I make draw string bags from pant legs. Perfect for carrying ammo to and brass back from the range. Got the idea from member Slughammer.
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I watch out for things I can use in shooting when I am out and about. One day I ran across a company that had industrial presses, they were cutting and bagging shooting patches by contract. So, they needed a little help taking out the trash, I got two big leaf trash bags loaded into my truck, of patch cloth scraps. The edges make big patches, the spaces between make 22 size patches. I just cut them up into zip lock bags full.
I have tried the paper products for patches, they tear up and pull apart. Cloth is best for a patch, always pull a patch through, do not push a patch. I only make a patch just snug, not tight.
I make few bucks clearing stuck objects from barrels every year.
We had to wear cotton socks at work to conduct and dissipate static electricity, so I got into the habit of buying gym socks and wearing them all the time. Mostly white, and a few black pairs for “formal occasions.”
When the heels wore through, I’d wash and bleach them one last time and cut them into squares for cleaning patches. They absorb cleaning solvent and barrel grime as well as they do foot sweat, and are thick enough to not tear through, even with the barrel in a vise and both hands and shoulders pushing on the cleaning rod.
It’s less the fact that I’m cheep (I buy the arsenal and cotton patches for BPCR match shooting); it’s that I’ve come to despise the throwaway culture we have now. Things that used to get fixed are now found to be “not supported” anymore, and are supposed to be thrown out and a new one purchased. It’s getting rarer even to see things repurposed, like using old t-shirts for shop rags; people toss them out and then go to Harbor Freight and buy a bundle of wiping rags.
I try to counter the trend to the extent that I can, wherever possible. I’ll drive my 1988 pickup truck with 355,000 miles on it until it crumbles to powder like the One-Hoss Shay.
Medical cotton or cosmetic cotton balls wrapped around a Parker Hale style jag. You can adjust the diameter easily. Loose wet patches followed by tight dry patches..
I have also used denim legs to make both sand bags and hole bulk ammo it is surprising how many of us think and do the same here !