making patches

[Tumtatty]

What is the best method for making homemade patches? I have a Pedersoli Brown Bess and would like to make patches rather than buy them.

I've heard pillowticking from Walmart works well.

What size should I use? Does the patch have to be round?

Thanks!

[725]

Well, you kind of have to experiment a little. It's a balance between the size of your bore, size of your boolit, thickness of the patch material, lube, & how fast you drive it. Pillow ticking is a wonderful, strong material, but so is deniem, flannel, old t-shirts, ........... The list is long. When I started out MLing in the early '70's, I was told to soak a corner of my t-shirt in my mouth, seat the ball in the barrel over my shirt and trim it off with a knife. Litterally, I walked around with holes in my shirts 'cause that's the way we did it. You know what? It worked pretty good, too. Patches don't have to be round, they just have to hold your ball firmly and be able to be seated fully against the charge. Any excess patch is a waste and has the potential to get in the way, I suppose. As long as it holds the ball and drops away cleanly after leaving the muzzle, you should be good to go.

[drumgool]

I made a bunch out of pillow ticking from walmart for my 32 caliber cut 3/4" square 's . heated up a 50-50 mixture of bee,s wax and crisco . Dumpded then in dip them out and let them cool
then rub them between your fingers to get the excess lube off . They work great for me can,t tell the difference from store bought and for 15.00 have enough to last a liftime an then some.
what caliber is your Pedersoli.I do not know what size patches to cut for bigger calibers but it should not be hard to figure out . I hope this helps.

[Tumtatty]

it's .75 cal

I have a Jeffery Tanner brass mould for it which casts RB at .73

[badgeredd]

it's .75 cal

I have a Jeffery Tanner brass mould for it which casts RB at .73

An easy way to get a patch size is to take a piece of material, wrap the ball in it, and cut around the top. It'll be big, but it give you an idea as to the size you need to cut. Rounds are pretty, but squares work fine too.

Edd

P.S. I'd guess that .010 pillow ticking will work just fine for you.

[Maven]

What is the best method for making homemade patches? I have a Pedersoli Brown Bess and would like to make patches rather than buy them. I've heard pillowticking from Walmart works well. What size should I use? Does the patch have to be round?
Thanks!

Tumtatty,

100% cotton pillow ticking and pocket drill make excellent patches, but realize that they come in various thicknesses. You'll have to determine which thickness allows you to seat the RB without undue force. This will also depend on the diameter RB you're using. Btw, I cut strips of pillow ticking for my rifles and then cut them into square patches and have found no difference in accuracy between the square ones or the round ones, even those cut at the muzzle. One point in favor of pillow ticking is that you can follow the lines when you cut them with a scissor. Speaking of which, an inexpensive pinking shear (Fiskars) prevents the fabric from unraveling and makes a neater job than an ordinary scissor. One last point, if you use more than 80 grs. FFFg with a RB load, you may also want to use 1 or 2 overpowder wads (soaked in Crisco) atop the powder, but under the patched RB as well. Circle Fly, www.circlefly.com, has them should you wish to try them.

P.S. Unless your Walmart has an unusually large fabric selection, you'll want to check out an honest-to-goodness fabric store for pillow ticking and pocket drill. While you're there, look for unpatterned (white) 100% cotton flannel so you can make your own cleaning patches too.

[waksupi]

Good advise so far.

I will bring up a point I don't believe I've seen mentioned before.
As long as the patch is in full contact between barrel and ball, all will go well.
In the past, I have had ball and patch not go down properly, as could be felt by seating pressure. I advise if this happens, to pull the ball, and start again. The first instinct is to simply shoot out the load, and start again.
Suppose you shoot the firearm with a patch to one side. The patch gathers in a wad on one side of the projectile as it starts off. I can see where this situation could easily bulge and ruin a barrel.

Does this make any sense to anyone else?

[peter nap]

Glad Maven mentioned 100% Cotton. That's important. You should also wash it before using it.

I always cut mibe on the barrel but if you just have to have pre cut, pre lubed patches, buy a couple of different lots of ticking ( I get odd looks at the fabric store, micing pillow ticking)

Cut a patch on the barrel and pop it and the ball out. Male yourself a cutter out of pipe the same general size of the patch and use it as a punch. You can also weld a stem on the pipe and cut them out using a drill.

[Gunfixer]

+1 on above.
If you want to really go crazy, get the right size hole saw (1 1/2 OD works for 50 and 54 cal), grind the teeth off and sharpen to a knife edge. Used in a drill press you can make enough to wear your gun out in 30 minutes. Just keep your fingers away!!!!

