Patch Thickness

[missionary5155]

I have been Coal Burning for34 years. I bought a .45 kit in 1974 and finished it that fall. Shot my first deer with my .58 Zouve and been at it ever since with various tools of the trade. I have played with patch thinness and patch material... and Thought I would ask you.. What it the THICKEST patch and material you have SUCESSFULLY used in calibers .54 and LARGER ? I started playing with the thought and got to wool Army blanket (OD color 1954) ...
:coffee:

[Kuato]

Thickest I've used was in a 54 cal. with a .530 ball I used a .018 patch made out of pillow ticking. I went back to .015 cuz the balls were a bear to get down the bore after 1 shot without cleaning. Accuracy wasn't worth the trouble either. Shot just about the same.

I use straight black. For consistency, I compress the load a bit & thats about it.

[Maven]

missionary...., You may want to try a medium weight denim fabric; i.e., one that isn't as heavy as blue jean denim, but not as light as a [chambray] work shirt either. If I recall, the stuff that I bought measured ~0.022" thick, but would grudgingly compress to ~0.018".

[missionary5155]

Maven.. That should work pretty well... I had thought about the blue jeans double thick... could near get a .54 into ny .69... and still get a descent seal....
Just thought it would be an interesting route to go... what if all I had was my .69 and some .50 or .54 caliber... would it really matter...
And Black only.. FF

[shdwlkr]

Missionary
I use only pillow ticking of .018 in all my muzzleloaders from .32 up to and including my.54 never saw the use of having several different thicknesses. I have only been playing for around 40 years with them so what do I know right. My feelings are if it works why look farther. My pillow ticking I got from Walmart before they got rid of their fabrics department. think I got 14 yards for $10-12 should last me a few years. Example 1 yard gives thousands of patches for my .32's and even in the .54 I think I get 1-2000 patches. Might have to go shoot some more just to get a real good idea of when my patching will run out. My muzzleloaders are all T/C flavor though and that might have something to do with what Ican use as patching material.

[mooman76]

The thickest I've used, not sure of the measurement but it was from using the summer weight BDU material. I'm guessing somewheres between .018 - .020. It did shoot well with that but was real tight for my 50 cals. and my 58 too! It reallly depends on the gun and the bore vs. the ball demention. It does help with an older BP that is getting wore down some frome use to go to a thicker patch but that's a whole lot of shootin! I think what I normally use for regular shooting is like .013 or so give or take a .001.

[405]

Early on tried quite a few types, thicknesses of cloth. Finally settled on .020 pillow ticking- the white stuff with blue stripes. I wash and tumble dry it first then cut in strips about 1 1/2" wide and carry a couple of strips in the bag. Just go down the line like a ticker tape to the end then get another strip. Kinda hard to compare a lot of info about patch material- so many types/dimensions of bores and round balls out there. I only use blackpowder. I use a felt over powder wad then ballistol-water mix on patch, short start nub, cut patch, short starter about 4", then push to powder, then light pressure and check mark on rod, then Fire! In the 50 cal flinter I use pure lead ball at .495 and in the 54 caplock pure lead ball at .535. Have settled on GOEX FFg same as for the BPCRs I shoot. I've tried all manner of over powder wads including: felt wad, wheat germade, bran, cow, toilet tissue, cotton fluff, dacron, etc. ....... all seem to protect the patch but the felt wad seems to provide the most consistent accuracy.

After off and on shooting muzzleloaders for years (late 60s) and experimenting with most every combination I could try.... settled on that combo. The flinter has an unknown/unmarked barrel. The caplock barrel is an H&H heavy at 1 1/8" across flats. Both barrels have 1-66 twist.

[waksupi]

I have used a piece of old Hudson Bay blanket on patching an underbore ball to fill the bore. Not all that great, as much blowby still occurs, but would still be sufficient to do a deer in a dire situation. I've also used a lot of scrap brain tanned flank leather, as it is too thin for most of the things I make, but most certainly strong enough for patching. I think you could shoot the same patch for a year.
My standard is the blue striped pillow ticking. It works. First pick your patch, then pick the ball size. And remember, a short starter in an original bag is extremely rare, and original ramrods are common. They did not shoot a tightly patched RB way back when.

[northmn]

I really never measured it but I have used the bags that Lawrence birdshot came in before they went to plastic. They must have been at least .020. Usually went up in ball size before I went to anything over .015.

Northmn

[Rattus58]

I like a tight patch... just tight enough that I'm having to whack it down the barrel. Two things I've benefitted by this, one is better accuracy, with each of my guns too from 40 caliber to 58. the other neat thing about a tight patch is that you have to slow down a bit on loading at the range if you want to accurate and yet for hunting, you can use a slightly thinner patch and still get the accuracy you need but a much quicker reload and no necessity for swabbing (this is not true of my 40) to reload for that follow up if ever necessary.

Aloha... :cool:

[missionary5155]

Thanks again to EVERYONE ! Some patch ideas I had not thought of. I have been ramming the same old linen down and got to wondering about using undersized round boolits and how thick a patch or how small a ball I could go with in my .69 or .64... I guess I will have to give it a go. I do not fore see using.44 in the .69 but it may be fun in the .54... or .53 in the .69. THANKS again !