Patch box usage

[MuskratMike]

Who out there actually keeps their patches (either in a roll or pre-cut) in their patch box? In an effort to reduce unnecessary items from my shooting bag I tried putting my pre-oiled, precut patches in the patch box. Found it kind of troublesome to retrieve them for each shot. Considering keeping them in the patch box but keep just 4 or 5 in the bag. Usually I keep a few items rolled in patch material in the box.
How about you?

[Pete G.]

I keep the tools for cleaning and a spare flint,  padded with enough cleaning patches to keep from rattling.

[Bob McBride]

I pad my boxes with tow, keep a few jags, flint, flint leather, and perhaps a turnscrew in them. One has a pencil can of oil. Stuff I don't need to get at often. The rest is loose with my balls in the bottom of my pouch. quickest way to access what I may need and saves the space taken up by ball bags, tins, etc. I've got it minimized.

[MuskratMike]

You know Bob the reason I got thinking about this anyway was your last episode of Black powder TV. What's the next episode going to be about? Also the article in the latest issue of Muzzleloader Magazine titled: The Gusler Virginia Bag.

[Mike from OK]

I keep the tools for cleaning and a spare flint,  padded with enough cleaning patches to keep from rattling.

Pretty much the same. But when I was using precut patches in my .32 I would keep a stack of patches in the patchbox.

Mike

[Bob McBride]

Muskrat,

Ah, when I showed the patch box of the Kibler. I’m going to do a short one on flints. I thought it would be a 2 min one til I got thinking about it. Ways of using the leather pad. Slipped in, notched back, drilled to attach leather to the cock’s jaw screw. Flint installed upside down depending on angle in relation to frizzen. And lastly, Knapping. When you begin to think of what a newbie wouldn’t know, it adds up.

Thursday I’m heading to the Alabama Kentucky Rifle show to film that, and that should make two episodes.

[Elnathan]

I keep my jag and ball puller, plus other odds and ends, in my patchbox. This is a sliding wooden one.

I hope to someday make a rifle with a hinged patchbox lid and pair it with a a double or compartmented bag. I have an idea about how to organize things, with the patches actually in the patchbox, that I hope will considerably cut down on the motions and fumbling around necessary to load a rifle, making it a smoother, simpler, and possibly faster process.

[davec2]

Partial re-post ......

OK....so I have built several rifles in the last few years and I never quite know what to do with a patch box.  I have never kept patches in one.  And I have never actually made two the same size.  The size, at least for me, is determined by the aesthetics of the butt architecture and they just don't come out any sort of standard size.  I haven't had the time lately to work on some of the more involved projects I have on the bench, but the other day I got the urge to make up some items for the patchbox on the copy of the Jim Chambers rifle I did a while back.  The patch box on that rifle is one of the largest I have made and I thought I could fit one of my Gunner's Mates shooting tools in it...and I could.  The only problem is that the tool won't fit in a .36 bore.  So I re-machined a few critical parts to fit the bore.  It won't assemble into the single tool any longer, but it fit easily in the patch box with a little tow and I made a little ticking bag for the ball puller and worm.







Well, I liked the way that turned out, so I wanted to put one of the complete tools in the box on the .58 caliber English rifle I made some time ago now.  The only problem was that this rifle has one of the narrowest boxes I have made and the "T" handle for the tool would not fit.  After a little thought, I cut away a notch on each side of the box and got the "T" handle to drop in.  A little more tow and the body of the tool taken down into two pieces and it all fits fine.

[alacran]

For the most part I don't like patch boxes. I believe Mr. Kindig had an inordinate admiration for them. This is evident in his book Thoughts on the American Long Rifle.
I least dislike wooden ones and I tolerate side opening ones.   Mostly I keep air in mine. The only thing I have found to be of use is to put a lead block screwed into the cavity to help balance a heavy barrel.

[thecapgunkid]

Just cleaning patches.  I don't like to juggle stuff in the woods on a trail walk because it is too easy to fumble them to the ground, where they sprout legs and nip off to limbo.

I wipe after every fifth shot and am paranoid about wooden patchbox lids who run away from home.

[Bob McBride]

For the most part I don't like patch boxes. I believe Mr. Kindig had an inordinate admiration for them. This is evident in his book Thoughts on the American Long Rifle.
I least dislike wooden ones and I tolerate side opening ones.   Mostly I keep air in mine. The only thing I have found to be of use is to put a lead block screwed into the cavity to help balance a heavy barrel.

I very much agree with this. I prefer no PB. You got me thinking (Not easy to do. Congrats) about a lead ingot for balance. They almost seem designed for that don’t they?

