Muzzleloader books.

[mooncoon]

Yes, that's it! He does indeed use prelubed patches. His method is to soak strips of patch material in a solution of water and water soluble cutting oil, as used in machine shops. The idea is that after soaking, the water evaporates, leaving relatively dry lubed patches. The whole objective is consistency. He also recommends taking your micrometer to the fabric shop, to get consistent, proper thickness patch material (pure cotton, or linen). I tried all of this with my Lyman Great Plains .50, and my groups shrunk by half! Well worth the time, IMHO.

Not only do I have a difficult time loading with such patches in a clean barrel but without cleaning about every 5 or ten shots, I would not be able to load at all. The method is fine for shooting from a bench and cleaning between shots but fairly impractical on a trail. The lube that I use is about 20 % water soluable cutting oil. I do buy my patching with a micrometer and have the good fortune to have a micrometer with pedestals about 1/2" in diameter for more consistent measurements on soft things like fabric

The price of cutting oil has gone up considerably of recent and I am starting to wonder if there are water soluable vegetable oils available in the grocery store, which could replace the cutting oil

cheers mooncoon

 

[Easyrider]

Dutch's method is certainly better suited to the bench than any sort of timed event. Fouling is the curse of any muzzle loader, but it's part of the deal. I have found that seating a fiber was on top of the powder charge, then swabbing with wet patches, prior to loading the patched ball takes care of this. The fiber wad keeps the lube from wetting the powder. This, I learned from shooting my Pedersoli Gibbs, trying (so far, unsuccessfully) to achieve greatness in the long range muzzle loader world. Such things keep me endlessly interested in muzzle loading...