Alot of y'all probably know this one already, but Grocery stores are a ready source for cheap cleaning swabs. In the makeup section of most stores they sell "Quilted cotton squares"... you can get about 160 of these in a package for less than $2 and they make great cleaning patches for BP guns. They can be made to fit as tight as you want and they are quite absorbent.

They also come in "rounds" but I prefer the squares as most of my guns are .45 and I'll tear off a coupla' corners for a better fit.

Also, for other .45 cal shooters, a 28 guage shotgun brushis a very good fit (much better than the .410 sized one I was using before.

HH All!

BrushPopper

I tried one of those once , the jag got stuck .

TELL THE WIFE NOT TO THROW OUT THE OLD TSHIRTS

old t-shirts, old white cotton socks with holes in them, go to garage sales and look for white cotten bed sheets, the salvation thrift stores, sell cotton sweatshirts for a quarter, they sell old cotton bedding, Wal Mart sells a bag of all size patches (actually nothing more then a bag of cotton rag cuttings from a t shirt factory some of them appear to be) they claim there is 200 in there but when you cut most of the patches two or three times for a patch to fit, you get a lot more, those sell for a $1.99.

I wish that they made a "flavored" patch.Maybe that would help me from gagging.[:'(]

Another suggestion.
Go to your nearest wallyworld and go to the cloth department. They have a $1 a yard sale section in almost every store. Look around and you can probably find some 100% cotton cloth there that will work great. Buy two yards for two dollars and you will have enuff patch material for a couple of years.
R
Hank

This is what I like to do. Any fabric store usually has a bin where they keep bolt remnants and mark them down to get rid of them. Any soft cotton fabric will work but Ilike lightweight flannel, preferably in tartan plaid.

You guys are going to hate me but I haven't had to buy a cleaning patch in 5 years. One of my younger brothers works at a chemical plant where they use cotton patches to clean out some piping from time to time. He told me they had a room full of patches and they were used very little. His boss said he could have as many as he wanted as long as it was over time, i.e. he coulden't take an arm full out with out looking suspicious. He has given me about 5 or 6 bages of them over the years. Turns out they are OxYoke 12 gauge cleaning patches in bags of 1000. Last time I saw him he gave me 4 more bags of them. I'm set for life.