Poly_Patches ? Idea

[bpbrs]

You guys remember the CVA poly-wad/patch?
I just came across a whole horde of them and was wondering outloud here how they might work as a gas check under a PRB?
Not that I need another loading varabile. LOL

Any thoughts? Anyone tried it?

bpb

 

[Bill Hall]

When they first came out in the 70's, I heard nothing but bad accusations about them. I think most of the insults thrown at them were due to the bias of traditional shooters, mountain men and the like. I heard the manufacturer was getting sued because the poly patches melted as the gun was fired and left plastic in the rifling. I doubt it.

One thing I did here that may be true is that they don't grab the ball enough to put a good spin on it. Meaning, as the patch and ball travel down the barrel, the poly patch will spin with the rifling, but just slide around the ball. Makes sense, a hard round ball sitting in a somewhat hard round cup (ball and socket). I also wonder if the ball will stay put. I guess you can tell I've never used them. Don't see a need to. Bill

 

[Slamfire]

I think he's askin' about usin' 'em in place of a bore button. I don't know that the plastic is that hard to remove from the bore, that I'd give up on something that mady my load very accurate, after all there's been plastic in my shotguns barrel since the 60s. :surrender:

 

[CoyoteJoe]

I shot a few back when they were new. I didn't find any problems nor any advantages. There was some talk that the ball could come loose, roll a few inches up the bore and serve as a bore obstruction. Hornady has reintroduced the idea so I guess they don't foresee any problems with it.

 

[GreyWhiskers]

bpb,

I bought some of those in the early 80's. Only used a few before I found out the ball would drop if the barrel was lowered. I finally threw em out a couple years ago. Aterwards I wondered, like you, if they would make a good seal between the powder and patched ball. Also wondered if they would make good indoor practice rounds used with just percussion caps. GW

 

[bob1961]

One thing I did here that may be true is that they don't grab the ball enough to put a good spin on it. Meaning, as the patch and ball travel down the barrel, the poly patch will spin with the rifling, but just slide around the ball. Makes sense, Bill

that's weird, how can a ball sitting inside a patch that fits the bore when seating it"unless ya can push it down with a plastic straw that it's such a loose fit" not spin with the patch....basicly it would be like using dicky work pants as patch material, not 100% polyester but close....how loose a fit would allow the ball to just roll down the barrel if tipped, unless yer talking bout the patch and ball sliding a bit....but then that goes back to such a loose patch and ball combo that i know i wouldn't even try, sliding a bit down bore by just tipping the barrel to move it but ya heard things like no patch in rapid fire shoots where the shooter just dumps powder then ball and a tamp with the ram rod and shoot :hmm: :v ..............bob

 

[longcruise]

There were poly patches for rb and poly wads for conicals. I tested the polly wads in my .50 with maxi balls and found no diff in accuracy or velocity from the same load without the wad.

The poly patches came initially in a double ended plastic cup shape. You could load the ball in either end. Later they changed it to a single cup with a sort of skirted base. I still have a bunch of the double ended .58 cal and single ended .45 cal patches in a box somewhere.

My own experience with them in .45, .50 and .58 cal guns was that they were very accurate. The were much maligned by the purists and many stories were circulated about them. I see several of them repeated above! The only story I ever heard that concerned me was the possiblility of the ball coming loose from the patch and sliding down the bore. I couldn't make it happen and was also pretty sure that if it did come loose it would fall all the way out of the barrel rather than hang part way. Even though I could not make it come loose, I never used them for hunting since my country involves a lot of hiking and climbing which might eventually loosen the ball up.

When I'd shoot at paper at 25 yards with a .58 it was very common to find the patch laying at the base of the target frame and a perfect circle impressed in the paper target where the patch had hit a few inches below the ball. I don't think accuracy could have held up as well as it did out to 100 yards if the ball were not being spun by the patch.