patches not created equal

[Ray Newman]

Lumpy: I saw a mention of utilizing a cotton ball in a post by the late johnboy. He claimed he first heard of it from an article about Harry Pope.

I've tried it in my .45's and a formerly mine .50-70 and it works well in my experience. Take a jumbo sized 100% cotton ball and gently pull it into 4 quadrants. Spray with water or cleaner of your choice. Believe I push it through the bore with a .32 caliber jag (or is it a .30 calibre?) on the cleaning rod. Two damp cotton ball plus one to dry the chamber and bore. Bore is clean. The last cotton ball through is re-used as first through the bore after the next shot.

I found that there are two types of cotton balls: 100% cotton and cotton with some type of fiber filler. The 100% cotton are more expensive and sometimes not easy to find. Read the label carefully as I found that the non 100% cotton balls did not work as well in my 4.5-2.1, .45-2.4 and 45-2 7/8.

Have no idea if the cotton ball will remove any leading. I shoot paper patch and have not found or seen any leading the rifle bores since adopting paper patch. Have a feeling that the cotton ball will not remove any leading.

Prior to cotton balls, I utilized flannel patches. The Squeeze, a quilter, cut the flannel into 2.5" (maybe 3"?) strips with a fabric cutter then folded the strips so she cut 4-5 at at time. Found it was first necessary to wash the flannel to remove the sizing so the material would absorb the bore cleaner, then cut the patches. Flannel patches worked well, but again I found that 100% natural fabric worked better, was/is not inexpensive --but you can get a number of patches from a cloth yard, and maybe not easy to find.

[semtav]

mop.jpg

This is what was working fine for me for the last couple years, including a 2 day match at 105 deg.
Wasn't until I tried the patches I got from Buffalo Bill Shooting Store in FL that things went haywire.

a borepig soaked in water followed by a damp patch pushed together then a dry patch

2 wipes is all I want to have to use.

[semtav]

When I get to work where I have my own washing machine, I'm gonna wash a bunch of those new patches see if they wont fluff up a bit before I give up on them.