Linen patch material

[Renegadehunter]

Just bored and thought I'd share my current planned experimenting.
I've been using cotton pillow ticking patches for quite some time, just store bought round ones from CVA I believe. I love to experiment, so even though I've found several different combo's that would be fine to hunt with, I keep trying different things just for the fun and learning experience of it all.
I recently read about Linen being a great patch material, so I took the calipers with me to the local JoAnnes and picked up a couple different thicknesses. Linen is still cotton, but made from a bit different part I guess? You have to look close, as you want the stuff that is 100% linen and not something that is a mix of something else.
It supposedly doesn't compress as much and it was recommended to look for linen that is about .005" thinner than my current pillow ticking. The pillow ticking measures .0155" compressed with calipers, so I found some linen that showed .011" compressed that should be close. I also got a 1/2 yard of some that showed .007" compressed so that I could try it with a .535 ball rather than the .530 I've always used. I washed both on hot without soap in the washer and dried them on high. The edges frayed something terrible, next time I will put it in the wife's "delicates" bag to see how it fairs. Wife has a rotary cutter, so I trimmed the fraying back up and then cut the material into 1.5" strips and then cut them again into 1.5" squares.
My best group producing lubes to date are mink oil and a Dutch Schultz style dry patch, but I use Castor oil and denatured alcohol rather than Ballistol and water. This time I'm going to try the Ballistol/Water mix, simply because I've found that the Castor oil / denatured alcohol lube is prone to damaging the patch material in a matter of weeks so you can't pre make very many in advance of shooting. Ballistol/water is supposed to be easier on the patch material over a longer period of time.
Anyone else have some experimenting in the works?

 

[Billy-by-gosh]

Hope the cotton linen works out well for you - but it always seems a bit thin and limber to me. The old timers sometimes used a different plant source than cotton, and that was the flax plant.

Flax Linen is a somewhat “stiffer” fabric made from the fibers of its stem. You can read more online if interested, and I know there are several US sources, as well as a premium supplier in Holland for raw flax, linen fiber, cloth, as well as tow fibers for wadding and cleaning.
https://www.textileschool.com/2632/linen-fiber-from-flax-plants-and-the-linen-fabrics/

 

[Renegadehunter]

I finally got out and tested the linen patches this weekend. All test patches were lubed with mink oil and shot from a bench off sandbags at 50 yards with one damp patch and one dry patch swab in between every shot.

The recommendation to go with .005" thinner didn't work out for me at all, just way too loose of a fit. I'd read that linen needs to be sized .005" under a cotton, but I didn't really find that to be the case. A .535 ball with the .007 linen patch could be thumb started and didn't shoot very well. I put two just left of the POA about 1" apart, but then it shot two more clear up into the upper right corner of the target about 1" apart. About an 8" spread between the two "groups".

A .530 ball with the .011 linen patch was a slightly tighter fit, but showed a 3 shot group of about 5". I would've tried the .011 patches with a .535 ball but ran out of time. I did have some .015" (about .0125" compressed) store bought cotton patches that have been in my shooting bag for quite some time and had lubed a few of them up also, they actually loaded a touch easier with a .535 ball than my normal load of pillow ticking patches with a .530 ball and showed the "best" accuracy of the day, about a 2" three shot group.
Going to try the thicker .0115 linen with a .535 ball next time, as well as going to the fabric store and trying to find a bit thicker linen to try out with a .530 ball.

On a side note, I lost a bit of time due to a mistake I made...and also another more drastic mistake was narrowly avoided.
I recently bought some .490 balls to eventually try to work up a load for my FIL's .50 cal CVA. I normally buy Speer since they are in the town I live in, but couldn't find any and so bought some Hornady. I also had a box of Hornady .530 RB's on hand that my daughter bought for me for my birthday last year. See where I'm going with this? I only had about three .530 RB's left in a Speer box, so I grabbed the Hornady's to pour into the Speer box since it is a nicer case than the cardboard Hornady box. Yes, I had grabbed the .490 box instead and so found myself at the range with a box of .490 RB's with only 3 .530 balls in the bottom of it. Very easy to tell the difference when they are side by side and immediately knew what I'd done. A .490 ball seems tiny after using .535 RB's at the beginning of my shooting.
The narrowly avoided other mistake...a guy that works at the range I went to is a bit of a TC fan and has both a renegade and a hawken. He approached me at one point to ask me about where/what kind of fiber optic sights I had put on my renegade. He walked up right after I had finished swabbing and I was ready to switch to the next patch combo to try. After he walked away I had it on my mind to grab the thicker linen patch to try with a .530 RB, grabbed the patches, discovered the .490 mistake, dug out the only 3 .530 RB's from the bottom of the box, and then came as close as I've ever come to dry balling. I realized I didn't remember putting powder in as I had the patch and ball positioned on the bore and was about ready to smack the short starter.

 

[Hanshi]

People coming up and talking has caused me to dry ball more than once.

 

[Hylander]

What Hanshi said

 

[drax05]

in early club matches, while talking and/or being talked too, dry loaded, in fact, so much, that when my Minuteman popped cap and didn't fire, the darn drum would start unscrewing by itself so I could back load, honest.......

