How wet do you make the patch?

[stronics]

I've been reading everything I can on patching the round ball. I read to use this or that lube. I appreciate that. but, do you soak it, slightly wet, or how much usually for a patch.
Thanks,
David

[mooman76]

What type of lube are you taking about? I don't use any that you would consider wet unless you are taking about spit patch but you don't want it so wet it is dripping off whatever it is. I have used bore butter and also crisco and you just rub a little on the patch. It doesn't take much.

[docone31]

I make my own lube, and I kinda lube the bejeebers out of the patch. I run with 70-90gns, and I believe I have enough powder to compensate for any lube contamination.
Literally, I can stick the patch on the muzzle, set the ball, ram and fire.
Clean up is a snap.

[Maven]

David, I guess it depends on how quickly you'll fire your rifle (?) after loading it, the composition of the liquid you're using (e.g., saliva, commercial moose milk, etc.), and the ambient temperature (e.g., freezing v. 40 deg. and higher). In short, squeeze as much liquid from the patch as you can and load as you normally would. If you must wait more than a few minutes between shots, you don't want a wet patch contaminating your powder. Btw, some guns are more accurate if the bbl. is wiped with a dry patch after seating the projectile atop the powder charge, but before capping or priming them.

[DIRT Farmer]

The round ball match rifles get a patch "chewed dry. Put the patching in your mouth, dampen it then try to get the moisture out by sqezing it between your teeth. In my guns the patch needs just enough to lube the barrel.
If using a precut that you dampen, yse a spray bottle and stack enough for the match. If there is any dampness on the top one, after they set a few minuites, all patches are damp enough.

[Boerrancher]

I stuff a piece of patch material in my mouth large enough to cut about 4 patches out of. I keep it moist, but not soaking wet. If you have wet spots on your short starter when you first start the ball before you cut your patch then it is too moist. I don't do shooting matches, but have had a muzzle loader of some sort for nearly 30 years.

Merry Christmas,

Joe

[troy_mclure]

i keep my patches and lube in a ziplock bag. with 100 patches in it the lube slightly "squishes".

[Hanshi]

More than just damp but not drippy. I like them good and wet.

[stronics]

Thanks a lot guys, thats what I was wanting to know. I was lightly spraying (misting) mine with my lube. I use the HP, RA and MOS. I think I'll try a little more now.
It is starting to come together. The new Green Mountain barrel in 45 is doing really good, I'm still working on refining the process though. Yesterday I put 6 in 3/4" at 30 yds. It was snowing and cold my eyes were watering but I just wanted to get familar with the gun so that group plesently supprised me.
Thanks guys,
David

[405]

More than just damp but not drippy. I like them good and wet.

Good description, sounds about like what I do.

Seems like the concerns about too wet are mostly hypothetical. If the patch is too dry or has very little lube, then what's the point? I use moose milk (Ballistol/water) and the patch material (area where ball will sit) is plenty wet, fully saturated when loaded. 99% of the time I patch with a strip of patch material and cut at the muzzle. No dripping and the excess is either absorbed by the adjoining material or is no issue anyway because the patch strip is handled during loading. When compressing the patch material around the ball at loading, no oozing even with a fully wet area on the strip. Additionally, as the ball is run down the full length of the bore it is shedding some lube along the way. I've left such PRB black powder loads with the moose milk lubed patch loaded for 3-4+ days and can tell no difference when firing vs those loaded and fired immediately at the range.

I quit using heavy lubes (bore butter, wonder lube, etc.) for patch lube a long time ago. Many of them only led to hard fouling and did nothing for accuracy and at times probably caused poorer accuracy due to the hard fouling.

[DIRT Farmer]

As you can see, there is a lot of differance in what people find to work. For hunting I still use mutton tallow/deer tallow. Not only does it work, it is tradational

[Bad Ass Wallace]

For target shooting I use a method passed on to me referred to a "Shooting wet".

First shot, a dampened patch (moose milk) with ball is seated. After the shot, a single pass with a fresh dampened patch in and out. The new powder charge is then set into the barrel using a 36" long brass drop tube and a new patched ball seated into the 'wet' barrel.

Every ball is therefore seated into a lubed unfouled barrel and is very easy to load. My group size has less than halved with this method!

[Hang Fire]

Hunting patches are lubed, for plinking and target patches, pretty wet with Copenhagen generated spit.

[piwo]

Hunting patches are lubed, for plinking and target patches, pretty wet with Copenhagen generated spit.

I'm guessing my "Red man / bubble yum" mixture of years ago might be a poor choice by comparison? :D

[White Smoke]

At the range, I use water. I'll dip a patch and then squeeze as much water out as I can. For hunting with patched loads, I use Bore Butter. I rub the butter in until the patch is completely saturated and then wipe off as much of the excess as I can with my fingers. You don't want too much liquid to where the powder gets compromised.