Patch material for rifle ball
- Thread starter sethwyo
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I tested extensively round patches vs square patches. Absolutely no difference in several different rifles. None. Its much easier to follow the lines and just cut strips and then squares. That cutting round patches is too tedious for my patience. A lot less waste of material also.
I cut these with a laser, so no tedious hand work. Can make any shape and size easily if needed. Maybe I'll make some Texas shaped ones.
Got to watching some of BP's maniacs shooting episodes on one of these sites, and I noticed that he could load his rifle without having to use a short starter and that got me thinking, maybe I could do the same if I would change some of my stuff. Well, after significant experimenting I found out if I will go to a .495 round ball instead of the .490, and then to a eastern Maine premium Lube .010 patch while shooting 45 grains of 777 ff, that I could kind of do the same thing and had very good accuracy, instead of using the smaller ball with a thicker patch. Don't understand the difference but I'm not knocking it, it works in the one percussion that I tried. Just waiting for spring to try it in my flintlock.
Squint
Squint
I use my wife’s rotary cutter and it makes patch cutting fast and easy
Nobody catches the first bit of that exchange…
Uncas: “Tight weave?”
Natty: “Mm. Silk. Another 40 yards.”
It’s not the fibre, it’s the weave. A lot of the linen available on the NY frontier in 1757 would have been osnaburg, a much coarser fabric.
Jay
Spandex
longcruise
70 Cal.
I don't know any of the details of @B P Maniac Shooter loading or his guns but it could be that his gun is coned.
I wondered how the dickens you cut those patches! They looked as if the edges were a little scorched, and I noted the “circle” wasn’t quite closed on each one. I was thinking you must have used some sort of heated cutter, but a laser! That’s way outside my box!I cut these with a laser, so no tedious hand work. Can make any shape and size easily if needed. Maybe I'll make some Texas shaped ones.
If you can program that dude to cut Texas patches, I think you oughta show them to us. Even better might be Lone Star patches. If they are sized right, I’ll bet the legs of the star would fold up around the ball very nicely without too much wrinkle. The daisy-shaped patches from October Country were designed on the same principle.
Notchy Bob
I'll get right on it Bob. I always like to tinker. Those were 1.25" diameter. As long as I can keep the ball covered it should be good. Headed to the shop!
Well to get the material to surround the ball they have to be bigger. How they work? I’ll have to try them out.
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Well to get the material to surround the ball they have to be bigger. How they work? I’ll have to try them out.
Outstanding! Finest looking patches I’ve ever seen!
Notchy Bob
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Many years ago, I read in Dan'l Boones biography, he has said he preferred to use patch material of 400 threads to the inch. That is a really tight weave !! A really tight thread cloth would be almost like silk and would be smooth loading and shooting. That was profound to me. After that, my quest was to find tight weave cotton or linen cloth that I could not blow through. A tight weave cloth with the right thickness is the material I have been using for 20 years. I commonly will take my micrometer to the thrift store and look through the ladies blouses and checking the labels. If I found what i was looking for, 99 cents later I have lots of patching material. Not all rifles use the same thickness cloth for the ball they use. So I have several different cloths that I keep on hand for the different rifles. I have some super tight ticking that I use for the larger calibers as they use a higher powder charge and that prevents burn through of the patch.
Ohio Rusty ><>
Ohio Rusty ><>
Regarding pillow ticking, or for that matter any new cloth, it should be washed to remove any sizing before using in a M/L
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maybe making them in the shape of the animal you are hunting will kill them deader?Well to get the material to surround the ball they have to be bigger. How they work? I’ll have to try them out.
Here's a little something about patching material on the Texas frontier:
That was from Goodnight, Hart, et al., Pioneer Days in the Southwest, page 145. Note the comment, "...a rag for patching..." They apparently couldn't afford to be choosy, and I expect a lot of patches were cut from worn-out clothes in those days, in the 1850's.
Best regards,
Notchy Bob
That was from Goodnight, Hart, et al., Pioneer Days in the Southwest, page 145. Note the comment, "...a rag for patching..." They apparently couldn't afford to be choosy, and I expect a lot of patches were cut from worn-out clothes in those days, in the 1850's.
Best regards,
Notchy Bob
Well to get the material to surround the ball they have to be bigger. How they work? I’ll have to try them out.
Regardless of if they work or not, you get 10,000 cool points.
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just found the receipt for the patch material i have been using.
Big duck canvas
orange 10oz duck cloth. shrunk my groups by half.
the orange lets me find them easily in the snow.
tight loading but the most notable improvement in accuracy i have done
Big duck canvas
orange 10oz duck cloth. shrunk my groups by half.
the orange lets me find them easily in the snow.
tight loading but the most notable improvement in accuracy i have done
