old patching

[smylee grouch]

Went shooting this evening and tried some old patching that I found from about 4 years ago. The stuff was about 18/19 thousands and lubed with wonder lube bear lard mix. Tried loading the stuff and it just disentigrated on loading what I thought was a not too tight of ball-patch combo. It was 100% cotton denim that I had used befor with no problems. Has this happened to anyone else? Does the fabric break down after a certain period of time or am I dealing with something else?    I switched to 20/1000 teflon that was 3 years old and had real good groups.   Smylee

[Habu]

 It happens.  The lube is probably good short-term (maybe a year or two), but over time something in it causes the fabric to deteriorate. 

[Candle Snuffer]

I also have had old lubed patches go bad.  Like Huba said, I believe the lube does breaks down the fabric over time.  I mostly just spit patch now and only lube enough patches for when I'm out hunting where that load may be in the barrel for days or even weeks.

[Roger Fisher]

Bear Lard well it got rotten/rotted!

[Daryl]

Just about any of the lubes we use will break down the fabric over time if kept damp. the water based ones just dry out before rotting the cloth - generally, but not always.