So, after having good success with my regular cotton flannel cleaning patches as a stand-in for proper round ball patches in my smokepole, I did some research and decided I had to have me some of this pillow ticking stuff.
Armed with my dial calipers and a vague notion of what I was after, I started hitting up the local stores. I hate WalMart. With a passion. So I try to avoid going there if I can. There's plenty of local sewing shops and fabric wholesalers around. I'll keep my money relatively more local if possible.
You want to talk about odd looks. I'm sure most of you guys look just as out of place in Jo-Ann Fabrics as I do. Overweight, hulking bearded guy, shuffling thru every aisle because my A.D.D. and curiosity won't let me NOT see everything in the store before settling into the search thru the bargain bins of cloth. Not to mention if I've just gotten out of work, I'm filthy with grease and grime, and even after 10 minutes at the slop sink scrubbing my hands and arms, they're as clean as they get, which is to say not very, so I'm getting ugly looks from the cloth marms as I check the material, generally at arms length to avoid leaning on anything.
The local shops were worse. Smaller selection, and smaller shops, so forget just browsing with anonymity. Eventually, the dreaded "Well, what are you looking for?", followed by as vague a description as I can muster. All cotton. No synthetics. High thread count. Cheap. Then they get to "What color?". The answer, "Doesn't matter" does NOT cut the mustard with these people.
Then they want to know what it's for. Generally, I have the bad judgment to tell the truth. Reactions range from blank stares to bald outrage, with smatterings of incomprehending ignorance. One woman, who was trying VERY hard to be helpful, bless her heart, after I told her that this was merely to hold the ball in the rifling and would be discarded enroute to the target, she kept bringing me brighter and more garish patterns in the hopes these would "Show up better". I don't know if she thought I was gathering up and recycling the patches or if I was using this as some kind of fabric tracer round, but I ended up getting the hell out of there. Empty handed.
And did I mention that everytime I brought up the words "pillow ticking" they had NO clue what I was talking about?
With much gnashing of teeth, this morning I struck out for the Wally World. A SUPER CENTER, no less. Complete with jammed parking lot.
At length, after finally locating the fabric section (and refilling my canteen twice), I walk amongst the two shelves of fabric.
AND THERE IT IS! LO AND BEHOLD! THREE BOLTS OF THE STUFF!
And that was just the blue stripe! Two more bolts of the red! Why the HELL does WalMart stock this stuff and the local places don't? Are people really making pillows? Or are the black powder guys keeping this stuff around?
And the worst part? The goon that waited on me and cut the fabric for me? Was quizzing me as to my purposes with the Pillow Ticking, and I noticed as I went on that he kept asking more and more pointed questions, and I finally figured out that instead of seeking information, HE was quizzing ME to see if I knew what I was talking about, because he knew more about this stuff than I ever could have read about! And he started rambling on about the civil war this and cloth availability that. I couldn't believe it. When was the last time you were waited on in a Wal Mart by someone who actually knew something about the section they were working in??
So I have my precious yard of pillow ticking. And two more yards of cotton flannel for cleaning patches. And a grudging respect for the guy that works the fabric counter at Wal Mart.
It's drying on the line. Shooting will commence next weekend. I sure hope this stuff is worth all the aggravation.
Boots