Does the fired patch really tell the whole story?

[Boerrancher]

I have always heard “recover your patches and they will help you determine why you’re having trouble making your gun shoot.” I am not sure I believe this to be the case entirely. The reason why I bring this up is my 50 cal, at 50 yds keeps 3 shots under 1.5 Inches every time unless I do something stupid. Because it always shot so well I never paid any attention to the patches, nor tried to recover them. A couple days ago while getting ready for ML season, I decided after a few hours of shooting, I would look for a couple of patches. I was shocked because my patches look like confetti. All my life I’ve been told that if your patch is cut, or comes out black you need a thicker patch because your gun won’t shoot well if you don’t. To test the theory I sat up set up 3 1 Ltr bottles at 100 yds and off the bench exploded all three. The chronograph says I’m averaging 1488 fps. I am a firm believer in if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. The load is 80 gr of Goex behind a .493 round ball, with 0.015 pillow ticking.

[Electrod47]

Just a thought...rough rifling can shred a patch also. I'v gotten some good accuracy out of some less than stellar bores in the past.
PS. I only check patches when I trip over one.

[Rockingkj]

I would agree with the if it ain’t broke don’t fix it if your getting what you want accuracy wise. If you were not, the patch can help diagnose a problem. I like to fiddle and would try a heavier patch just to see if there was any difference. As I have mentioned before
It take a lot of balls to shoot like I do. Lol

[indian joe]

I have always heard “recover your patches and they will help you determine why you’re having trouble making your gun shoot.” I am not sure I believe this to be the case entirely. The reason why I bring this up is my 50 cal, at 50 yds keeps 3 shots under 1.5 Inches every time unless I do something stupid. Because it always shot so well I never paid any attention to the patches, nor tried to recover them. A couple days ago while getting ready for ML season, I decided after a few hours of shooting, I would look for a couple of patches. I was shocked because my patches look like confetti. All my life I’ve been told that if your patch is cut, or comes out black you need a thicker patch because your gun won’t shoot well if you don’t. To test the theory I sat up set up 3 1 Ltr bottles at 100 yds and off the bench exploded all three. The chronograph says I’m averaging 1488 fps. I am a firm believer in if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. The load is 80 gr of Goex behind a .493 round ball, with 0.015 pillow ticking.

Aint broke dont need fixin is a good first principle -----if accuracy goes away then patches is the first and easiest place to start the search.

Not always the torn patch thats at fault
I have a 54 that I load hard (used to be 120 grains of FFG)
started out with a backer patch (1" dry calico ) on the powder then a damp calico patch on the ball - it was crazy accurate most of the time - just would throw an occasional wild one - was it me ? (good chance I flinched)
couldnt figure it out until one day I decided to go back to basics - cut a patch on the muzzle with a knife like the old dtimers
that was it - I was using precut patches and they were just a bit small every occasionally I would get a patch not quite dead centre and as it loaded the thing would skew a little - ended up with a little bit of naked ball - those flyers were not consistent in direction - when I went to work and used patches same size as that cut on the muzzle one - never had the problem again
It often the little simple stuff that gets us

[Boerrancher]

Thanks for the conformation that I’m doing it right.

[BLAHUT]

Aint broke dont need fixin is a good first principle -----if accuracy goes away then patches is the first and easiest place to start the search.

Not always the torn patch thats at fault
I have a 54 that I load hard (used to be 120 grains of FFG)
started out with a backer patch (1" dry calico ) on the powder then a damp calico patch on the ball - it was crazy accurate most of the time - just would throw an occasional wild one - was it me ? (good chance I flinched)
couldnt figure it out until one day I decided to go back to basics - cut a patch on the muzzle with a knife like the old dtimers
that was it - I was using precut patches and they were just a bit small every occasionally I would get a patch not quite dead centre and as it loaded the thing would skew a little - ended up with a little bit of naked ball - those flyers were not consistent in direction - when I went to work and used patches same size as that cut on the muzzle one - never had the problem again
It often the little simple stuff that gets us

Going back to basics always seems to solve lots of problems ???