Devolving a load

Food for thought: My .50 gets loaded with 70 grains of 3F, a .490" home cast ball and a .023" canvas patch lubed with mink oil for the woods and Hoppes #9 BP Lube for plinking. Load is very accurate. I'm a hunter and don't shoot matches as this load works.

The crossed patches were often a paper patch system. The rifle came with a punch that was used to make a cross paper patch and the bullet (elongated) was loaded with a false muzzle. The patch was centered so the flat base of the bullet was centered on the center of the crossed patch.

I shared the range one day with a guy who was shooting one. He found it tricky to get the patch centered and the bullet started. The accuracy was rather poor but wasn't stopping him from having fun with it.

I never heard of crossing cloth patches. Seems like an answer without a question!

Get Dutch Schultz' book. That will take the mystery out of it for you.

Why are you making this difficult. It is simple easy. If you have a 50 cal do this. Start at 65 grains, .490 ball, .015 or .018 patch and shoot three. Wipe between each shot. If you do not wipe, your load testing is bad because your shooting different barrel conditions. Shoot the first group, go up 5grs, shoot the second group. If it is like any other 50 cal I have ever shot, it will like somewhere between 65 and 80 grs for punching targets. Forget all this for a hunting load. For hunting, Start at max load and go down 5 on your powder. Your not worried about group size for hunting, just hitting your mark once. Big difference, you just want to know where it hits at 50 and 100. Remember, for you hunting load, the barrel must be in the same condition as it would be if you leave your lodge and go on a hunt.... ie... clean barrel each shot for hunting load test. Use any lube you read about here. They all work.