Fuzzy Patches Question

[oldracer]

Sounds a bit strange I guess, but both my muzzle loaders do the same thing. That is the center of the patch is smooth and you can see where the ball is contacting it but outside the diameter of the ball it is fuzzy and some is actually missing? I asked the muzzle loaders that were at the range yesterday but no one had any idea and the best guess was some powder burning around the ball? The ball and patch both fit tight in the bore so I thought some gases might be slipping through the rifling but then the fuzziness would be uneven and it is concentric. I also thought it might be from the blast when the ball and patch leave the muzzle which sounds a bit better?

Anyone have an idea why?

[waksupi]

Need a picture!

[oldracer]

I knew it, when I was looking at the patches yesterday I thought about keeping a couple but decided against it> I guess that was not a good idea???? Maybe I can describe them a bit better: The center is actually dimpled in where it touches the round ball and on the ball side it is black and on the powder side grey. They started out blue with yellow stripes. They are round and the frizzing starts about 1/4 inch outside the diameter of the ball dimple and gets worse to the outer edge where about 1/32 inch of the diameter has disappeared.

I checked on another forum, American Longrifles, and saw several posts where it was noted that patches did this but no one posted why or such?

When I start the patch and ball I center the patch over the muzzle and then put the ball on top. I push the ball in with a starter and in most all cases the patch sort of gathers around the ball as it goes down the barrel. The force seems about the same for both my Hawken (short barrel) and the Lehigh (42 inch barrel) when ramming the ball to the powder. I wish I had a high speed camera so I could take a movie of what happens at the muzzle when the ball/patch/burnt powder all leave the barrel so I could see if that causes this.

[waksupi]

It sounds like the frayed ends are just blowing off. Nothing to worry about. As long as the patch where it contacts the lands is intact, you are good to go.

[SamTexas49]

How "new" is the barrel ? I had a green river rifle and shot it often at matches and finally noticed?realized I had "shot" the barrel in, in other words I had worn, smoothed the rifling from the machine cuts in the barrel, actually started shooting better, more consistant and no frayed patches.

[oldracer]

The barrel has 25 rounds through it so far. I looked at the machining with my borescope and it is really smooth with no machine marks present at all. the edges of the rifling are very sharp and since it has the rounded bottom rifling there is no wear visible there. I was figuring there will be some shooting required to get things broken in, but with the patched balls, it might be hard to say how long?

[waksupi]

A lot of the new higher end barrels come already lapped.

[wild thing]

My Lyman does this also. It dose'nt seem to matter because it shoots accurately. This rifle has thousands of rounds through it. If it shoots, don't worry.The only thing you need to worry about is if you are getting burn through or torn patches. Keep shooting the more you shoot the better the barrel will break in. wildthing

[oldracer]

Well hell, I was cleaning out the pockets of the trousers I had on when shooting and what do I find but one of the patches??!! I guess my memory is really slipping but anyways here are two picks. The light colored center is almost the diameter of the ball, the dark circle is the part that wraps around the ball and the outer part is what is gathered over top of the ball when pushing it down. In thinking about this, that extra material might just be excess that I could cut off but as the picture shows in another post I made, the gun seems to shoot pretty darn well!

[waksupi]

Those are just fine. Carry on!

[Omnivore]

Yup. Those are normal, or at least they look about like mine, and I've been getting good results.

You wouldn't look so great either, if you'd been shot out of a gun at super sonic speed. You know what the wind does to your face, hair and clothing at 60 miles per hour? Well this is more like a thousand miles per hour.

That's what I said to my son when we found the first fired patches, right after I got my ML rifle. "These almost look as though they've been shot out of a gun."

[Boerrancher]

Heck those look good, in my TC Hawken, the rifling will sometimes gut the patch, and I end up with little slits in it around where the ball sits. It doesn't show signs of gas blowing by but the edges are shredded, just like yours and it shoots really well. keep shooting you are fine.

Best wishes,

Joe

[odfairfaxsub]

Yup. Those are normal, or at least they look about like mine, and I've been getting good results.

You wouldn't look so great either, if you'd been shot out of a gun at super sonic speed. You know what the wind does to your face, hair and clothing at 60 miles per hour? Well this is more like a thousand miles per hour.

That's what I said to my son when we found the first fired patches, right after I got my ML rifle. "These almost look as though they've been shot out of a gun."

actually well put about the clothing analogy. speaking so the masses could understand.