contacts the inside of any cylinder, what the rough side of the fabric does is use what you have to maximize the "Grip" on the ball. The purpose of any fabric patch used with a ROUND BALL is to impart the spin of the rifling to the ball when its fired.

Some people here don't believe that a RB is deformed on firing, nor do they believe that the WEAVE pattern of a cloth patch is impressed into the lead of the ball. My experience and observations are different from theirs. But, I don't want to argue about it on this forum. The only way to settle something like this would be to get together and look at each other's lead balls after they are pulled from the barrel- or recovered after firing.

I went through all this with a poorly made import "carbine" that had lands that resembled BURRS. Very shallow rifling(grooves), and "Hint of rifling( lands)". I ended up using a thin patch, and a very tight ball in order to get any accuracy at all. But, at the recommendation of better, more experienced shooters in my club, I tried shooting groups with both the rough side out, and the smooth side out. The Better groups always came from putting the smooth side Out, and the rough side of the fabric against the ball. I eventually was able to shoot some very small groups out at 50 yds with that gun.

This would not be the case with a paper Patched BULLET, by comparison.

Nor compared with a BULLET designed like the T/C bullets that have a driving band that is close to groove diameter, and requires the lands to actually Cut into the bullet's driving band in order to run the bullet down the barrel onto the powder. The amount of surface area of any BULLET that is contact with lands( and sometimes grooves)makes any conversation about using fabric patching with bullets nonsense. Base wads, OP wads, fillers etc. all can help any bullet do a better job of sealing gases behind the bullet, and Paper Patched bullets are the right choice when using a shallow-grooved "Bullet" barrel. :thumbsup:

 

[tg]

"You're already being humored...the whole concept is humor"

That is the best answer I have seen on this topic at times we wayyyyyyy over think some of the aspects of this sport

 

[Robby]

I cut a length of patching, put some mink oil, in this case, on my thumb and finger and smear the length of it pretty good, roll it up, stick it in the microwave and nuke it just enough to make the oil flow a bit. Take it out and squeeze and wring it to make sure I have A pretty much equal coverage. This is for cutting at the muzzle, or cut them up for hunting.
Robby

 

[Greenjoytj]

Here's an idea, put a table spoonful of the grease in a frying pan, melt the grease on low heat.
When liquid flop a patch into the oil, then remove it with tweezers.
Put the patch grease side up on a cookie sheet to cool.
Just dip one side of the patch into the hot liquid grease.