I'd be using real black powder. I've never gotten the phoney powders to shoot well, or as well as real BP. I don't have any guns that prefer the use of wads and I don't have any guns that are difficult to load with a ball that is .005" under bore size with a .022" denim patch. I don't use canvas material, but do sometimes use a pocket drill if it's heavy enough for the ball and bore, as in the .017/.018" stretchy one way drill that I use with a .400" ball in my .40 with the .398" bore. This loads a bit stiffer than a .396" ball and the heavier .0215" (10 oz.) denim. The thread going one way is kinked and therefore shows some stretch - it is 100% pure cotton. We easily seated a .508" ball in Taylor's 'Rice' .50 barrel with rounded rifling using this material - without any cuts by the lands. It's pretty tough- too bad the store I got it from for testing went out of buisiness. What I've got is all I'll ever find - probably. I have to save it for that one barrel. It holds up OK with no burns using a .395" ball, but accuracy is not as good as a heavier patch gives.
The only gun I have which will allow a loose combination is the .32. A .311" ball and .017" 8oz. denim works just fine in it, but that material is too loose in everything else. This material measures .020" with calipers, but even though it is closely woven denim, it does not hold up in any other gun I have, even with a ball only .005" under bore size.
Use what works for you, herb. You've gotten some excellent shooting using both Swiss and GOEX and whatever ball and patch combos you used. Stick with them.
I've found loads the ball and patch combos I now use will not 'blow' or burn the patch with any charge you want to put in the gun and as all the videos we've done show, loading is what we call easy. The video last winter taken on our trail where I was shotoing the .45 was a .445" pure lead ball and .0215" 10 oz. denim patch. this stuff measures .024" to .025" with calipers depending how tightly you squeeze the jaws between thumb and forefinger. It goes .0215" with my mic, and is easy to load. With the starter nub on the patched ball at the muzzle and in it goes to 1/4" below the muzzle's crown. One whach on the starter and it's down 7", then 2 or 3 pushes with a choked rod and it's on the powder. Easy as can be.
In my .574" bore Enfield, I use the same 12oz. denim patches with a .562" ball as I use with a .684" ball in the .69's .690" bore. This material measures .025" with the mic and .030" with calipers. The starter's knob is moose antler which gives momentum to the blow of seating the ball flush with the muzzle, using the short nub and hitting the starter's knob with my hand, or whacking the ball with the end in a downward pounding motion with the starter's shaft clenched in my fist and hitting the ball with the knob's top surface. Either way, one whack puts it flush with the crown. In both guns, this ball and patch combination is quite tight, but no charge will damage the patches. I've picked them up off the ground after testing, then re-wet them with lube and used them for a trail walk the next time I shot it. Examining those patches showed I could have used them again, quite easily. When you are using such tight combinations with a large ball, there is a lot of lead movement so the 'force' must be with you.
Some materials are 'softer' than others while some are more compressible due to having greater 'loft' in the thread or weave. Denim has this loft I think, compared to canvas or some linens and might be more compressible due to it.
A lot of washed materials that still show a resistance to bending, feel hard in comparrison, will also show synthetic material in their matrix - not much, but say, 10% for example. I had a swatch of this sort of material that shot amazingly well in the .45 and .40, but it was so stiff as to being like trying to set your ball on a piece of board across the muzzle and balance it there while you get the strater out to smack in down flush.
I see a lot of people using their starter like a hammer, tap, tap, tap. Each 'tap' damages the ball by crushing the top surface and this slugs it up, where-as one 'blow' of the starter's knob puts it down flush with the crown without damaging it other than a small flat spot.
We've discussed this somewhat and feel that perhaps one's upbringing such as scrapping, outdoors activities, always using great amounts of energy sort of thing as a youngster and fighting as a teen and thus chosen vocation ie; Carpenter, labourer or say Peace officer or Military where force is a common tool, versa, say a Dr. or Accountant, show extremes in energy output as a common activity. This normal activity might have something to do with one shooter having no difficulty seating a tight combination, while another might think it's too hard or too tight. How much energy is expended in seating the ball flush depends a lot on how much you are willing to expend, thus one gives the ball a whack with one blow using as much force as needed for that combination, whereas someone else might resort to a hammer and have to use multiple blows. I'm trying to find the answer or solution - we find these combiantions easy to load, while others find them difficult. It's frustrating.
The use of wads can somtimes help with loose combinations I'm told, but, in my comparrison accuracy tests, the rifles I've used with them show much better accuracy without wads., except for the 14 bore - it didn't care one way or the other, no change.
