Patch thickness

[Paulk]

So I finally bought a digital micrometer and actually measured the patch thickness of the patch material I've been buying in strips and cutting at the muzzle. What I find is that the .018 blue pillow ticking strips mic out at .018. However the .015 red pillow ticking and the .020 strips both mic out at .019??? Looks like the commercial stuff isn't all that accurate and a trip to the fabric store with my micrometer is in order. What do you guys do?

[rollingb]

I never buy the pre-cut patches sold commercially, 'cause if I take my calipers into a fabric store I can see exactly what the material thickness measures, and it's usually a lot cheaper to buy the material and cut it into patches myself.
Also IIRC,.... the commercial pre-lubed patches are lubed with "Bore Butter" and I don't like the stuff. 

Congratulations on your new Micrometer, it's a handy little tool to have. 

[blackpowderbill]

My measurements depend on if I compress the vernier or just touch the cloth. Most of my stuff runs 12 to 20 ths. just touching.
 I prefer a 18+ patch for range/target work & my first shot when deer hunting. After that I'll run a looser patch/ball combo of 10-15ths for follow up shots when needed.

 



 

[prairie dog]

I take my micrometer to Jo Anns and take both compressed and uncompressed measurements.  I buy samples of different thicknesses and test fire to find the one that produces the tightest groups.  Then purchase several yards of the best one. 

[Paulk]

I take my micrometer to Jo Anns and take both compressed and uncompressed measurements.  I buy samples of different thicknesses and test fire to find the one that produces the tightest groups.  Then purchase several yards of the best one.

I just did just that. Bought some duck canvass cotton, denim, and linen to play around with.

[Winter Hawk]

So what did Dan'l Boone do?  I doubt if he had a JoAnne's down the street, probably no micrometer either.  I suspect he would have used whatever worn out piece of clothing that was available and been happy with it. 

Yeah, I have several yards of JoAnne's pillow ticking tucked away from which I tear strips for patching, just as I have begun using a ball starter and, for hunting, a bullet board, neither of which have any provenance as being used before the 20th century.  But what would have been used "back in the day"?

~Kees~

[Paulk]

So what did Dan'l Boone do?  I doubt if he had a JoAnne's down the street, probably no micrometer either.  I suspect he would have used whatever worn out piece of clothing that was available and been happy with it. 

Yeah, I have several yards of JoAnne's pillow ticking tucked away from which I tear strips for patching, just as I have begun using a ball starter and, for hunting, a bullet board, neither of which have any provenance as being used before the 20th century.  But what would have been used "back in the day"?

~Kees~

I guess he did the same thing we do now. Try different things he had available until he found what worked the best. We have a little better technology and resources  to work with to get the best performance out of our guns. Perhaps not.

[Hanshi]

I've never used commercial patches.  I have used everything from old t-shirts to denim.  While a couple of my guns do well with pillow, .016" and the thicker mattress, .018" ticking, I now use either cotton canvas duck, .020" or heavy canvass, .024" almost exclusively.  Denim is very good but the canvas seats more easily.  Ticking works best in my (tight) .62 smoothbore and US M1841 .54 rifle.