Which patch thickness?

[wch]

How do you judge which thickness of lubed patch to use versus ball and barrel measurements?

[Denny303]

i think its all up to you more or less, the tighter the better for accuracy or so its been said. in .50 cal they say .015 patch. Well in my lyman i prefer a .010, im not one for hammering the patch and ball down the barrel when a deer is watching me. id sooner give up a lil accuracy for easier loading. when they foul it gets tight quick, unless you wipe between shots. trust me ive saw guys using a tree to seat the ball, saw ramrods that broke and nearly went thru guys hands, etc. Start thin and work up. good luck!!

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

you have to let the rifle tell you what it likes

cut a few patches of each start at .010 then if that goes down easy try .015 if that is still easy try .020 you can just use two .010 for that , take your caliper to the fabric store and see what they have , what every you don't use for patches under balls you can always use for cleaning , once you find one that is just right , buy the bolt and forget about it for a while

range rod is a must for cleaning so you might as well take it to the range to load also

[Maven]

wch, What GreencountyPete said! You'll want 100% cotton fabric regardless of patch thickness. Also, don't overlook pillow ticking, denim, pocket drill, and even material that looks like a painter's drop cloth, most of which come in various thicknesses.*


*E.g., 100% cotton denim comes in different weights, which translates into different thicknesses. Ditto pillow ticking, especially that made for outdoor use.

[swathdiver]

Yep, it all depends on what that particular barrel likes. Like working up a load, there's a need to work up a patch thickness too.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

I use pillow ticking mainly thought i said that in the other post but now that i read it i realized i must have been thinking faster than my typing

[oldracer]

The pillow ticking I buy at Walmart is 0.015 thick and in all my 50 caliber guns makes a 0.490 ball a snug fit and some forcing down the barrel is required. With a commercial 0.010 patch the fit a tad looser and I can actually hear some air sneaking past the rifling but at 25 and 50 yards they shoot equally accurate? The matches I shot last year I used the 0.015 material and my shoulders and the arthritis got pretty bad near the end of a match so at our next several matches I plan to try the thinner material.

As others have said, try each one to see what your gun likes and try to use a rest to take you out of the equation.

[johnson1942]

im going to contribute some thing ive found out with patches. i have only one roundball rifle left, a .45 traditional mountain half stock. it is a tackdriver. i have used all of the above patching material plus two thicknesses of tightly woven linen. they all worked for me. however the cotton pillow ticking could burn through or tear now and then. again however i have found a way to make easier to load material just as tough as even the toughest linen. lee/s alox as a lube. i now precut all my patches out of washed and ironed cotton pillow ticking from wall mart. sorry dont know how thick it is. micrometers tight to 5 thousands. i take the precut patches and rub into them completely alox lube. let them dry over night to stiff and dry. then the next day rub in again a little thompsons bure butter and then put them all in a stack and into a baggy. this patch goes down very easy and is very good at gas sealing. their is no burn marks or tears and the recoved patches could be shot again. their is slight fraying around the ege of the patch. my linen patches are this tough on their own but load harder and linen is costly. the alox lube made by lee is the key here. it will make any patching material even tougher, seal well and prevents burning and even tearing. i use the thompson bore butter to soften the patches a little. hope this hint will make shooting easier and more reliable for those who try it.

[rr2241tx]

I tried using patch thickness to make Hornady 490 balls shoot accurately in my 50 cal Green Mountain barrel and never got the results I was looking for. A .500 Lee roundball mold cast with pure lead and patched with a Cabela's .005 pre-lubed round patch shoots like target ammo. I'm of the opinion that if your ball isn't engraved by the rifling you aren't far removed from smoothbore accuracy.

[johnson1942]

i agree, thanks for the post.