Patching

[George Mabry]

Does anyone have a favorite patching material that mics out at .010 and is commonly available at Walley World or JoAnns? All the pillow ticking I've ever seen runs close to .015.

 

[George Mabry]

I have to take my words back. I was at a fabric shop this afternoon and found some pillow ticking that was .010. I'd still be interested in any other fabrics that you guys have tried and liked. My favorite that I use in my .45 flintlock is #40 cotton drill. It won out over the denims and canvases that I was trying out at the time.

 

[mykeal]

I've only ever used pillow ticking, usually 0.015 to 0.018 (not crushed). I soak a strip in a water/Ballistol mixture and let it dry, then cut at the muzzle.

 

[George Mabry]

Mykeal, up until today, all the pillow ticking I'd ever looked at was about .015. They even had one roll of ticking that measured about .005.

I don't shoot a lot of .535 caliber and so I usually just buy the Speer brand shot. I recently came across one of my old .535 Dixie Gun Works moulds that I bought back in the 70's. When the cast shot proved to be a little tight I put a mic on them and they measured exactly .535. So I measured the Speer shot and although it is marked as .535, it measured .530. That put me in search of a thinner patching than I was using with the Speer ammo.

The best shooting I ever did was using the "Dutch Schoultz dry patch" system. It was much like you described. I'd soak my patches in a solution of water and a water soluble oil, then I let the patches dry. However, I had to swab between shots. Is that what you're doing?

 

[mykeal]

Yep. Used Dutch's system to work up my .54 flint GPR loads. I'm shooting 70 gr ffg Goex under a .535 Speer rb with .018 (sometimes .015) dry lubed pillow ticking. 6:1 is the best ratio for that gun/load combination.