Ticking width?

[pepperbelly]

I went to Wal Mart today and bought a yard of the red striped pillow ticking- the lady told me that the blue stripe was mattress ticking.
I will wash it in hot water tonight.
Is there a rule of thumb for cutting it to the right size?
I will mix up some kind of lube to soak it in but want to pre-cut the patches. I will make them first for my .69 caliber musket since I already have patches for the .50 and .54.
How much wider than the barrel does the patch need to be cut? 1/4" on each side?

Jim

 

[boar]

Put a corner of it over muzzle of choice and center ball, leave a little around ball so as to cover the sides of ball and cut. A little extra is good not enought is not good. Use this for a pattern. Dilly

 

[Sherlock]

Precuts need to be a little larger than you think because of the difficulty of reasonably centering the ball and starting the load. Only make a few to try before cutting a lot of them. Consider well that patches cut at the muzzle are more accurate if that is your goal. WONKY

 

[Grizzled Roberts]

For my .69 musket I ground down a 2 inch hole saw for my patch cutter. With smoothbores it does not hurt to have a patch a wee bit wider than you would use with a rifle gun.
On back a ways there are some very good posts
on how to make the patch cutters out of hole saws.

 

[Claude Mathis]

Consider well that patches cut at the muzzle are more accurate if that is your goal.

I've not experienced this or heard anyone else suggest this idea.

 

[Stumpkiller]

How much wider than the barrel does the patch need to be cut? 1/4" on each side?

Set the ball in a piece of the ticking and wrap it up tight, then slice the material at the top where it is bunched with a knife or scissors. The piece you cut out surrounding the ball is your full patch size. Add a little on each side for slicing out of a strip at the muzzle.

She was correct. The heavier ticking is mattress ticking, but I have a blue & white striped pillow so it ain't ALL mattress ticking, either. ;-)

 

[paulvallandigham]

I don't think patches cut at the barrel are necessarily more accurate. BUT, you are less likely to run the ball down off center, and only get a bit of the edge of the pre-cut patch on one side of the ball, and a lot of the patch on the opposite side. That can cause patch failure, and blow by.

For a .69 caliber barrel, your patch has to be about 1.5 inches across, and that leaves no room for error. I would go with a two inch diameter patch. For the .50, and .54 use no less than 1.5 inches. If I were making my own, and grinding down a lock hole cutter, I would make a 2 inch cutter, and use the same patches for all the calibers. Only when I got down to .40 caliber might I consider making a second cutter.

If you take a strip of fabric, place it over the muzzle of the gun, use your short starter to seat a ball in the fabric just below the muzzle, as if you were going to cut the patch off at the muzzle with your patch knife, all you have to do is use a marker pen to mark a circle around the muzzle. Then, pull on both ends of the fabric hard to make the ball pop back out. Now you can measure your circle and know exactly what you need for each caliber.

If you check the prior posts here, many members have tried both round and square cut patches for their round balls, and find absolutely no difference in accuracy when the extra fabric is left on the larger sized patches. My .50 caliber pre-cut patches( commercial) are 1.5 inches in diameter. I use a precut round cleaning patch in my rifle, and also in my .62 caliber fowler that is 2 1/2 inches across. I also have 3 inch square cleaning patches to use in the 12 gauge.

 

[pepperbelly]

I may just cut them square until I get around to modifying a hole saw.
I might as well try lubing a strip and cutting at the muzzle too, since this is all for fun.

Jim

 

[Tkendrick]

I was told this in the mid 70's, and generally shoot that way, but if'n I had to swear on the good book it was true...... :hmm:

Gixmo Wonky Said:Consider well that patches cut at the muzzle are more accurate if that is your goal.




I've not experienced this or heard anyone else suggest this idea.

 

[Many Klatch]

Pepperbelly, try spit patching. It's pretty easy. Just put a corner of the patching in your mouth while you are measuring your powder and finding another ball. Then place the patching on the end of the barrel, push the ball in with your thumb and cut off the patching that sticks out of the barrel. Smoothbores shoot well without fancy lubes.

Many Klatch

 

[2172]

pepper, I just bought a yard of black and white ticking at Crawford fabrics..I washed it twice as it seemed heavy in sizing..the material now mikes at .016....I cut it into strips about 2" wide, lube and cut at the muzzle..Hank

 

[brubincam]

I cut mine square and use the same size for the --45--50--58--they work just fine

 

[pepperbelly]

I went back today and bought a yard of the blue striped mattress ticking. I figure I might need to try a patch a little thicker.
I might try spit patches, just to have tried it if nothing else. I still need to mix up some moose snot/milk/spit/slobber. It doesn't get really cold here in Fort Worth- and I tend to stay indoors if it does, so the wetter stuff should do fine.

Jim

 

[smo]

Pepperbelly, I rip my tickin about 4 to 5 stripes wide then cut it square, chew it up & put a ball in it then poke it in the barrel. I use spit patches to swipe the bore between shoots also. The climate you get in Ft. Worth is about the same we get here in N.W Alabama only we get it 2 days after you do :rotf: