Patch thickness for RB

[54deland]

Never shot much round ball......a lot confused about patch thickness, material, lubed or unlubed; lube them myself. Want to start out right with my Seneca and shoot prb only just not sure what patch to buy.....do I need to try them in all thicknesses and see what the rifle likes? Seems logical and they're not expensive, so why not?

 

[Dphar]

Never shot much round ball......a lot confused about patch thickness, material, lubed or unlubed; lube them myself. Want to start out right with my Seneca and shoot prb only just not sure what patch to buy.....do I need to try them in all thicknesses and see what the rifle likes? Seems logical and they're not expensive, so why not?

Buy a ball .005 under the caliber .445 for a 45 etc . Then use blue striped ticking the heavy stuff. If you make your own WASH IT then cut the patches.
Try PURE Neatsfoot oil for patch lube. Just wet patches, need not be dripping.
OR buy the blue striped pre-made/pre-lubed patches.
This will let you start.
There will be a learning curve to some extent.

Dan

 

[majg1234]

my Seneca likes 440RB,Ox yoke wonderwad over powder,.018 ticking lubed with beeswax and olive oil.Just pick something like dan said and start.Somewhere around 40-70 gr powder should work well,I'd start at 40-45gr

 

[mooman76]

Just something you have to try and see what your gun likes. Take a few different patches with you and give them a try. Your patches don't neccissarily have to be super tight to work. Some like them tight and some like them just snug so they are easier to load and still get good accuracy.

 

[David W.]

A Seneca has shallow rifling, so you need a thinner patch, around .015.

 

[Zonie]

.015 thick patches might work fine but if the groups are still large and the shot patches show any burns or rips where the ball was squeezing the patch against the bore, trying a thicker (.018) stripped pillow ticking might save the day.

I've found that rifles with shallow grooves shoot best with very tight ball/patch combinations.

 

[nchawkeye]

Are you hunting, plinking or serious target shooting???

The reason I ask is because in my opinion a tighter ball/patch combo while swabbing between shots will be more accurate than a looser combo...Many that start with patched balls think they have a tight combo until they gain more experience...

I prefer to buy my own pillow ticking, make my own lube and lube myself...It just adds a bit to the hobby...I also prefer to make my own balls...This way I'm only dependent on stores to provide powder and flints...

I'd start with both .015 and .018 patching and balls .010 smaller than the bore...As you play with combos also play with swabbing between shots, you might find that a .018 patch does well with a clean bore and a .015 works with a dirty bore...Then when hunting you have your followup shot if needed...

 

[majg1234]

Nope!!! I use .018 with all my TC's and get good results 'course I put a felt wad down atop the powder 1st.My TVM Smtn likes .012 patches and it has deep groove LONG HAMMOCK barrel on it,it too gets a felt wad on top of the powder

 

[majg1234]

yep I agree and I've only been shooting TC's with PRB since 1970's :hmm:

 

[rabjr]

I personally don't like to use anything under .015 and prefer .018, .020, .024 depending on the gun I'm using.

 

[AllenHawken]

I have a .54 caliber Hawken rifle that I built from an InvestArms kit. I have settled on .018 pillow ticking pre-cut patch with spit lube. I use it with either .530 or .535 Hornady lead round ball. I started out with .015 cotton lubed patch and got a lot of blow-by and low accuracy. Now I am using up the .015 cotton patches for target practice just to get rid of them. Enjoy experimenting to see what works best for your gun!