Pre-cut patches, or cutting patches at the muzzle?

[roundball]

Which saw more widespread use, was more commonplace on a country wide scale back in the day?

Pre-cut patches or cutting patches at the muzzle?

 

Back in what "day", in what "country", and how would we know.

It might be more interesting to ask what people do now, rather than guessing about the past.

Just sayin' :grin:

 

[Pete Gaimari]

I like to cut at the muzzle. It centers the patch better for me.

I'm not sure it's PC, but it seems like a natural way to do it. I can't imagine they didn't do it back in the day.

 

[DanC]

Back in what "day", in what "country", and ...

are we talking gentry, a poor sharecroper, or a trapper or mountain man?

Still, it's fun to speculate, so, I will.I said cut at the muzzle, for the following reasons:

* patch is automatically centered, which gives better accuracy.
* time required to cut patches could be better spent on providing necessities of life.
* like time, most everything was in short suply- including material for patches. Cuting at the muzzle allows for maximum use of resources as you can quickly and easily index each patch to cut with an absolute minimum of waste, saving both time and material.
* enterprising shooters on a trek through deep woods with their gal might catch a quick peek at a well turned ankle if they asked for a swatch of petticoat to use for patches. I'm thinkin' a right fair ammt of petticoat material got cut at the muzzle!

That's all I can think of. But(despite what my kids think) I wasn't there, so ...

Dan

 

[50cal.cliff]

I am going to say muzzle cut for back in the day. If you were going with doing it all in a traditional way the muzzle cut it the way to go.

However things change and nowdays I would lean towards there are probably as many using precut. :redface:

So to each his own!

 

[FishDFly]

Which saw more widespread use, was more commonplace on a country wide scale back in the day?

Pre-cut patches or cutting patches at the muzzle?

Okay, who will admit to being old enough to share what was more commonplace?

 

Richard,
There are days that some of us feel like we might have been there!
Mark

 

[Robby]

Its hard to know exactly, but I guess for day to day use I would cut at the muzzle. Its easier to keep track of one strip than a lot of patches. On the other hand, if I was expecting trouble of a kind where I thought the ability to reload fast would be in my favor, I would cut a bunch of patches and stick them between my cheek and gum. :idunno:
Robby

 

[bangfxr]

I use paper cartridges so that is my patching material. I do believe it was cut at the muzzle.

 

[FishDFly]

Would a roll of patch material fit in a patch box or would pre-cut patches be put in a patch box?

 

[David W.]

Both patch strips and precut patches were found in some of the original hunting bags either as part of the owners accoutrements, or placed in the bag at a later date by someone else for whatever unknown reason. Knives were also found attached to the bags, either for skinning, cutting patches, or both, or neither.

Draw your own conclusion.

 

[David W.]

Would a roll of patch material fit in a patch box or would pre-cut patches be put in a patch box?

Some people put Snickers in their patch boxes. :rotf:

 

[sniper68]

M&M's!!!! They melt in your mouth, not in your stock....

 

[FishDFly]

No one here knows the definitive answer anymore than they know what "brand" of coffee the patch user was drinking while loading their rifle.

All speculation and conjecture, nothing else.

 

[sniper68]

Yep.

:idunno: :grin:

 

[ohio ramrod]

I am assuming patch boxes were called patch boxes because they were often used to hold patchs. And precut would fit better than a wad of cloth.The few origionals I have found that had not been handled for a generation or more both had precut patchs in the patch boxes. :idunno:

 

[Pete Gaimari]

I find it easier to accept that both precut patches, and cut at the muzzle was used.

I would think a mountain man wouldn't fiddle with precuts, and just cut at the muzzle with any material he could get his hands on.

That's what i'm going with anyway. Cutting at the muzzle gives me that fuzzy feeling all over. :grin:

 

[luieb45]

I pre cut my own which I heard was also done back in the day. It seems easier to me.

