Paper patching for the Whitworth rifle.

[reenactorguy]

Im looking into a Whitworth rifle. I will be casting my own hexagonal boolits, .442 dia. With standard 9# rag paper .002 thick. what do you guys recommend for number of wraps to get it up to .450,.451?

[Red River Rick]

Two wraps of 9 lb onion skin paper, roughly 0.002" is what you want.

Rick

[Nobade]

Yes, a normal patch is two wraps so it adds 4x the thickness of the paper. The only variation on that is if you were using a Chase patch which is one wrap and doesn't overlap but I'd think that would be pretty tough to get to work in a Whitworth.

[Lead pot]

For a muzzle loader I would stay slightly under bore diameter patched because of the fouling with repeated shots fired. If you wipe between every shot than patch it to bore.
The patched bullet .002" under bore diameter will bump up and fill the grooves even using 1/20 alloy.
You don't want to push a tight PP bullet down the bore, it will tear the patch.
I use a lubed felt wad under the patched bullet.

Kurt

[Red River Rick]

Reenactorguy:

Just curious, which mould do you have for your Whitworth?

Rick

289973

[reenactorguy]

looking at one made by Pedisoli that buffalo arms has.

[Nobade]

Rick, if that's one of yours that sure is some impressive work. I'll know who to call if I ever find a Whitworth.

[reenactorguy]

Didnt see that one on your site.got more info on it.

[Red River Rick]

Nobade:

Yes, it is one of my moulds. I did spent some time machining proto-types (in plastic) on my CNC Mill before I got all the bugs worked out.
I have a P-H Whitworth and wanted a true "Hexagonal" bullet. A late friend of mine found an original paper wrapped cartridge at a gun show.
I duplicated it as close as possible, less the shallow "Dished Base".

Reenactorguy:

The bullet in the pic weights in at approximately 540 grains (97/1.5/1.5), 1.380" in length and 0.441" across the flats.

Rick

[Nobade]

Neat! Now if I ever find my rifle I know who to call.

[Kenny Wasserburger]

Very cool Rick, if I ever get a whit then you’re my first call.

KW

[MichaelR]

Does the patch unwrap in one piece, or does it shred into confetti?

[Good Cheer]

Watch out for the slight growth in diameter over time.
It can make your trip to the range a real teeth grinder.

[Kenny Wasserburger]

Does the patch unwrap in one piece, or does it shred into confetti?


It’s shredded by the rifling as it exits the muzzle should be confetti. Otherwise your paper is too thick and bullet to small, wraps at the muzzle means unequal bullet upset.

Kenny W.

[Thundermaker]

It’s shredded by the rifling as it exits the muzzle should be confetti. Otherwise your paper is too thick and bullet to small, wraps at the muzzle means unequal bullet upset.

Kenny W.

I wonder if it will shred with the unique rifling system of the Whitworth, since there are no lands to bite into the patch.

[MichaelR]

Thundermaker

That’s what I’m wondering about. The Metford pattern rifling also has no sharp edges to cut the patch, so about 2/3rds down the bore there’s a significant change in the rifling pitch that shatters the patch. I don’t think a mechanically fit bullet could be loaded into a muzzle loading rifle that has a gain twist barrel. So I was hoping that someone that actually shoots a Whitworth rifled rifle would answer if the patch is unwrapping or shattering.

[martinibelgian]

I have a rifle with Metford segmental rifling, no gain twist, shoots PP just fine... There acually are 2 kinds of Metford rifling, BTW. The segmental rifling is the later type.

[Buckshot]

............I have the Pedersoli hexagonal mould. Bought it a couple years back. It's a tad too large for my P-H Whitworth. I'd made up several Swage dies to use in my Corbin press. One of the first was for a PP'd dished base cylindrical slug to use in the Whitworth. When the base of the bullet see's the "Big Light", it does a very nice job of assuming the required shape. However if a person favored a hard(er) alloy, a shaped slug might be the ticket.

I'd posted photos to the board before, but they're all lost now since the building in France where the FotoTime servers were located burned down. I simply haven't had the 'Burn' to set back up and try to redo a portion of what was lost.

...........Buckshot