Vellum?

[wonderwolf]

Has anybody tried the rolls of tracing paper vellum you get at office supply places? Thoughts?

[45 2.1]

Yes, and about everything else you can come up with. Thin stuff, depends on what you want to do with it. 2 wraps doesn't add much diameter.

[wonderwolf]

How strong is it? Its ok if its not all that thick I'm wanting to try to just add .004" to the boolit.

[45 2.1]

The vellum i've tried was drafting vellum. Wet tear strength was just under 9 lb onionskin and wrapped and twisted ok, but don't be too rough with it. To gain 0.004", you will need a measured thickness of 0.001" or just slightly thicker. You might try tracing paper (which usually comes on a roll) also since it is close to that thickness.

[wonderwolf]

yeah, I've been looking for the .001" thick paper but the only supplier is on the north side of the city and they don't know how blasted thick their own paper is. "pretty thin" is neither a metric or standard measurment last time I checked. I might go with a roll of the traceing paper, might be a little easier to fold and cut patches out of that as well. thanks for the help

[45 2.1]

I always take a micrometer with me to measure thickness with. It's the only sure way to get what you want. I've had poor results when any paper that says eraseable on it also, very hard to wet and roll properly.

[bcp477]

I'm just getting into paper patching myself, but I wonder it might be more productive for you to go in the direction of sizing your bullet, then choosing a paper (thickness) to match - thus creating a final product of the needed diameter. I mention this because this is exactly the solution that has worked best for me. I buy bullets at .321 - .324" in diameter, size them to .314", using an inexpensive Lee die....then patch them with 2 layers of ordinary lined notebook paper (which happens to be exactly the right thickness for my needs). The end result, after drying, works out to between .324" and .325"....perfect in my Yugoslav M48 ("8mm Mauser").

Perhaps you've already considered this sort of approach. I just mention it in case it might be of help.

[wonderwolf]

I'm just getting into paper patching myself, but I wonder it might be more productive for you to go in the direction of sizing your bullet, then choosing a paper (thickness) to match - thus creating a final product of the needed diameter. I mention this because this is exactly the solution that has worked best for me. I buy bullets at .321 - .324" in diameter, size them to .314", using an inexpensive Lee die....then patch them with 2 layers of ordinary lined notebook paper (which happens to be exactly the right thickness for my needs). The end result, after drying, works out to between .324" and .325"....perfect in my Yugoslav M48 ("8mm Mauser").

Perhaps you've already considered this sort of approach. I just mention it in case it might be of help.

Yes I have, the problem is getting a precision die in the size I want. I could make one but I don't live at home where my lathe is right now. the size is going to be odd like .442 or something using the paper I have right now.

[45 2.1]

Yes I have, the problem is getting a precision die in the size I want.

Lee Precision, any size push-thru for $25 OR Buckshot will do the same thing. These work fine for PP boolits.

[littlejack]

Fella's, I started out pp'ing last year to try to improve my groups. I started with the tablet form tracing vellum. It has workd out very well. This will not help you much as the thickness of mine is .0025. It is however strong when dried and performs well when leaving the muzzel "nothing but confetti." It will tear if applied too wet and pulled too much but after drying, is very strong in my opinion. Still have other issues with the rifle, but enjoy the pp'ing.
Jack

[slughammer]

MEAD ACADEMIE tracing paper #54200 at the Wal-Mart for about $2.

I ran a search on MEAD. http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/...earchid=587995

For 2 wraps and a .432 final diameter I made a push thru .426 die. Sized the boolits first, then wrapped, dried and lubed.

[wonderwolf]

Picked up a roll of helix technical sketch tracing paper for $10, its a 50 yard roll so it should last awhile. I'm going to work on a better system for cutting patches rolled 10 test bullets and so far it looks like things are going to work out to .450 (+/- .0005). Theres a strong chance I'll get out to the range to test some if so I'll load up about 50 or so. I don't have a compression die so I might end up using the bell die if it goes far enough down into the case without belling the case a bunch. I have to size the cases as fired they allow the patched bullet to drop down inside with little effort.