Teflon Patches??

[billd]

Could someone please tell me about teflon patches?  How do you use it? Is it spray on teflon? Do you still need a lube?  What's the advantage?

Thanks,
Bill

[Don Steele]

My teflon patch experience has been with material I purchased which has been impregnated with a teflon material on one side. The teflon is the lube and no further patch lube is required. On the plus side...shooting from a bench rest for group...I've gotten excellent results using telfon coated patch material, cut at the muzzle. If memory serves...some of my best groups in fact. I shoot a tight combination....500 ball in a 50 cal. rifle. and my first negative comment should be read with that in mind. With my chosen combination...I've found it absolutely necessary to wipe between every shot. For this reason alone I've limited my use of teflon coated patch material to match shooting and stay with more traditional lubes for hunting. Other negatives to consider are: the cost of the material(it's not cheap if you shoot a lot), loss of the "home-brew factor"...that sense of self-reliance is difficult to quantify, and differs for each of us. Going high-tech, non-traditional is a leap many do not wish to make. Some of our fellow shooters consider the caplock to be a new fangled "non-traditional" leap they don't approve of..!!
Hope this helps...   

[Roger Fisher]

Don: Yes to your every statement!!

[Daryl]

One of these days, I'd like to test the teflon patching, but think I'd try a lubed (LHV) OxYoke below it to get some cleaning action to allow shooting without having to wipe - against wiping twixt shots - just for the test.

[Roger Fisher]

One of these days, I'd like to test the teflon patching, but think I'd try a lubed (LHV) OxYoke below it to get some cleaning action to allow shooting without having to wipe - against wiping twixt shots - just for the test.

Hmmm that might be workable.  Are you considering a LV soaked wad or a LV soaked patch wadded in the muzzle ahead of the teflon patched ball?  I wonder if the LV would make the teflon toooo schmutzy (read schmeary, gunky, etc) and ruin its cohesion to the patch on its ride on out the bore!!  Just a thought

[Roger B]

Teflon patching is almost impossible to burn out or blow up which is why the buffalo & bench shooters use a lot of it.  Big bores & high velocity (massive charges) take a toll on mortal patches.  I use the stuff as a patching of last resort.  If nothing else seems to work, the teflon often will.  The stuff is expensive & requires cleaning between each shot...as in you won't load another ball if you don't swab the bore.  I have a DeHaas .58 that is mediocre with almost anything else & outstanding with teflon. OTOH, I have barrels spit the stuff all over the county.  Muzzleloaders....go figure.
Roger B.

[Daryl]

Roger F. - I was thinking of a wad like the OxYoke wood/felt wad lubed with something like LHV - or maybe the normal Bore Butter or whatever they put on the pre-lubed ones.  The teflon patch won't pick it up, except from the barrel walls and in the centre of the patch that rests on it. As far as being too slippery, possibility, but I don't think so - nothing I've tried so far is as slippery as LHV or loads so easily immediately after shooting. Sometimes I wonder about it's actual ingredients?