Round Groove Patch Thicknesses

[okawbow]

I also use chamois patches in my 54 cal. Burton barrel with round bottom, deep rifling. Works great for hunting and woods walks. Easy to load, and just about as accurate as a very tight cloth patch.

 

[Hunter John]

Yeah, absolutely experiment with trying undersized balls in the barrels you already own. My .440 RBs shot so accurate in my 50 cal Trade rifle with the 2 0.030 patches that I gave up on my idea of purchasing a 45 cal Hawken.

I guess I had one all the time and didn't even realize it. :wink:

 

[smoothshooter]

Don't keep a lot in the way of notes, but it seems like I could always vary the powder charge up or down a little or change lube and still get decent to very good accuracy with about any reasonable ball and patch combination.
I quit worrying about squeezing the last ultimate bit of accuracy out of my guns and loads years ago.
I have more fun and sleep better now.

" Let not the perfect be the enemy of the good ".

 

[Bob J]

I also use chamois patches in my 54 cal. Burton barrel with round bottom, deep rifling. Works great for hunting and woods walks. Easy to load, and just about as accurate as a very tight cloth patch.

Yes, chamois works great in round groove barrels, okawbow! I'm actually getting better groups with the chamois which I can load with the gun's ramrod than with the thick denim or mattress ticking - and they required hard effort with a brass range rod.

 

[Hunter John]

Dixie - Good info re your success with chamois patches. I've used many kinds of patch material, but never chamois.

Just curious, where are you guys buying your chamois and what is it's at rest thickness (caliper measurement)?

Looking at Joanne's Fabric online, I see the chamois prices all over the place.

Any other do's and don'ts re using chamois for patches would be appreciated.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Optimum patch depends heavily on the depth and width of rifling. Wide groove and narrow lands can sometimes get best accuracy from very thin patches.

 

[hanshi]

Optimum patch depends heavily on the depth and width of rifling. Wide groove and narrow lands can sometimes get best accuracy from very thin patches.

I always assumed it was the opposite; thick patch on wide grooves/narrow lands & vise versa?

 

[hanshi]

Shoulda mentioned. I've barrels with square rifling and round rifling; typically the round grooves are around .016" deep while the square are .012" to .010" deep. I use same patching (.024") in both, however. Got one very accurate rifle .006"; I use .016" patches in that one.

 

[Bob J]

Dixie - Good info re your success with chamois patches. I've used many kinds of patch material, but never chamois.

Just curious, where are you guys buying your chamois and what is it's at rest thickness (caliper measurement)?

Looking at Joanne's Fabric online, I see the chamois prices all over the place.

Any other do's and don'ts re using chamois for patches would be appreciated.

Hunter John, I went to Auto Zone and bought two pieces of genuine chamois, the type used for wiping cars down, for about $15.00. haven't measured it and I can say the thickness varies somewhat. However, it is so compressible, I believe that a variation in thickness is not a big deal as with cloth patches. Have lubed with Eastern Maine Product's version of wonder lube and with Badger Balm (from Cracker Barrel) and am getting good results. Don't try wetting it in your mouth :shocked2: :shake: and be sure not to buy synthetic chamois or you may have a real mess on your hands...

I cut out a cardboard circle using a pre-cut ticking patch, and use that to draw circles on the chamois, which are then cut out with scissors. Have had many shooting sessions with the original two pieces of chamois, and still have quite a bit left (even cuttiing out large .62 patches).

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Hanshi, what is your groove to land width ratio. Nearly all currently manufactured "round groove" barrels merely have a narrow round cutter as if they are made from small chain saw files. A few makers use round bottom grooves that are shaped more like half of an oval laid on it's side. Groove width was usually 5 or six times the width of the lands. Most round groove barrels today have nearly equal lands and grooves. I mentioned very wide grooves.

Harry Pope had a method of cutting round bottom grooves that were deeper along the lands and shallower in the middle with grooves almost 8 times wider than lands. The lands are literally more like rails. I had such a barrel made by H&H in the later 1970's. It also had a choked muzzle, Peculiar for a rifle barrel. shot with the best of them in light bench matches. It was burned in a fire a few months ago and warped. My target barrel is gone.

 

[hanshi]

I have two radius groove barrels; one is a .50 and the other a.32. They are both Rice barrels. The .50 has about equal land & groove and the .32 has wide lands and tiny round grooves giving the muzzle a hexagonal appearance.


The grooves are very deep, about .016". Both like .024" patches.

 

[Jim C]

That's an unusually deep crown. Don't think I've ever seen one that pronounced before.