Patch Material

[greenrivers]

I headed to a new Walmart Superstore the other day to buy pillow ticking for patches. Unable to find the material area I asked and was told that many of the stores no longer carry any yard goods at all. I will have to make some calls and find a store that still does if any in my area. Other than that it would have to be specialty yard good shops.
My question is what are others using other than cotton. Linnen? And without carrying a micrometer how do you judge the thickness of material. By feel? I have read that some use material of more than ten thousands in thickness and wondered if this is due to stretching or over sized bores?

[Winter Hawk]

Yeah, Walmart stopped selling yard goods here a couple of years ago also.  I believe you can still go to their website and order what you need with pick up at your local store.
 
As far as different thickness of patch goes, the ideal is to shoot groups with you rifle of varying patch thicknesses and ball diameters, with differing powder charges.  Only change one thing for each group, of course.  Each rifle is a law unto itself.  Some will shoot their best groups with a very tight patch and ball combination, others like it looser.  Some give best accuracy with a light powder charge, others want "magnum" loads.  Part of the fun of muzzleloading is working up the most accurate load for the individual gun.
 
Have fun!
 
-WH-

[keith44]

WinterHawk is right about individual guns liking different load combinations.  As far as finding the yard goods, I get brownie points by taking the wife shopping at various yard good stores and sewing shops, while she's doing her thing I hit the remenants bins.  Any 100% cotton tightly woven cloth will work.  Denim tends to be too thick, unless you happen to run across some really thin stuff. Pillow ticking usually runs around .014 to around .016 inches thick, and occasionally I find a light canvas material that is about .013".  Take a small piece of material with you when you go, and compare by feel.  After a while you just kinda know what will work.
Dixiegun works sells pillow ticking by the yard part# PA0101 it is .016" thick and 45" wide price is $9.95 per yard plus shipping.  If you get desperate.

[Ranch13]

http://www.sageoutfitters.com/catalog/item/7230243/7453984.htm

[keith44]

$5.99 per 1/2 yard plus shipping pricier yet.  Still if one really needs some it is yet another source

[Ranch13]

Same price give or take as the 11.95 Dixie has on theirs, plus if you sign up to get Harlans email specials, it's not uncommon to get a 15 % discount......

[necchi]

I simply DO carry a micrometer into the fabric shop.
Jo Annes
Hancock
Crafts Direct
 
And I do use denim. It can be found from .008 up to .025 thick. Wash it hot an dry it hot once to get the sizing out and good to go,

[sidewinder319]

I shoot Rice Radial cut barrels. They work well with thick tight weave patches. Walmart or Jo Anns has a 100% cotton Duc .024 it work great in my rifles.

[srussell]

i use denim  also i have some that is about .018. works great in my .54

[greenrivers]

Yesterday was too hot and muggy to work on the wood pile, so after making phone calls I found a Walmart that did carry yard goods. They had the pillow ticking that was .015 so two yards came home with me. Between it and the scraps my wife has, a range of material from .010 to .20 can be tested. Looks like the .54RB first as the .36 mold has not yet arrived from Track of the Wolf.
Once a charge of powder has been established, have any of you found that changing patch thickness is needed?

[Nobade]

Something that I have discovered is the "twill" cleaning patches that Brownells sells work great for shooting patches. I use the 3/4 inch ones in my .32, and bigger for bigger bores. They are cheap, I don't have to cut them, made out of strong cloth, and they are a consistant size. The other kind won't work, but the twill ones are great. Plus you can clean your bore with them if you want to.

[necchi]

Once a charge of powder has been established, have any of you found that changing patch thickness is needed?

How are you lubricating said patch? ( gotta know that before I can answer)
 
I have found that with each patch there is indeed a variation of the powder charge. It might be only 5 grains (or less) that will dial in the sweet group.
 
Once I find the best charge for the patch/lube combo I'm using, I usually go back and vary the amount of lube I use for the patch. If I change patch thickness, it's like starting all over again.
 
You need to experiment. It requires shooting, it's the only way too find out.
 
The real key is to change only one variable at a time, Change the powder charge, or change the Patch, or change the Lube.
 
Most of my guns have a prefered "range" of powder charge with the ball sive I'm using. Say somewhere between 70-80 grns gives me the best groupings with a range of patching thickness, so I can limit powder range testing choices to 3- 5 shot groups useing 70-75-and 80 grns for that patch. then change patch and try again 70-75-and 80, etc,,,
 
Once powder charge and patch thickness has been established for best grouping, I go back and vary the lube amounts,,, but by this time with just 3 different patch thickness (all lubed the same) I'm 45 shots into the day.
It's easy to burn up a pound of powder and a few range sessions too find the best Ball/Patch/Lube for each gun. Some guns like .490 or .530 ball, others like .495 or .535 ball.
 
Hint; Most of my guns like a tight fitting dryish patch. This requires a Short starter yet still capable of using the rod and a few strokes to seat the ball.

[Winter Hawk]

+1 on what Necchi said.  Also, check out Dutch Schoultz's method at

www.blackpowderrifleaccuracy.com

He was one of the top competitors until he had eye surgery which went bad.  What Necchi said about a fairly dry, tight fitting patch follows what Dutch has to say.

-WH-

[greenrivers]

In years past I used crisco and when bore butter came out I switched to it. For many years I have used maxi's only lubed with bore butter and have shot no round ball at all. It is my intent to shoot RB patches lubed with a small amount of olive oil and the maxi's now have a lube made of bees wax (just found a local source) crisco, olive oil and carnuba. I place the maxi's in a pan, pour in the hot lube and when cool, cut them out with a "cookie cutter". A lot less messy than the bore butter for both.

[keith44]

That's what I do for filling the lube grooves for all my cast bullets (different mix for each application)  I also make grease cookies using wax paper in the bottom of the cooling pan.

[P.A. Myers]

My 54s can use thick patchs, my 50s seem to need thin ones.  I buy pre-cut round patchs now. When I was young and poor I used T-shirts. When I ran out of my own I went to the Salvation Army and bought them by the pound. I used a lithium-graphite grease that I got at work. A paper cup full lasted a long time and worked very well, I wish I could still get some. 
 

[greenrivers]

White lithium grease is one of the ingredients in my smokeless loads but not in black powder as I believe it to be a petroleum based product. Or am I wrong? Cutting bisquits for over the ball or over the powder in handguns? Sounds interesting. What are your results?