cayugad

I have not used a pre lubed patch in so long.. I have a couple hundred of them around the house still. But they are very old. I think next time I think of it, I will throw them in the burning barrel.

Mossie

Diehard,

You could wrap some #0000 steel wool around your cleaning jag then put some oil on it and polish the bore with that for about 100 strokes to smooth out the edges on the rifleing. Swab the oil out with denatured alcohol when your done. I do it with every barrel I have ever bought. I also clean between every shot for the first box of 100 balls just like my centerfires; I think it helps break in the new barrels.

If your patching is cutting then you need to smooth it out some by just shooting it more or doing the steel wool treatment. Use a bore button, wasps nest or you could try a buffer of cornmeal like some people do. Protect that patch; I use Crisco shortening (not oil) for my lube and it has been more accurate than anything that I have run across ( tried most of the commercial lubes and some homemade as well) in all of my ball guns. My TC PA Hunter barrels do not like lots of lube either; they shoot just as well with no lube. Idip my patches in melted Crisco and then lay them on paper towels and try to get as much of it out of the patch as I can. I use a .54 bore button in a .50 caliber rifle. I buy the unlubed ones and do the Crisco thing with them as well but I only use the bore buttons for my full power hunting loads.

I have found that the tighter the load is the better accuracy I get. I use a .018-.020 patch with a .495 Hornady ball in my rifle and it groups much better than the .490 ball with the same patch. Actually; I think a little thicker patch would work even better for my rifle. In no wind with 90-100 grains of Swiss 3f, weight sorted Hornady balls to +/- 1 grains and the bore buttons I get 2-3" groups from the bench at 100 yards.

lemoyne

There are several possabilities, a rough bore is one,do the cotten ball test if the cotten ball leaves bit of cotten snag up in the barrel then you may have to do some polishing or even lapp it. Patch and ball, if the patch is to thin or the ball to small you can blow the patches to doll rags. Theres a good chance if its a new gun with a cut barrel you may have a few sharp edges or burrs, if thats the case the fast remedy would be either JB bore paste or jewlers rouge and a good tight jag&patch and about 50 strokes. Lee

nchawkeye

Yep...Ditch the pre-lubed patches...Go to WalMart and buy some cotton pillow ticking, it's tougher...

I used SnoSeal for about 25 years for lube, now I make my own using 2 parts bees wax, 8 parts castor oil and one part Murphy's Oil soap, melt in a double boiler and blend together, it is more heat resistant than BoreButter...

To apply to patching, cut strips about 1 1/2 inch wide, put ticking on newspaper and take a putty knife and spread lube on both sides of ticking, then heat in microwave for about 20 seconds so the lube penetrates the ticking (I cut about a 20 inch strip)...To use, just put under the ball, start the ball flush with the barrel and cut the ticking, then ram home...

You can buy bees wax from Home Depot and the castor oil from a health store, buy the kind to apply to your joints, not the kind you swallow, it's cheaper that way...