Wetting patches

[high standard 40]

I'm new to paper patching and am learning a lot here. I read elsewhere that someone suggested using a clear soda (Sprite - 7UP) as a liquid for wetting patches before wrapping. His logic is that the sugar acts to help with patch adhesion. My first efforts have all been using plain water.

What do you use? Is the soda idea a good one or bad one?

[pdawg_shooter]

You do NOT want the patch to stick to the bullet. You will have NO accuracy. Pure water works perfect. Applied correctly and allowed to dry and shrink the patch is tight enough to require a knife or some such to peel it off. After drying and clipping the tails I lube mine and run them through a finish die to "iron on" the patch. It becomes a jacket more or less but will still leave the bullet at the muzzle.

[geargnasher]

I read that too and considered trying it when I first started, but was advised to try pure water first. I liked it so well that I don't use anything else.

Gear

[high standard 40]

Thanks for the reply. I was aware that you did not want the patch to be glued to the bullet. According to the Sprite user, the sugar only serves to help the paper stay in contact with the bullet in the patching process, making it easier. This was found in an article by Ken Mollohan on the LASC website. He claims good results. I have no clue since I have never tried it, so I thought I'd test the waters here.

One more question. What do you use to lubricate the patched bullet for sizing?

[CJR]

There are many wrapping techniques used for PP, i.e. dry and wet. If a selected technique works for your rifle, then that's the proper technique to use. I tried them all until I found what worked best for me.

My interest in PPCB is solely high velocity and here's what I've been successful with PP to date. I spray my 15BHN LBT LFN 150 gr. CB with a dry Teflon coating and size them to 0.0015" over bore diameter. I do not clean the Teflon coating off the CB before wet patching with a solution of water and Carpenter's Wood glue and letting dry. The dried PPCB is lubed and sized to about groove diameter and loaded. If I don't like a PPCB, I can easily remove the PP with my finger nail and no paper residue adheres to the CB at all to affect accuracy.

At 3034 fps (chrono'ed) and about 40,000 psi, my first two PPCB rounds on paper at 100 yds are always touching and the 3rd round always opens the group to about 0.75 inch. Two plus years of saved targets confirm that performance level. Now I'm working on maintaining a consistent small group size for many rounds fired. End of last year I had very promising results and hope to conclude my experiments this Spring. The changes tried on those PPCB were not conventional wisdom but they worked very well. Secret? Lot's of rounds downrange to test every PPCB change that was made. I was so confident with these PPCB that I carried them for deer hunting. Unfortunately, the deer did not cooperate. So based on my progress so far, my thinking is now focused on shooting these PPCB up to 1000 yds.

Suggestion? Try all the wrapping techniques recommended and use the one that works for you. Most importantly, enjoy the PP journey!

Best regards,

CJR