I live in the southern MA./ northern RI. area of New England and the woods get pretty dry during the summer and fall months, normally the fire threat is pretty high during those seasons, so using flammable patch material in a muzzle loader is an invitation to considerable liability.
most of my muzzle loading shooting is done on wood walks or stump shooting on hikes or hunting.
Even most of the line shoots are held on ranges with allot of grassy areas that are dry and brown by Fall, when I was younger I was into period trekking and we were always pretty strict about authenticity as far as our dress, weapons, and gear but we always used heavily lubed cotton or linen patches to keep the threat if fire starting down to a minimum.
