Simplest homemade patch solution.

[txaggie08]

I acquired about 400 lead roundballs for just under 20$ today for my TC Hawkins. I haven't shot a roundball out of this gun since my father was alive 16 years ago...


What would be the simplest method for patching(material, lube, etc) these balls? just a piece of cotton and some form of lubricant? There's nowhere close buy to acquire supplies(i caught gander selling out the last of there stuff), and I'd like to do something simple.

 

[DOUBLEDEUCE 1]

If your TC Hawken is a .50 cal, use a .490 ball. The patch material can be cotton pillow ticking from the fabric store. Wash it a couple of times before using it to get the sizing out. Lube can be spit... not my favorite for a long day of shooting. There are other lubes (much better than spit, I get dried out )available you can buy that can be just the ticket for you. There are recipes on this forum to make your own lube if you choose.
For powder, consider FFFG black powder. A good starting charge would be around 50 gr. Increase the charge about 5 gr at a time until you find what your rifle likes. It won't take much in the overall scheme of things. 70 gr of powder will send the ball a long way. I wouldn't load the rifle up to the maximum charge if I were to shoot targets only. I would keep the charges low, around 50-60 gr. The distances you shoot will dictate the amount of powder used also.
Most of all, be safe and have fun.

 

[Bill Hall]

Crisco shortening if you don't like the spit. Work it into the patches and blot off the excess. Used it for years and it worked fine but can get messy if you have too much in the material. However, spit works well and is not so messy and it's free, but some folks just don't like the idea. Bill

 

[Zonie]

Well, as you want to shoot as cheaply as possible you can probably find some cloth around the house to use as a patch. Just make sure it is 100 percent cotton.

T shirts and old skivvies don't work well. They were woven to be soft to the touch and they aren't tough enough to take the pressures of shooting with them. They do however make good cleaning patches.

Worn denim like old blue jeans, old canvas that has not been waterproofed, an old pillows cover that holds in the stuffing (pillow ticking) (not the pillow case) will all work.
As the others have said, if you can get to a cloth store, pillow ticking, mattress ticking, duck or other fairly tough material will work.

Your TC will like fairly thick patches for a very tight fit with the ball your shooting. It will require some sort of starter block or ball to get the patched ball started into the bore but once it is started it will ram down to the powder with a fairly light (3-6 pound) force.

Lubricate the patch before loading by using some cooking oil, crisco, olive oil, or spit.
Do NOT use any petroleum oils like motor oil, 3 in 1 oil or similar oils. They will form hard fouling that is difficult to remove from the bore.

Have fun !

 

[nchawkeye]

Yep, buy your cotton ticking and lube yourself...

I use Stumpy's Moose Snot, the recipe is posted on here but for years I used SnoSeal for patch lube, it worked well also...

There are currently 3,987,564 different patch lubes in use and everyone has their favorite... :grin:

 

[txaggie08]

Thanks guys for the input.

Years ago we had pre-lubed patches, but unfortunately dad was not alive very long after I was given this gun.

I have to find my starter, It and my horn where built for me buy my father and great uncle(the horn was dads bullhorn).

I've been shooting about 60gr of powder behind theses sabot based rounds, But I want to revert to using patch and ball. I think I'll stick with the granulated pyrodex for now, I've shot real blackpowder before.

I thought I did pretty well on Ammo today, I ended up with 300 lead balls and 90 of the sabot rounds for 40$ after tax...

What is the best way to deal with/clean rust up in a barrel? I have another one just like it that....well it sat for a long time and developed a pretty nasty rust problem. I've run hoppes coated patches and a wire brush down it, but I'm always a little nervous dealing with it.

 

[DOUBLEDEUCE 1]

Give it a good wipe with a bronze brush and some WD-40. That is what I use when I clean mine. Run a bunch of patches down the barrel until they come out clean. Then maybe swab a little bit of Hoppe's gun oil in the barrel. It doesn't take much.

 

[ohio ramrod]

You can use many or any of the commerical solvents to clean black powder guns. But hot water ,with or with out a little soap works as well as any thing. Since disolving the fouling is only part of the game, you must also remove it! Water being cheap allows you to use a large volumeto remove the fouling. Alcohol also works well for areas you don't want to get water on.

 

[rafterob]

You may need to wrap some steel wool around that bore brush to really get at that rust. Get it as good as you can and then shoot it a bunch and that will help. Clean it good afterwards and lube it up for storage.