Patchboxes

[DaveP (UK)]

What were they actually used for by the plainsmen and woodsmen of the 18th century?
It just seems like an awkward place to keep patches. Personally, and its probably only theoretical for me living where I do, I think I would prefer to have balls and patches in the same pouch so that everything is handy in the appropriate order once the butt has been grounded.
That hollowed out butt now. Perfect for a basic cleaning kit or enough powder, (in packets) ball and patches for a few shots - just what you need if you have to dash out 'cos the fox is in the henhouse!

I did find a thread from last year in which several chaps confessed to similar usages, but what about back then? Is there even any evidence?

[Standing Bear]

Patches. Cleaning patches.

My simple thought.
Tc

[chubby]

Cleaning jag,worm,pieces of cloth or tow & extra flint,leather for it!  Chubby

[PPatch]

Okay fellows, let us spill the beans and be honest with our brother in the UK...

Sir, here in the Colonies a patchbox is used to hold a Snicker's brand candy bar...   

dave

[Majorjoel]

The best one I have heard so far is that the patchbox was filled with vegetable seeds and a fella could get his garden planted while out hunting.

[Bill Paton]

We find in old rifle patch boxes many things. Old greasy patches, old dry patches, jags, sometimes tow (unspun flax fiber wads for cleaning), and boxes half full of tallow for greasing patches. I keep lubed patches in my shooters and like them there.

[smylee grouch]

I like to use mine for clening patches,extra flints and leather and whatever other small items so they wont have to be dug out of the bottom of my shooting bag as most of those items find sneakey plkaces to hide when they hit the bottom of the bag. Those hunters of old might have done the same for the same reasons.

[hanshi]

My patchbox isn't deep enough and won't hold a Snickers bar?

[pathfinder]

My patchbox isn't deep enough and won't hold a Snickers bar?

Then ya need to carve it out some!

[DaveP (UK)]

I see that creativity is alive and well 
I was wondering if there was a manner of use hallowed by tradition, etc. etc.
But I imagine the rugged individualists back in the day were no less creative and just used that handy little space for whatever they felt like using it for...

[Osprey]

String and deer tags in mine.  What were you planning on using that rifle for, anyhow?!   

[bgf]

A snicker sized bar of gold provides weight to balance the muzzle and also financial security while in the woods.

[Kermit]

You need financial security while in the woods? 

I guess one could use it to cast some balls...

[Daryl]

Years ago, I carried a spare flint leather and 2 spare flints in the patch box.  When I wanted to use one of those flints a while back, I'd found the box was empty.  Since that experience,  the box remains empty - that way, nothing can 'fall' out of it and I never expect there to be something in it - all 'possibles' are in my 'possibles' bag - therefore no disappointment when I find the rifle's box is empty.

[Majorjoel]

I hear you Daryl! I also keep nothing inside a patchbox for the same reasons. I do however like the look that a good PB gives a rifle.  It would be a hoot on my next build to incorporate a PB made without a cavity. I would write a note on the wood under the lid......"Sorry, woodpeckers day off"

[t.caster]

MajorJoel, down here below the 45th parallel it's not a problem. Of course I'm a little "old school", with my sliding wood PBs. While cleaning my J.P.Beck .54 the other day, I realized it is now 10 yrs. old and I have carried the same long jag wrapped in a RIG soaked wool patch, almost the whole time. I also carry a new flint with a leather glued on it. The same can be said for my Jaeger I built in 1985. I'm just a creature of habit and routines.
BTW, is your snow GONE yet?

[Majorjoel]

Hi Tom, no, had another wet 6" of the white stuff just added to the perma snow yesterday. North.......even the word sounds cold! Tom, do you ever use the jag and flint in your patchboxes or are they just where you put em years ago?

[t.caster]

Joel, everything is flooded down here, but it's starting to look green again! The robins are back and gorging themselves on flooded out worms!
Oh, yes I use them once in a while, they are just a quick backup. I usually use a 7/16" Hickory range rod for loading, even in the woods. If i forget it, or rules don't allow, I just put the jag on the end of my 3/8" rr. Of course I carry extra everything in my shooting bag too.

[Hessian]

I keep a ballpuller/tow worm, some tow, deer tallow, & 3 balls sewn into patches in mine. Thinking of adding an extra flint if space permits.
Hessian

[Kermit]

Joel, as a much younger man I worked in an "interesting" commercial cabinet shop where the culture required that we sign our mistakes. I once pulled a drawer that was kind of sloppily fit, turned it over, and read: "What are you looking here for?"

[PPatch]

Joel, as a much younger man I worked in an "interesting" commercial cabinet shop where the culture required that we sign our mistakes. I once pulled a drawer that was kind of sloppily fit, turned it over, and read: "What are you looking here for?"

Interesting. When I was a potter I would sometimes scratch something on the inside of a larger vase, jug, or any form that I would eventually close in the top of so it would only be seen when broken. Such as:

Butterfingers!!

I won't tell if you won't.

Quick! Elmer's glue!

Sorry, I'm broke.

dave

man... am I off subject !!

[Majorjoel]

     My father built the house that I now live in in 1949. My older sister Maggy was and still is a prankster. Several years ago I was doing some remodeling and had to remove a section of plaster board down a hallway. There on the underside of a section of plaster board I found written in red lipstick........Johnny Loves Susan H...  Big sister took credit for the note claiming she had been teasing my older brother John with the grade school hefty queen.  Getting back to patchboxes, I can recall hearing about an old antique rifle that had a note scratched on the underside of the lid. I just can't remember what the note said. sorry for drifting off topic.