Patch Material

[White Oak]

I read an interesting article in the last issue of MuzzleLoader magazine by Mike Nesbitt. His trial of the new Signature Series Great Plains Rifle.
In it he mentions the shallow rifling and talks about using a thinner patch.
I have been using .015 thick pillow ticking with a .530 ball for years with decent results out of my 54 cal TCs. Why try to fix what aint broken ? Just because. Things can get better or worse. Never know if you don't try.
Anyone using .01 material and if so, what?
I like to cut at the muzzle so I would prefer other than commercial patching.

Thanks,
Ed

 

[Grenadier1758]

I agree with @White Oak that the 0.015" thick pillow ticking patch is likely just fine if it compresses to about 0.010" (0.005" windage between ball and land + 0.006" groove) is a better choice than a loose 0.010" patch unless you want a easy to start load for the target shooting Mike Nesbit likes to do.

 

[Bob McBride]

I agree. To me .015 is ‘thinner’ patching and should be just fine. Less than that just doesn’t seem to hold up well enough for me.

 

[Rifleman1776]

At one time I had a TC barrel with very shallow rifling. I used airplane cloth for patching. Very thin and very strong stuff. I don't know if it is still available. A bit of time perusing the aisles at Hobby Lobby or JoAnnes should find you what is best.

 

[Art Caputo]

Yes. I use .010” OxYoke in my 45 cal. Rice, 44”, straight cut, shallow(.012”) rifled barrel. Same accuracy and consistency as .015” patches, but very easy loading and no swabbing for 20+ shots. Spent patches look good!

 

[smo]

I ordered some ox yoke .010 too try in my smoothbore, just haven’t got a round tuit....

 

[Antonio Ferraioli]

fantastic shooting. I can't even see a 50 yard target.

 

[deermanok]

I also use .10 Oxyoke cotton patches in my 45 cal deerhunter rifle. Works good for me.

 

[Bighorserider]

In my TC 50 cal I've tried lots of combinations. A 490 ball with 20 thousands patch works the best. Shallow rifling doesn't always mean thinner patch. Every gun is different.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I read an interesting article in the last issue of MuzzleLoader magazine by Mike Nesbitt. His trial of the new Signature Series Great Plains Rifle.
In it he mentions the shallow rifling and talks about using a thinner patch.

Well did he get good results or not?

He was using a thinner patch in a specific rifle, so I don't think he's suggesting everybody do that in their rifles?..., Alas my latest issue of Muzzleloader has gone missing and I must look into that...., my letter carrier for my neighborhood tends to be an "odd duck"....but that's a story for around a campfire...so I cannot review the article myself until it arrives or a replacement is obtained.

LD

 

[Omahkapi'si]

That's a real good 50 yd target for sure.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Well did he get good results or not?

He was using a thinner patch in a specific rifle, so I don't think he's suggesting everybody do that in their rifles?..., Alas my latest issue of Muzzleloader has gone missing and I must look into that...., my letter carrier for my neighborhood tends to be an "odd duck"....but that's a story for around a campfire...so I cannot review the article myself until it arrives or a replacement is obtained.

LD

In the article, Mike Nesbit shows a picture of a target with the holes from the first group and describes the group as fair with no mention of the range. Since the rifle was on load from Pedersoli, he didn't make any adjustments to the sights. He used 45 grains of powder (later mentioned that it was 3fg GOEX), a 0.490 Speer ball and 0.015" thick lubricated patches. Recovered patches indicated cutting at the muzzle. These were hard to start so he went to greased 0.010" patches. At the subsequent woods walk set of targets he did "Okay" finishing about in the middle of the 9 shooters.

 

[rrebuck]

How is patch thickness actually measured? The same material could be thicker or thinner if it has been washed, ironed, lubed, etc. I'd think there would have to be some uniform way to do this, like calculating the average thickness from measuring the thickness of a stack of 20 layers compressed by a designated size and shape of weight. I tried searching the forums and online and can't find an answer. They all just state the given thickness of the patch they use.

 

[smo]

I use a cheap micrometer from Harbor Freight.
It seems too be fairly accurate.

 

[longcruise]

Just my opinion here but if a 490 ball is hard to start with a. 010 patch, then the crown needs work or the ball is too small.

 

[ADK Bigfoot]

Or perhaps too large???

ADK Bigfoot

 

[longcruise]

I think a 50 that's hard to load with a. 010 patch has an undersized barrel or a crown problem. If it's very hard to start but thereafter slides down fairly easily its the crown.

 

[Sam squanch]

I don’t think the old timers used a very tight patch. A broken ramrod could mean death in the old days. With a over powder wad, and a thin , easy to load patched ball, my new englander can put them in there. Without the wad, no good!

 

[Bob McBride]

I don’t think the old timers used a very tight patch. A broken ramrod could mean death in the old days. With a over powder wad, and a thin , easy to load patched ball, my new englander can put them in there. Without the wad, no good!

I think that’s largely correct. I think they understood a tighter ball/patch combo meant better accuracy and that a rifle with too loose a combo was little better than a Smoothbore. That said, I think they would use the loosest combo that got the job done, and for rabbit, squirrel, and Coons in trees, that wasn’t very tight. For deer in the plains, likely a smidge tighter.

 

[rrebuck]

I use a cheap micrometer from Harbor Freight.
It seems too be fairly accurate.

How hard do you press on the micrometer when measuring? In the barrel, the patches are going to be compressed, so to know how thick it will be around a loaded ball, you'd need to compress it a similar amount.