Patches and the like

[Dobson]

Just fired the new Jaeger last week and had trouble loading it. The barrel is a colrain I think with round bottom rifling and a slow twist (I think 1/70). Using a white denim patch of 15thou and a ball of 570 I had to hammer the ball in to start. The balls I have bought seem a little hard and might not be pure lead but I don’t know. I have acquired today some Egyptian cotton at 8thou thick and have to try it. However my gut tells me 8thou material wont take the pressure and will blow out causing loss of accuracy. What do you guys use??

 

[roundball]

Just fired the new Jaeger last week and had trouble loading it. The barrel is a colrain I think with round bottom rifling and a slow twist (I think 1/70). Using a white denim patch of 15thou and a ball of 570 I had to hammer the ball in to start. The balls I have bought seem a little hard and might not be pure lead but I don’t know. I have acquired today some Egyptian cotton at 8thou thick and have to try it. However my gut tells me 8thou material wont take the pressure and will blow out causing loss of accuracy. What do you guys use??

If you have access to a dial caliper, it might be good to mike the bore land-to-land, and also mike the ball, and even the patches just so you know precisely what you're dealing with. I'd be surprised if .008" patches are the way to go.

I normally use Hornady .570"s and an .018" patch in my GM .58cal barrel...however, I bought some Remington .570"s that I couldn't start without using a piece of 2 x 4 laying around at the range...I later mic'ed them and discovered that they were mostly .575"s and varied to as much as .577"...

 

[Blizzard of '93]

a felt disc overpowder and under PRB will keep the patch from blowing. grease the patch well not the felt.

 

[vikingsword]

Never having used felt disk( or even seen them used) I was wondering if these are stiff disc or what? the reason I'm asking is I can't picture how they are inserted, are they put down cut, like a patch, and how do you know that they stay flat and seal. I guess I'd just like to know cause I've been reading alot about them om this forum? Thanks!

 

[Blizzard of '93]

they are available in different sizes lubed and unlubed for standard rifles and smoothys from various suppliers. I make mine from Duro-felt, 1/16" for revolvers and 1/8th" for rifles using punches I make myself. for more responses post in 'accuracy' section, lots of shooters swear by them (and other wadding also).

 

[rice1817]

I have a Rayl barrel on my 58 Jaeger and a 570 ball sits on the muzzle. I load mine with .562 balls and .015 ticking and it loads and shoots fine.

 

[bart_anastasi]

I have not had any luck using Remington round ball myself.

I bought a box of .530's for my 54 once when I was running low.

As soon as I started to use them I started getting a occasional flyer which I blamed on myself. And bening tired at the end of the day.

Got home and found that many of them roughly every 6th had a low spot somewhere.

Since they were round only in name I melted them down squared them up just fine with my mold.

I am sometimes given boxes of RB and they are always Remington and they do cost 3 bucks less a box after all.

Not much of a bargin in my opinion. But they do make real good scrap.