[Nordnecker]

One of my patchboxes has the release button on top of the stock. It's very easy to bump it on something and dump the contents of the box. I wouldn't want to keep anything important in that one. The Tenn style is the least likely to get dumped by accident- just my opinion/observation. I don't have any wooden ones so I can't comment on them.

[Dphariss]

I just started using the patchbox for patches with a grease or tallow type lube. After MANY years of not using one for much of anything. I kinda like it.

Dan

[hanshi]

Patchboxes; I can do with or without them.  Currently I have three with PBs and four without them.  In them is usually a few extra dry patches, extra flint or caps, maybe a jag and a couple of extra balls.  None will hold a full size Snickers anyway.

[MuskratMike]

What got me started on this post was the article in M.L. Magazine on the small Gusler Virginia bag and "everyone's hero" Mr. McBrides Black Powder episode on what to carry and what not to carry in your shooting bag. Like most I probably have too much stuff and too big of a bag. Spending the day going through them and weeding out what can go back into the range box. K.I.S.S.
The "Muskrat's" thought for today.

[Bob McBride]

What got me started on this post was the article in M.L. Magazine on the small Gusler Virginia bag and "everyone's hero" Mr. McBrides Black Powder episode on what to carry and what not to carry in your shooting bag. Like most I probably have too much stuff and too big of a bag. Spending the day going through them and weeding out what can go back into the range box. K.I.S.S.
The "Muskrat's" thought for today.

You're starting to give me a complex Mike.....

I'm afraid it might show up in my complexion on my closeups.

[Bob Roller]

I would keep a small candy bar or some M&M's in such a cavity in the stock

Bob Roller

[smylee grouch]

This same discussion was brought up before and I thought of putting two catch notches on the stud, the one on top closest to the lid would hold lid door fully shut and another notch below that that would catch on the spring if the button was bumped.

[thecapgunkid]

Smylee...I have lost more than a few jags to bumped buttons. I,m still in the research stage on my folly design.

Hershel House, in his video, remarks on how he has replaced a lot of lost wooden patchbox lids.

I have seen several simple rifles where the maker put a simple pivot screw on the front of the lid.  If any of those pictures could talk, I betcha they are the result of some simple guy all bent out of shape because of lost stuff.

So, in my last build, I put one on and did not put a catch.  Works like a Jet.




A couple of counter clockwise twists with my brass screwdriver, an upward pivot and Bob's Your Uncle.

[Sparkitoff]

I have never used the patchbox in the past but recently decided I am going to start using it. I use my longrifles for hunting. This year I arrived at my spot with a percussion rifle and pulled out the capper as it was time to set the cap. Huh? There is only one cap there.  I just set 6 in it before travelling for this hunt. Thankfully, the one I had was all that was needed. Later that month I went somewhere else. I had the flintlock dialed in just right at the range but the flint was short since it had been used for nearly 80 shots. At home, I replaced the flint with a new one of the same type. I let it make sparks a few times to check the setting, alignment and spray. All was well. At the hunt, I fired a shot and it went off like it should. After all calmed down, I noticed the flint was shattered and now had a point on one side sticking out. Again, thankful I didn't need another shot. After these two incidents I decided it would be prudent to put a couple of caps or a spare flint in the patchbox so they remain with the rifle "just in case".

[borderdogs]

Only two of my rifles have a patchbox. Although not a long rifle I have a Sharps percussion that I keep a bore snake, nipple wrench, and a brush in the patchbox and I found that handy. I just received a custom percussion .32 plains rifle that doesn't have a patchbox. But when originally ordering this rifle I had planned on having one installed. The thoughts on using it was to keep lubed patch material in it.

Like the hunting bag it is interesting to hear what people carry in a patchbox and wonder how they were actually used back in the day. My uncle had an original long rifle that he had to make a round ball mold for it was about a .53 caliber. In his patchbox he buttered a bear fat mixture that filled the box.......kinda gross. He would grease his patch by opening the box grease a patch and close it. It worked for him.
Rob

[Dave Marsh]

I keep stuff in my patchboxes that hopefully I won't need when out hunting but there just in case and not crowding my shooting bag.  Turn screw, extra flint and leather, cleaning jag and a few cleaning patches so there is no noise when moving the gun. 

Dave

[Natureboy]

 I keep tow and a worm in mine. It has two compartments: a grease hole, and a larger rectangular one. The grease hole has a wad of tow, ready for use, and the larger compartment has more tow and the worm. Twisting the worm into the tow, it's ready for a preliminary swabbing after a shooting session. I do worry about dropping the cover, though.