Patch material?

[WNC]

Wondering what you folks use for patch material other than the commercial material and what's the best source for it? The closest thing I've found is military cleaning patches which work well with a .530 RB, but they're pretty tight after getting down the barrel using the jag on the ramrod. Looking for suggestions on something a bit thinner if it's available.
Thanks
Greg

 

[roundball]

I've found TC's .018" prelubed pillow ticking patches work the best for me...use them in all rifles....440, .490, and .530 balls

 

[Stumpkiller]

Other than commercial material? All patch material is commercial at some level unless you go native and use buckskin or weave flax tow. I use old flannel bed sheets for cleaning patches. I bought four yards of cotton pillow ticking (0.018") from JoAnne Fabrics once when my wife had dragged me in and I was chewing my paw off when I noticed a big 'ol roll of it. Cut it into three foot squares and laundered it once to get the stiffiners and treatments out. I am down to my last five 1-1/2" X 3' rolls. Not bad - I think I paid $15 and I will end up with about a fifteen year supply. Wonder if they still sell it.

 

[Zonie]

As Stumpkiller says, JoAnnes Fabrics or some other cloth store.
If your going to shoot it, you want Cotton or flannel pillow ticking or bed sheet material. You do not want anything man made like rayon, polyester, nylon etc as these materials will gum up your barrel if shot in it. If your just looking for cleaning patches then any cloth will do but why buy something other than cotton or flannel and limit its usefulness?
Take your Micrometer, Vernier Caliper of calibrated fingers with you. (Another post on this forum gets into how do you measure cloth).

Make the most of your visit and note the looks you get walking around in a cloth store!! You can almost hear the wheels turning with thoughts like "Whats HE doing here?" "Look at that pervert!" "He sure doesn't look like one of "them"" "If he buys black silk I'm leaving!!" "She looks like she could use a shave!!". Loads of fun and doesn't cost a dime.

Oh, don't tell them your going to shoot it in a gun or you will get the scowl of the century. Just say "I intend to wrap my balls in it".

 

[WNC]

When I say 'commercial', I mean patches specifically sold for patches. I don't think we have any cloth stores very close here locally. I may end up having to order some material. That's the part I'm dreading. When it comes to things like that, I like to see the mechandise first before I buy. The patch material I have now are roughly 4x4 white cotton cleaning patches. They're very tight wove and seem to work alright other than the jag not liking them in a dry barrel. Tried a bit of one today after shooting the .54 and almost got into the situation where I had another stuck jag down the barrel. The RB's loaded nice and at 45 yards, killed a Folgers coffee can dead as a hammer. I'm thinking I might try some TC bore butter and see how that helps things. Should I have been using the bore butter all along?
Thanks for the advice and try to bear with me. I'm learning as I go here
Greg

 

Bore Butter is all I use unless it's a match then I spit patch.

For patching....I used to wear the Wrangler denim shirts almost exclusively and once they were past my wife letting me wear them I saved them for patches. I still have a lot of patching of varying thickness tucked away in boxes!!! ( don't keep the elbow portion..it's too thin! )

Vic

 

[RJR]

Greg, I've been through a lot of small towns there in N.C. and just about all of them had fabric in the local dime store. As far as going in the fabric stores, I'm a regular in JoAnn fabric and Hancock fabric, I'm on a first name basis with most of the girls there. Of course I hand sew my own tents, my wifes primative clothes, haversacks, shirts, even quilts. Hancock has even asked me to do a demo on how to do a primative patchwork quilt. There have even been some of the women there that when I tell them what I am doing have brought their husbands out to a rendevous just to see what it's about. There are a lot of people out there that are more receptive to us than you might think. There are a couple of teachers at the school where my wife works that pass out flyers to the local rendevous (when I get them to them) so that the kids can get a better understanding of our history. Talk to the principal at your local elementary school, you might just get a convert. Take care, Rick.

 

[Zonie]

Greg: Forgive me if I'm jumping to a conclusion but twice you mentioned the jag was tight. Just a quote from your first post: "The closest thing I've found is military cleaning patches which work well with a .530 RB, but they're pretty tight after getting down the barrel using the jag on the ramrod."
In your next post you mention a 4X4 inch size.

If I jump to a conclusion I have to ask you, are you trimming the extra patching material off of the ball at the muzzle after you start the ball with a short starter? If you don't trim it and use a jag on a ram-rod to shove an oversized patch and ball down the barrel it will wrap around the jag as it goes down and make removing the jag and ramrod damn near impossible.
The patch for a .54 should only be about 1 3/8 X 1 3/8 square or 1 3/8 diameter for a round one.

