AmericanLongRifles Forums
General discussion => Black Powder Shooting => Topic started by: Naphtali on July 30, 2017, 08:21:18 PM
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Patched round ball shooters may experiment with using different patch thicknesses, or RB diameters, or exhaust their supply of either component. I expect that most of these shooters have [tried??] jury-rigging loads by using more than one patch when loading - that is, double patching thinner cloth patches to emulate the thicker patch they prefer or exhausted.
As best you can, patched RB shooters, how does such jury-rigging effect accuracy, consistency, and perhaps velocity?
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I've certainly done this before and it appears to work okay. I prefer "one" thick patch but don't really worry about it if I have to use two, instead.
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I tried it decades ago and didn't get as good of results as what I was hoping for.
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Years ago when I was still wet behind the ears with respect to ML rifles, I used 2 patches of different material to get a perfect fit for the nominally .495" RB (.497" in fact) in my .50cal. Mowery rifle. Accuracy was excellent, but went to a single.018" (compressed) pillow ticking patch when I could no longer duplicate my original, i.e., double, patch thickness.
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Ran out of patches once years ago. Pulled my T shirt out of my pants and came home with a row of holes across my belly. Tried to use 2 at a time but didn't have a lot of luck, a good laugh but that was it.
Mark
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My grandad said the only real whipping his mother ever gave him, was for cutting bullet patches out of his shirt tail.
Hungry Horse
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I watched a scruffy good old boy with a ratty longrifle at a shoot use his t-shirt for patching because he forgot his. People made fun of him till he won! At the prize ceremony someone gave him a new primitive shirt.
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Late last year, while shooting our trail alone, I ran out of patches, so I started walking back out, and along the way, picked up dropped pre-cuts that I found along the trail. I used them all, and never missed a shot. But I know that all the folks who shoot our trail use good and appropriate material for their patches. Double patches, as when you are trying to use a .50 cal ball in a .54 cal rifle, don't work.
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As the target notation says, I used 2, .017" denim patches with a .662" ball in my .69. That runs .662" + .034" + .034" = .730". the groove to groove diameter of that barrel is .690" = .010"+ .010" = .710", thus the .010" compression each side in the bottom of the grooves seems to have worked. Note, I used only a light 3 drams, 1,200fps load - low pressure lets you get away with this sort of Tomfoollery. Except for the flinched shot way off in the boondocks, not a bad 5-shot group at 50yards, 6 counting the 'flyer'- lol- tight-eyed flyer it was, too!
So- does it work - yes - IF you run VERY low pressures. Increase the pressure as Taylor noted, and no - not bloody likely going to be happy.
(https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpreview.ibb.co%2Fmxoh6a%2FP1012731.jpg&hash=59b362015a5fec90a7562be3c2eb48d96e2a7a44) (http://ibb.co/nNfJev)
Almost as good as normal patches and balls.
(https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpreview.ibb.co%2FhENLsF%2FP1012729.jpg&hash=655799a57108c99437c58091e16757c25f9b32f9) (http://ibb.co/ciavRa)
facebook image upload (http://imgbb.com/)