Patch Material

[OldMtnMan]

I've read they used deer hide for patch material too. That seems like it would be too thick and better used for clothing. Do you think there's any truth to it?

I don't know if it's true or not but that's what I was told many years ago. I guess it could be reasonable as deer hide was available in the wilderness. I've felt some hide that was certainly thin and soft enough. In this case I would regulate the diameter of the ball so it would start and seat easy with the greased deer hide.
It's possible that more than one size bullet mold was carried so as to fit different thickness's of hide.

That makes sense.

[Mike from OK]

I've read they used deer hide for patch material too. That seems like it would be too thick and better used for clothing. Do you think there's any truth to it?

I don't know if it's true or not but that's what I was told many years ago. I guess it could be reasonable as deer hide was available in the wilderness. I've felt some hide that was certainly thin and soft enough. In this case I would regulate the diameter of the ball so it would start and seat easy with the greased deer hide.
It's possible that more than one size bullet mold was carried so as to fit different thickness's of hide.

I also remember that being said... Hide thickness can vary a decent amount over an animal's body. The belly area tends to be thinner, but I don't know if it's THAT much thinner.

Mike

[stikshooter]

It" not a problem to thin any hide ,I do it all the time . Just don"t bring your  micrometer when I"m done/ED

[Hungry Horse]

A friend and I tried this many moons ago, and found the thickness wasn’t as big a problem as the elasticity. Accuracy was erratic, and recovered patches showed a great degree of stretching. I assume most of the stretching occurred during the loading process.

  Hungry Horse

[Jerry]

I have used cotton for patch material, but lately have been using 100% linen. Seems to work great. I also purchased it from JoAnns. Don’t know what thickness. Hard to start unless using a short starter, but for smoothbore shooters, that’s another subject. I have spent counsiderable time at the range this summer and found out that with my smoothbore, can’ See much different between tight fitting ball or one that can be started with my thumb. Then, some shoot bare ball in a smoothbore. Jerry 

[Hungry Horse]

I agree with Jerry on the linen patching. Like the perpetual thread that won’t go away, about cotton  patched ball combinations that mysteriously quit working. It’s not a mystery, cotton degrades over time, while linen either doesn’t, or does so slowly that it doesn’t matter.
 I find patching a round ball in a smoothbores counterproductive. The trouble is not worth the marginal, if any, increased accuracy.

  Hungry Horse