Patch Punches?

[Carbon 6]

I like running ball too, and making lube.

 

[Tanglefoot]

Well, y'all sure do complicate things. This child has enuff to clog up his rememberizer, just recollecting "Powder, Patch, and then Ball. Back when the world was young and I learnt how to do this stuff, I tried pre-cut patches, and making my own pre-cut patches, and then I watched other shooters who had been doing this for a while and saw some did it one way and some t'other. There was this white-whiskered gent at a rifle frolic off in the brush somewheres. He was dressed in stained buckskins, moccasins, and a faded calico shirt. Had a shapeless, battered ol' hat with a quilled hatband (missing a few quills), a scratched and scarred leather possibles sack with a wide strap and some tools and pouches attached to the strap, big knife in a tack scabbard on his belt and a smaller knife on his pouch strap. There was a torn strip of ticking cloth tied to a ring on his pouch strap too. I watched for a while and noted that he seemed to load quicker without hurrying than some of the others, didn't waste much motion, and his shots mostly seemed to go where he wanted them to. He was cutting his patches at the muzzle of that long-barreled flintlock using the little knife from his pouch strap, and lubing them by holding the end of the ticking strip in his mouth while he was measuring out his powder and pouring it down the bore. I asked him - after the shooting was over - why he did it that way. He looked at me for a second and finally said, "Works best for me." So I asked him if he always lubed with spit. He said,
"Nope. When I'm going to shoot right away that's fine, but if I'm going to keep the rifle loaded for longer, hunting or whatever, I use patch grease - tallow and beeswax - so as to not wet the powder."
So I said to m'self, "Huh!" and thought about all that and I've been doing it that way ever since. Besides, I'm clumsy and tend to leave a trail of small things like pre-cut patches scattered wherever I load my rifle. But that's just me. Y'all ought to do like that ol' hivernant ---- Find what works best for you, and do that. Even if it means packing a pad, pencil, and calculator, or some kind of whizz-bang spinning patch cutter in your hunting pouch. Me, I'll stick with my l'il knife and a strip o' torn ticking.

 

[stikshooter]

Your right , I was thinking wads (spoke before thinkin) and I cut at the muzzle so leaves me out/Ed

 

[Silent Walker]

For years I been cutting my patches, why complicate it K.I.S.S