Ready-made patches for sale?

Which is more important, maintaining patch thickness of 0.001 or consistent ball seating pressure?

@FishDFly

My thoughts go toward having consistent ball seating pressure.

Gooddaytoya! said:

I'm thinking I need accuracy of plus minus .0001. I wouldn't have any confidence with plus or minus .001. that's why I'm hung up on the $350 micrometer. Maybe my local machinist will do me another favor and measure a few patches for me that I find on my own in the local fabric stores. The last time I asked him, I had the bore plug that I made and asked him to just take one minute off to measure it, and he
grudgingly charged me $15 instead of his hardcore policy of a minimum charge of $125.

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You’re thinking too much. Move the decimal point and you may see a difference with accuracy of plus or minus .003” or more. The main thing you’re looking for is consistent thickness.

Grenadier1758 said:

@FishDFly

My thoughts go toward having consistent ball seating pressure.

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Yep, something most do not pay attention to.

I doubt if folks in the 1800s measured their linen to the thousandths of an inch and then turned up their nose to usable patching material.

leadhoarder said:

I doubt if folks in the 1800s measured their linen to the thousandths of an inch and then turned up their nose to usable patching material.

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I can see Daniel Boone in Cincinnatus' Trading Post at Boonesboro asking for that new paisley #.014, only to find out that Mingo had just bought it all.

Spikebuck said:

I have used Ox-Yoke, various patching from ToTW, and denim from Walmart. I do measure the thickness compressed. I have found that the thickness marked on commercial patches is not too accurate anyway...generally they compress to about 20% less than what is indicated on the package...and usually what is on the package isn't even the uncompressed thickness. In net...if it shoots well it really doesn't matter!

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I just have this Android phone so maybe that's why I couldn't find patches at t o w or ox-y

Grenadier1758 said:

Actually, you don't need accuracy of 0.0001". The RCBS micrometer for $37.99 (unfortunately out of stock) does have a resolution of 0.0001". The Starrett micrometer for $169.99 is in stock and has resolution of 0.0001".

Patch thickness just needs resolution of 0.001"

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I think you and Grizz44magnum are right. My precisionism must come from 45 years of finish carpentry. I concede your points.

$30 at your local Home Depot: Husky 6 in. 3-Mode Digital Fractional Caliper-1467H - The Home Depot
Works fine for what we need.

wm

I suppose you have good reasons to want to measure your wadding to such a level of precision. I have a good machine shop, with a decent selection of very good measuring tools. If you want to PM me for the address, You can send me an envelope of samples, I would be glad to measure and mark them, and send them back.
On the other hand, I have a piece of mattress ticking that I have been cutting patches from for two decades. Every once and a while, I use a round punch, and cut a few hundred of them. I stick them in a plastic bag with some mink oil paste.
For me at least, what matters is consistency. If I always use patches that are as identical as possible, and load them the same way, I tend to shoot tight groups. The same principle is best for reloading smokeless cartridges.

jcs266 said:

ebay sells them in bulk in whatever thickness you prefer

Here's an example:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/282637040781
My regular dial calipers measure cloth just fine from what I can tell. Sort of gently "pinch" the caliper when u close it down on the cloth and the measurement seems to be pretty accurate.

Walmart has the blue (.015") and the red (.018") striped pillow ticking.

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You do have to be careful. You can use blue in California red in Texas but either in Wisconsin

Pietro said:

FWIW, I've been shooting PRB's for over 45 years, and although I own a micrometer, I've yet to measure patch thickness.

Pioneers, mountain men, and soldiers of long ago never owned micrometers so, many years ago, I just went to a fabric store and bought a few yards of both blue & red pillow ticking for less than $10, and cut/lube my own to dance with who brung ya. (aka: K.I.S.S.)

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Shot my fist ml in 1973, never owned a mic or used one.

Forums have caused the need to mic. shooting patches.

I agree that a caliper with a resolution of .001 is all you need. Harbor Freight has them for about $15 and they work fine. It is what I tell my students to buy and we check them in our lab routinely with gauge blocks, never had an issue with accuracy. Over many years they won't hold up as well as the expensive ones, but most will never use them enough to find that out.

If you need .0001, micrometers can be purchased at HF for not much more, but you don't need one for this work.

No, @FishDFly, Dutch Schoultz has been advocating the need to use a micrometer to measure the thickness of shooting patches well before this forum and many others were started.

I don't own a good enough micrometer to measure the thickness of cloth. Is there a place that sells patches made for loading balls? I'm not talking about patches for cleaning, I use everything from terry cloth to old t-shirts for that. A good-enough micrometer costs $350, which I can't afford.


I purchased mine from Northern Tool….$27.00, works just fine for measuring patches….

There is no way that a person can measure a piece of cloth consistently with a pair of micrometers to .0001". Even small temperature changes can expand or contract a small piece of steel .0001" and your lead balls can very .001" or more. Don't make it too complicated.

Grenadier1758 said:

No, @FishDFly, Dutch Schoultz has been advocating the need to use a micrometer to measure the thickness of shooting patches well before this forum and many others were started.

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His need was for serious line shooting. How many folks here actually participate in serious line shooting?

Measuring patch thickness does not hurt anything, but I am not really sure that it is the panacea.

Those who strive for X's and not 10's use Teflon coated patches with a known thickness.

FishDFly said:

His need was for serious line shooting. How many folks here actually participate in serious line shooting?
Measuring patch thickness does not hurt anything, but I am not really sure that it is the panacea.
Those who strive for X's and not 10's use Teflon coated patches with a known thickness.

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Grenadier and FishDFly both make good points. How much time one takes measuring patches or their roundballs, or whether they pre-weigh loads vs a simple antler volume measure, has much to do with their personal interests and needs. For me, I shoot to hunt. I want good groups, but I'm not striving for all x's from my deer guns. I do measure patch material because I have found .003 to make a difference...though probably still not enough at even 100 yards for "minute of deer" groups.

Gunny5821 said:

I can see Daniel Boone in Cincinnatus' Trading Post at Boonesboro asking for that new paisley #.014, only to find out that Mingo had just bought it all.

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Wars have been started over less!

Gooddaytoya! said:

I'm thinking I need accuracy of plus minus .0001. I wouldn't have any confidence with plus or minus .001. that's why I'm hung up on the $350 micrometer. Maybe my local machinist will do me another favor and measure a few patches for me that I find on my own in the local fabric stores. The last time I asked him, I had the bore plug that I made and asked him to just take one minute off to measure it, and he
grudgingly charged me $15 instead of his hardcore policy of a minimum charge of $125.

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.0001"?????????? None of the stuff related to ML shooting is built to within a .001", so why do you think you need to measure .0001"????? Get a $30 pair of calipers, not a micrometer, & you can measure anything related to our hobby with more than adequate accuracy.