Too hard to load!

[JJasper]

Yep, I did wash my patch material first. I just put it through one hot water cycle in the washing machine though, and used plenty of detergent.

I found that washing twice in cold water and drying on no heat works better for me.

Otherwise, it shrinks too much and thickens up to the point where it does get difficult to load.

These gents were right on when they recommended pillow ticking patches to me. I was the one who messed up by washing it in hot water then drying it on high. This left the stuff too thick with not much compression -- just as if I'd not washed it at all.

Now it holds lube to the point that the patch feels dry until I compress it when loading. I really like the setup this way. I can feel it being tight enough to grab the rifling, but not so tight as to need a mallet (which I was doing, as well!)

Josh

I'm especially interested in your insights on how washing patch material in hot water and then drying it with heat can be counter productive. That makes perfect sense once you think about it given the tendency of cotton to shrink.

Thanks for the offer of your homemade lube, but for now I'm going to see if I can stay with the Shoultz "dry" patch method, although I know this doesn't help my loading problem at all.

 

[Billnpatti]

I don't know if this will solve your problem but it has worked for me so I will share it with you. I have found a fabric that has made the best patches I have ever found. Jo-Ann Fabrics has a material called Pocket Drill. It is a tightly woven all cotton fabric. Wash it two times to be sure that you get all of the sizing out of it. Do not use any fabric softener. I dry it on a clothes line rather than in a dryer and then iron it with a steam iron to get out the wrinkles. Cut your patches and soak them in straight Ballistol. Squeeze out all of the excess Ballistol and you are ready to load them. I have found these patches to be easy to load and the fouling has been minimal. I miced the washed fabric and found the uncompressed thickness to be .018 and the compressed thickness to be .008. it is the only fabric that I have run across that has this much difference between the uncompressed thickness and the compressed thickness. This great difference between the uncompressed thickness and ther compressed thickness means that it will compress well when loaded and seal between the lands and groves in your bore. I use over powder wads that I cut from 5 oz. tooling leather using a hollow punch but your felt wads will work just fine.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Thanks for the offer of your homemade lube, but for now I'm going to see if I can stay with the Shoultz "dry" patch method, although I know this doesn't help my loading problem at all.

It's been quite a while since I last read Dutch Shoultz material but I believe an essential part of his "system" was swabbing between shots. That is essential with any dry lube load. It won't cost you a penny to try spit patch and you may be very pleasantly surprised by the ease of loading. Just adding more Ballistol will not accomplish the same result as Ballistol will not soften fouling like water or spit.

 

[nchawkeye]

Sounds like you have a barrel with a twist for round balls but is rifled for conicals...Sure would be nice to send it to Ed Rayle and have him cut you some deeper rifling in that barrel...I'm betting those shallow grooves are part of the reason for it being hard to load...

I'd also try some smaller balls, there is a guy that makes a .527 ball, he was written up a couple of months ago in Muzzleloader...

I'd also play with a variety of lubes, this can make a big difference...

 

[JJasper]

The idea of using a very slightly smaller ball is thought provoking I must say. On first thought that would seem like an odd idea given the fact that the bore is already a bit oversized at .545, but like you say, it is likely that the very shallow rifling could be one of the reasons it is very hard to load. Therefore, the bore dimension is immaterial to the problem.


That sounds counter intuitive, but I guess I am pushing against a great deal of groove area that in my case happens to be covered with many tool marks. This rifle has only shot about 200 rounds, so I know some would say it just needs to be "broken in."

This forum is very helpful.