Loading Patched Balls in a Revolver?

[arcticap]

This may have been asked before, but I'm still curious about it.
Has anyone ever tried to shoot a .433 round ball with a .010 patch out of a revolver?
I realize that it might not produce great accuracy, but shouldn't it seal the chambers well enough to prevent a chain fire?
A slightly thicker patch or another PRB combination might work even better, especially if the .433 round ball was cast using harder lead which would result in a slightly oversized round ball.
If the patch was lubed, would it swab or lube the bore at all, or would it separate before it goes through the forcing cone and have no positive effect?
One reason for asking is because it occurred to me that if folks had hard lead alloy on hand, that they could cast and load undersized ~.433 patched round balls as a cheaper alternative.
Bare balls don't shoot all that bad out of single shot pistol barrel at short range, maybe they would shoot okay out of a revolver too if the distance to the target was reasonable.
And using patches to seal the chambers would be cheaper than buying wool wads and less messy than sealing them with runny lube during hot weather. :hmm:

 

[Blizzard of '93]

let us know how it works for you.

 

[arcticap]

It also occurred to me that if a large enough oversized patch was selected, say the size for a .54 -.58, then it could be tied with thread and loaded with the thread facing downward in the cylinder so that the ball would be pushing the patch through the barrel while affixed to it.
Thus swabbing the barrel and sealing the bore with the patch upon firing could be accomplished.
Maybe that would also produce better accuracy by filling in the rifling
Other methods to temporarily fix the patch to the ball even if just lasting long enough to load the PRB face down should work because again, the patch would be getting pushed.
Sealing with wax, paste or masking tape or whatever other easy method can be thought up should work, at least in theory.
Once it's loaded, the P&RB should be good to go together as one.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Seems like a lot of work, but as an experiment, why not? Only thing that troubles me is the recoil factor and loose balls coming forward in the chambers, causing powder to spill and BOOOOOM! Chainfires? Putting some kind of custom PRB in backwards may help to solve this problem. Still a lot of work, but interesting none the less.

Dave

 

[renovato]

The patch should seal the chamber fine, but the main thing here is going to be accuracy. I'd bet that the patch is shed at the forcing cone, sending a bare, undersized ball down the bore with the patch following afterwards. Tinkering with new ideas is always fun though. Give 'er a try and let us know!

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

If a proper sized ball doesn't provide a good chamber seal (it does), I'm not sure a patch will. It adds a finicky and un-necessary step to loading a revolver and it's difficult to see what positive effect it would have on accuracy. To satisfy curiousity, it might be fun, but practically speaking it's most likely more bother than it's worth. :v

 

[arcticap]

Below is a response from a National Match revolver shooter to my original posting elsewhere. Who would have guessed that patched balls are already being successfully used in revolver competition? :shocked2:

Has Been Tried

This method has been used at thr Nationals with Great success. It really does
work well. It is a lot of extra work, You really don't gain anything over just
the plain RB. It's a real booger in the 10 min. 10 shos timed fire match.

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

The quote says it's a lot of extra work and you don't gain anything over the naked ball, so why would anyone bother with it?

 

[mykeal]

Yeah, I saw that on the other forum.

'Great success...really does work well...lot of extra work...really don't gain anything..."

Huh? Didn't make any sense then and still doesn't.