 

[Dennis Olson]

People coming up and talking has caused me to dry ball more than once.

Put up a sign NO TALKING WHILE LOADING. and stick to it

 

[BP Addict]

Hope the cotton linen works out well for you - but it always seems a bit thin and limber to me. The old timers sometimes used a different plant source than cotton, and that was the flax plant.

Flax Linen is a somewhat “stiffer” fabric made from the fibers of its stem. You can read more online if interested, and I know there are several US sources, as well as a premium supplier in Holland for raw flax, linen fiber, cloth, as well as tow fibers for wadding and cleaning.
https://www.textileschool.com/2632/linen-fiber-from-flax-plants-and-the-linen-fabrics/

I was told by a reliable source that Linen works better in the summer heat than Cotton.

 

[BP Addict]

Just bored and thought I'd share my current planned experimenting.
I've been using cotton pillow ticking patches for quite some time, just store bought round ones from CVA I believe. I love to experiment, so even though I've found several different combo's that would be fine to hunt with, I keep trying different things just for the fun and learning experience of it all.
I recently read about Linen being a great patch material, so I took the calipers with me to the local JoAnnes and picked up a couple different thicknesses. Linen is still cotton, but made from a bit different part I guess? You have to look close, as you want the stuff that is 100% linen and not something that is a mix of something else.
It supposedly doesn't compress as much and it was recommended to look for linen that is about .005" thinner than my current pillow ticking. The pillow ticking measures .0155" compressed with calipers, so I found some linen that showed .011" compressed that should be close. I also got a 1/2 yard of some that showed .007" compressed so that I could try it with a .535 ball rather than the .530 I've always used. I washed both on hot without soap in the washer and dried them on high. The edges frayed something terrible, next time I will put it in the wife's "delicates" bag to see how it fairs. Wife has a rotary cutter, so I trimmed the fraying back up and then cut the material into 1.5" strips and then cut them again into 1.5" squares.
My best group producing lubes to date are mink oil and a Dutch Schultz style dry patch, but I use Castor oil and denatured alcohol rather than Ballistol and water. This time I'm going to try the Ballistol/Water mix, simply because I've found that the Castor oil / denatured alcohol lube is prone to damaging the patch material in a matter of weeks so you can't pre make very many in advance of shooting. Ballistol/water is supposed to be easier on the patch material over a longer period of time.
Anyone else have some experimenting in the works?

I've made a cleaning solution from 1/3 Murphy's Oil Soap, 1/3 Hydrogen Peroxide and 1/3 Rubbing Alcohol. I used it as a patch lube also until the summer heat and hot barrel evaporated the alcohol and it didn't work so well. Great for Field Cleaning!

 

[Dennis Olson]

Windex with VINEGAR works as well as moose milk . Wont evaporate. Wont hurt metal when cleaning. Dissolves black powder really well.

 

[Buck Conner1]

.
Through out history you'll read of different materials used for patching the weapons by military and civilian's. One of the hardest to use is animal skins (tanned skins are not even on the hide (not talking split hides). Fire a half dozen shots and each one needs more or less presure to shove it down the barrel, then each shot plays different on the target.
That being the case our forefather's probably had many gut shot animals I would think. :cheers:

​

 

[Pete G]

Windex with VINEGAR works as well as moose milk . Wont evaporate. Wont hurt metal when cleaning. Dissolves black powder really well.

As does windshield washer fluid

 

[[email protected]]

When using pre lubed patches how does everyone carry them in a possibles bag? We do walk in the wood shoots 20-30 shots and i haven't solve how to carry them so inside the bag isn't fouled and picking out of an old medicine bottle like at the range isn't it either.

 

[Smoketown]

When using pre lubed patches how does everyone carry them in a possibles bag? We do walk in the wood shoots 20-30 shots and i haven't solve how to carry them so inside the bag isn't fouled and picking out of an old medicine bottle like at the range isn't it either.

A horn patch box is really nice if you want to be H/C but, old metal Sucretes boxes (with the paint burned off) have been in my field bags since ~1972.

https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf...AQExmAEAoAECoAEBqgEHZ3dzLXdpeg&sclient=psy-ab
Cheers,
Smoketown

 

[Hanshi]

I use old cap tins; they are compact, convenient and round.

 

[[email protected]]

Thanks guys

 

[Buck Conner1]

.
Ted Cash makes a very nice brass or silver patch container, just depends on what your looking for.

https://www.tdcmfg.com/shop-collections


​

 

[Renegadehunter]

I also use cap tins for lubed patches. I use a dremel with a wire brush to take the paint off and then put the tin in the fireplace for a while. Comes out looking like oxidized tin.
If not worried about PC/HC or how it looks, old plastic snuff cans work good too. I recently found a metal tin that was big enough to store my damp cleaning swabs, which I had been keeping in an old snuff can (easy to acquire from coworkers that chew), and switched my swabs over to it. I find that the tin isn't airtight and the swabs dry out fairly quickly, so probably just going to switch back to a snuff can for now.