You also should always have some kind of lube on the patch even if it is just spit (not recommended). A dry patch will make loading hard, not soften the powder fouling and tear during firing so the accuracy goes to H in a handbag.
If you don't want to buy some fancy stuff just use a light coat of Shortning like Crisco on the barrel side of the patch.

If I am misreading your posts forgive me but I had to ask.

 

[WNC]

Zonie, sorry I forgot to leave that out. I do cut the material down into square patches. The full sized 4x4 patch would definately be a big mistake seeing as I just got that shop-rag out of the barrel last week or so. The guy I traded with on some other things said the barrel had a patch and jag stuck in it, not a whole beach towell.
Anyway, I think I might give some Crisco a try and see how much difference that makes. Guess I should start using some type of butter on it.
I'll pick some up next chance I get and keep my eyes open for some better patch material. My wife's gonna love them calipers sticking out of my back pocket when we go in.
Thanks for the advice
Greg

 

[Deadeye]

If you have any women in your area there will be a fabric store nearby. If they don't have pillow ticking(that's what you want for shooting patches)
they will order it for you. I just bought some locally last week, it's about 9.00 a yd. but it was 60" wide. You can buy Ox yoke at the muzzleloader store but it's about 6.00 for 18" x 36". Lot cheaper at the fabric store. Cleaning patches are a different thing, for these buy soft cotton flannel, don't use it for shooting patches.
For patch lube you can't beat spit. It will outshoot anything I've ever tried.
Deadeye

 

[musketman]

quote:Originally posted by Deadeye:
If they don't have pillow ticking (that's what you want for shooting patches)
they will order it for you.Make sure its a manly pattern, like blue stripes...

I have seen pillow ticking with sissy flowers and hearts on them, I would get laughed off of the range if I showed up sporting a length of pink flowered ticking...

 

[Notremor]

Fabric.com has pillow ticking (in all sorts of manly colored stripes) white flannel, and heavy cotton canvas. THey frequent have specials with free shipping. Tom.

 

[WNC]

Made a call out to wally-world today and spoke with a lady in the 'craft section'. Apparently they sell quite a bit of fabric there too. She sounded like a lady who had been in the cloth business for a while and after asking her if they had any cotton pillow ticking, she "oh, of course. What color are you looking for?"
I hope to stop by there tomorrow and whip out the ol' calipers and do some comparisons.
Thanks for the advice
Greg

 

[musketman]

quote:Originally posted by greg:
I hope to stop by there tomorrow and whip out the ol' calipers and do some comparisons.Wally-world is open christmas day?

I had to laugh, "wally-world" is the name of the place they were going to on National Lampoon's Family Vacation...

 

[WNC]

They were open last X-mas day. It's supposedly one of the "super" wally-worlds.

Musketman, you ever hear of anyone on here using Glycerin as patch lube? I have a bottle that was left over from the rattler skin I tanned and I was wondering if it/how it would work.
Greg

 

[musketman]

quote:Originally posted by greg:
You ever hear of anyone on here using Glycerin as patch lube?I don't think it would do that good, the only real way it to try it and see for yourself...

Glycerin is a neutral, sweet-tasting, colorless, thick liquid which freezes to a gummy paste and which has a high boiling point. Glycerin can be dissolved into water or alcohol, but not oils. On the other hand, many things will dissolve into glycerin easier than they do into water or alcohol. So it is a good solvent.

Glycerin is also highly "hygroscopic" which means that it absorbs water from the air, I think this would promote rust inside of your barrel.

 

[Haggis]

I use long strips of my old cotton t-shirts (sans the arm pits). I use a spit patch if I'm plinking and a dry patch if I'm hunting. By-the-by, if you watch close you can find the charred patches and use them as fire starters.

 

[WNC]

So from what I see on patch lubes, they're mostly used for easier loading, for keeping the fouling soft so as to get more shots between cleaning and make cleaning easier. Is there anything too critical about using a dry patch or is this too hard on the rifling?
Greg

 

[musketman]

A "DRY" patch could, and will burn through, resulting in a gas leak and reduced velocity...

The wet patch will do all that you stated plus keep the hot gasses from burning a hole in the patch.

Lead is harder than cloth, so there is no worry about patching material hurting the riflings...

 

[Ironwood]

I buy my pillow ticking from Wal-Mart Fabric Center. There are a couple of things to consider when buying. Be sure to take your mic or calipers along to measure the thickness of the material. Look for the 100% cotton pillow ticking that is made from blue and white threads, not the kind where the pattern is just printed on. Most of the real pillow ticking runs .015" and up.

Musketman, I'm afraid you are in error about pure lead being harder than the cloth patch. The cloth of a patch actually engraves the lead of a ball.