 

[LaBonte]

Despite the Poll's "findings" the majority of the actual period info that we have today supports pre-cut patches being the more common up until at leat the mid-1800's and that includes the Mtn Men, Longhunters, etc.
On the other hand there is some support for cutting at the muzzle - the follwoing is from the early 1800's.

"Barking off squirrels is delightful sport, and, in my opinion, requires a greater degree of accuracy than any other. I first witnessed this manner of procuring squirrels whilst near the town of Frankfort. The performer was the celebrated Daniel Boone. We walked out together, and followed the rocky margins of the Kentucky River, until we reached a piece of flat land thickly covered with black walnuts, oaks, and hickories. As the general mast was a good one that year, squirrels were seen gamboling on every tree around us. My companion, a stout, hale, and athletic man, dressed in a homespun hunting-shirt, bare-legged and moccasined, carried a long and heavy rifle, which, as he was loading it, he said had proved efficient in all his former undertakings, and which he hoped would not fail on this occasion, as he felt proud to show me his skill. The gun was wiped, the powder measured, the ball patched with six-hundred-thread linen, and the charge sent home with a hickory rod. We moved not a step from the place, for the squirrels were so numerous that it was unnecessary to go after them. Boone pointed to one of these animals which had observed us, and was crouched on a branch about fifty paces distant, and bade me mark well the spot where the ball should hit. He raised his piece gradually, until the bead (that being the name given by the Kentuckians to the sight) of the barrel was brought to a line with the spot which he intended to hit. The whip-like report resounded through the woods and along the hills in repeated echoes. Judge of my surprise, when I perceived that the ball had hit the piece of the bark immediately beneath the squirrel, and shivered it into splinters, the concussion produced by which had killed the animal, and sent it whirling through the air, as if it had been blown up by the explosion of a powder magazine. Boone kept up his firing, and before many hours had elapsed, we had procured as many squirrels as we wished ..."

As related by J.J. Audubon, from Life & Times of Col. Daniel Boone by Cecil B. Harley

On page 492 is the mention of using the feather but it is not exactly as described in Muzzleloader article. Audubon watches his host prepare for a night of raccoon hunting:

"”¦ He blows through his rifle to ascertain that it is clear, examines his flint, and thrusts a feather into the touch-hole. To a leathern bag swung at his side is attached a powder-horn; his sheath-knife is there also; below hangs a narrow strip of homespun linen. He takes from his bag a bullet, pulls with his teeth the wooden stopper from his powder-horn, lays the ball in one hand, and with the other pours the powder upon it until it is just overtopped. Raising the horn to his mouth, he again closes it with the stopper, and restores it to its place. He introduces the powder into the tube; springs the box of his gun, greases the "patch" over with some melted tallow, or damps it; then places it on the honey-combed muzzle of his piece. The bullet is placed on the patch over the bore, and pressed with the handle of the knife, which now trims the edge of the linen. The elastic hickory rod, held with both hands, smoothly pushes the ball to its bed; once, twice, thrice has it rebounded. The rifle leaps as it were into the hunters arms, the feather is drawn from the touch-hole, the powder fills the pan, which is closed. “Now I’m ready,” cries the woodsman”¦.

Lots of thinks to think about here!
Patching of 600 thread to the inch linen and does not mention cutting the patch.
Measuring the charge by Boone or just covering the ball by the coon hunter?
No short starter but using knife handle to press ball in flush with the muzzle.
Touch hole so large that removing the feather primed the pan.

 

[smo]

Sorry Paul,But i just got to play along as well. I always shot pre cut until i started shooting with a club with some state championship shooters in it. They quickly convinced me that cutting at the muzzle was the best way to go. I found that my groups got better quick! I'm not sure if it was cutting at the muzzle or just shooting more. :idunno: And as "for back in the Day" i'm pretty sure those ole boys had the same discussions that we all have about what was best. The only difference i see is they could only argue about it locally and we have the web so everyone can speak there mind or not. :hmm: :wink: Till this day i still cut at the muzzle and just shoot spit patches at the range.I have gone to shooting olive oil soaked patches for hunting in the last year. But it still don't fell right. :shake: :youcrazy: