I sometimes cut at the muzzle and sometimes precut my patches. Both ways work for me. When I am doing a woodswalk, I prefer to cut at the muzzle. I hang a strip of patching from my ramrod where it is readily available and cut as I go. No fumbling in my bag for patches. But, when I am punching paper at the range, I precut my patches. In both cases, I prelube them with straight Ballistol. I used to prefer Bore Butter but now use Ballistol. It seems to keep my bore cleaner and I can get 20 to 25 shots before swabbing my bore. My patch of choice is twice washed pocket drill from Jo-Anne Fabrics. I use only washing detergent to prewash and absolutley no fabric softener because it tends to keep the fabric from absorbing the lube as well. After washing, I use an iron to iron out all of the wrinkles from the fabric and I am ready to cut patches. Pocket drill is sort of strange in that it is more compressable than most any other fabric I have seen. Before washing, it mics at .018 but after washing, it mics at about .020 but compresses to about .010. When you compress it to .010, it is a tight fit but it will work. When you need anything between .010 and .020, it works just fine. Strange but true. Check it with your micrometer.
