I'm in the camp with those that see that the weave of the linen is too loose. Did you wash the linen in hot water to remove sizing and that can tighten the weave. Linen doesn't crush much. I like a patch that compresses to the depth of the rifling to somewhat minimize blow by. Did the Emigs suggest a ball size and patch for the rifle?
I would also shorten the short leg of the short starter to set the ball exactly flush at the muzzle. I too believe that the short starter can contribute to patch cutting at the muzzle. If you do shorten the short leg, be sure to use a round cutter to make the tip concave and of a diameter that is similar to the ball size.
A trip to JoAnn's Fabrics is probably in order to get a 1/4 yard of the #40 Cotton Drill cloth in the Utility Cloth section of the store. Check the web site. Almost any day you can get a coupon for a 50% discount. Wash the cloth in hot water and dry it at high heat. You want that sizing out and you want the threads to full out and slightly shrink to tighten the weave. In the store you will get a slip micrometer reading of about 0.017" and after washing the thickness could be as much as 0.020" and compress to 0.012" The crushed measurement with sizing in the fabric will be misleading. The washed cloth will hold the patch lubrication better with the sizing removed.
Just for grins I would measure the barrel to find out what the land to land measurement is. You may find a ball of 0.535" diameter will work. But then your 0.530" ball requires a short starter, so that's probably a good size.
I would also shorten the short leg of the short starter to set the ball exactly flush at the muzzle. I too believe that the short starter can contribute to patch cutting at the muzzle. If you do shorten the short leg, be sure to use a round cutter to make the tip concave and of a diameter that is similar to the ball size.
A trip to JoAnn's Fabrics is probably in order to get a 1/4 yard of the #40 Cotton Drill cloth in the Utility Cloth section of the store. Check the web site. Almost any day you can get a coupon for a 50% discount. Wash the cloth in hot water and dry it at high heat. You want that sizing out and you want the threads to full out and slightly shrink to tighten the weave. In the store you will get a slip micrometer reading of about 0.017" and after washing the thickness could be as much as 0.020" and compress to 0.012" The crushed measurement with sizing in the fabric will be misleading. The washed cloth will hold the patch lubrication better with the sizing removed.
Just for grins I would measure the barrel to find out what the land to land measurement is. You may find a ball of 0.535" diameter will work. But then your 0.530" ball requires a short starter, so that's probably a good size.
Let me explain myself a little better. MM (Moose Milk) dry is the patch lube method that Dutch Schultz recommends in his system that is praised by many folks here on the forums. Seems like it has worked really well for some so that was my starting place. Folks here suggested the ticking instead of the linen so that was my first thing I changed. Saw some improvement so I changed to the mink oil (also suggested here in this post by quite a few folks) saw a little improvement. The patch thickness was the next thing as it was also suggested here. I had thought I was going to have to order thicker ticking but found some in my box and decided to squeeze in the 2 extra shots for the day. That seemed to be the biggest improvement and I would have continued with that but ran out of time. I have been trying to only change 1 thing at a time to try and hone things in and solve the issue. Next time I go out I will give an honest try to the thicker patch combo that I ended with 2 weeks ago as like I said the 2 shots were almost on top of each other. If that seems to hold true I will then do the load creep to get the smallest group I can. I don't wan't to move to a .535 ball just yet because as I said with my barrel the .530 and .018 patch was pretty dang tight as it is.