[405]

Square, round, cut at muzzle they all work. I buy a yard or two at a time, usually pillow ticking. Throw it into the washer/dryer. That's done to soften the material which makes it easer to work with. Cut long strips that are wide enough for the bore size.... usually about 1/2" or so wider than the barrel flats (makes it easier to gather and cut). At the range or when shooting I lay the strip on the muzzle, apply a little moose milk to the center of the patch, lay ball in center and short start ball with nub on starter.... that places top surface of ball just below muzzle crown. Gather excess material with fingers and trim across muzzle face with sharp patch knife. Works every time. :)

[Tumtatty]

This is great! Thanks for all the help guys!

I've never lubed a patch before. I have some specialized Mink Oil and Bore Butter. How much do I need to put on the patch?

[Underclocked]

Anyone ever use Southern Bloomer cleaning patches for ball patches?

[shotman]

The SB s work good, that and bore butter. If you shoot black try bacon grease . take hot bacon grease and soak the patches .
It whats called bring home the bacon, smells good and you do get some strange looks

[curator]

+1 for 405's answer. You need to wash the pillow ticking fabric before attempting to use it. It comes with a starched finish. It ends up being a bit more compressable after washing. Tight patch/ball combination usually is the most accurate. Use just enough lube to ease the loading. Too much results in less velocity and more fouling.

[10 ga]

All the above give good advice, except for using old t-shirts, they are good for cleaning but not ball patching. I use pillow ticking and linen for patches. Bees wax/deer tallow/ peanut oil mix for lube. I hit the thrift shops/big yard sales for the linen, it is usually in some womens pants or jackets and you can get it cheap like that, all washed etc... After you find some it is really easy to spot linen due to it's distinctive color and texture. OH YEAH, use only natural products for patching, linen, cotton, wool and leather, the man made stuff will melt and make some messy stuff. 10 ga

[stubshaft]

The clerks at the local fabric store would think I was nuts when I would walk in and use a micrometer to measure fabric thickness. After finding the right thickness I would wash it to remove sizing and dry it out. I would mix watersoluble oil with water in a 8 to 1 ratio (8 water 1 oil) soak the fabric in it and lay flat on newspaper to dry out. This would insure that the same amount of lube was dispersed evenly throughout the patch. Never used bore butter or moose milk except to clean with.

[Tumtatty]

Hi Guys!
I got some pillow ticking and cotton flannel (for cleaning patches) at Walmart.

After washing, the ticking measures about .019.
My cast boolits are .730 and the Brown Bess is .75 so I think I'm in good shape.

I cut out a patch and it is a pretty tight fit when I try to push the ball in.

My question is..
How tight is too tight? Is there a rule of thumb?

Thanks!

[docone31]

A rule of thumb I use,
If I can set it with a ball starter, it is good for hunting. If I have to use a mallet, it is good for target. If it slides right back out, it is no good.

[Tumtatty]

Is there a "too tight?"

[docone31]

I can jam a .454 ball into my Colt Navy .44. I get a large ring of lead.
I am not so sure if there is a too tight. Once the projectile is past the muzzle, it has the rifleing engraved. It might be completely mishapen but it is in the bore. Once in the bore, it will go into battery.

[405]

Is there a "too tight?"

Since the right kind of fabric for patching is very strong the question of tight is mostly a practical one. I think docone31's ROT is pretty good. For the tighter fits I make sure the short starter and ramrod ends are a convex shape to match the ball's surface. They also have to be strong/large enough to take a good whack if needed and to ensure the end stays flush on the top of the ball.

Historically, some ML shooters wanted a loose fit for ease of loading for fast repeat fire as the bore fouled. Same kinda thing for the minie ball/military application. Some shooters today, for best anachronism, likewise shoot a fairly loose fit with the patched roundball. A tight roundball fit in a clean bore can become impractically tight in a fouled bore if not regulary swabbed/cleaned... unless one resorts to the mallet method :)

A little more on the pre-cut vs cut at muzzle methods. I started cutting at the muzzle a long time ago. I found that reloading speed was about the same if not faster with cutting at the muzzle. Also I noticed with the nice, perfectly round pre-cut patches that it was nearly impossible to start the ball absolutely centered in the patch. Seems as the ball/patch was started into the muzzle the patch would want to pull slightly to one side. Then I'd have to fiddle to re-center the ball in the patch. Another thing I thought of was some pre-cuts left a lot of material out in front of the ball. So with the likely non-concentric patch/ball along with the excess of material I figured to minimize as many variables as possible. So started cutting at the muzzle thus.... no loose patches to search for, speed, perfectly centered ball in patch everytime, no excess material in front of ball. It do work.

Pic shows a fired patch with ball sitting on top, "ticker tape" strip of patching and patch knife.